119257516
Di-boson and Tri-boson production at the LHC
The status of di-boson and tri-boson production is shortly review. Using the VBFNLO and the LOOPSIM package, approximated results at NNLO QCD are given for WZ production. Results for waa + jet at NLO QCD are also shown.
116260923
NLO QCD corrections to $W^\pm Z\gamma$ production with leptonic decays
We present a computation of the O(alpha_s) QCD corrections to W^\pm Z \gamma production at the Large Hadron Collider. The photon is considered as real, and we include full leptonic decays for the W and Z bosons. Based on the structure of the VBFNLO program package, we obtain numerical results through a fully flexible Monte Carlo program, which allows to implement general cuts and distributions of the final-state particles. The NLO QCD corrections are sizable and strongly exceed the theory error obtained by a scale variation of the leading-order result. Also, the shapes of relevant observables are significantly altered.
468511
Measuring Higgs couplings from LHC data.
Following recent ATLAS and CMS publications we interpret the results of their Higgs searches in terms of standard model operators. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV we determine several Higgs couplings from published 2011 data and extrapolate the results towards different scenarios of LHC running. Even though our analysis is limited by low statistics we already derive meaningful constraints on modified Higgs sectors.
118588607
Higgs Couplings after the Discovery
Following the ATLAS and CMS analyses presented around ICHEP 2012 we determine the individual Higgs couplings. The new data allow us to specifically test the effective coupling to photons. We find no significant deviation from the Standard Model in any of the Higgs couplings.
123906099
Helmholtz Alliance Linear Collider Forum
Supersymmetric scenarios with a very weakly interacting lightest superpartner (LSP) - like the gravitino or axino - naturally give rise to a long-lived next-to-LSP (NLSP). If the NLSP is a charged slepton it leaves a very distinct signature in a collider experiment. At the ILC/CLIC it will be possible to capture a significant fraction of the produced charged sleptons and observe their decays. These decays potentially reveal the nature of the LSP and thus provide a unique possibility to measure the properties of a very weakly interacting LSP which otherwise is most likely hidden from any other observation, like direct or indirect dark matter searches. We review the proposals that have been made to measure the LSP properties at the ILC/CLIC and compare its potential to the capability of the LHC.
119185406
Dark sector spectroscopy at the ILC
Recent studies have shown that searches in the mono-photon and missing energy final state can be used to discover dark matter candidates at the ILC. While an excess in this final state over the Standard Model background would indicate the existence of a dark sector, no detailed information about the internal structure of this sector can be inferred. Here, we demonstrate how just a few observables can discriminate between various realisations of dark sectors, including e.g. the spin of mediators.
4513101
New Statistical Measures of the Lya Forest Spectra for Accurate Comparison to Theoretical Models
We propose a new method of analysis for the \lya forest, namely to measure the 1-point and 2-point joint probability distribution of the transmitted flux. The results for a sample of seven observed quasars and from two simulations of structure formation are shown and compared. Statistically significant differences in the 2-point function between the results of the numerical simulations and the observations are easily found. The analysis we suggest is very simple to apply to observed data sets, and we discuss its superiority over the traditional Voigt-profile fitting algorithms for accurate comparison to the predictions of theoretical models.
118217379
Small Scale Structure in the Universe and the Distribution of Baryons at High Redshift
We briefly discuss the relevance of Lyman alpha forest observations for measuring cosmological parameters, comparing the properties of high z QSO spectra with those of artifical spectra from hydrodynamic simulations, based on hierarchical cosmologies. In particular, we describe a measurement of the baryon content of the universe obtained by matching the average opacity of the Lyman alpha forest from simulations to the observed one from a new dataset observed with the Keck telescope. We then report on a search for possible small scale structure in the intergalactic medium which could be unresolved by current cosmological simulations. Observing column density gradients in the spectra of lensed QSOs we find the typical intergalactic gas cloud to be structureless down to at least the 4 % level, on scales of 0.1 kpc. Extending the study of lensed absorption to higher column densities we begin to sample the velocity field internal to high redshift galaxies. Remarkable differences in column density (of order 50 %) and projected velocity (tens of km/s) between lines of sight separated by only a few hundred parsecs are found, and we may be observing structure in the early interstellar medium.
16930396
The Metal Contents of Very Low Column Density Lyman-alpha Clouds: Implications for the Origin of Heavy Elements in the Intergalactic Medium
We investigate the metal contents of Lyman-alpha clouds at 2.2 10^14.5 cm-2. This result rules out the suggestion that a generation of Population III stars could have polluted the entire universe to a (nearly) uniform metallicity level of [C/H]=-2.5. Cosmological simulations involving gas hydrodynamics indicate that Lyman-alpha absorption with N(HI)>10^14.5 cm-2 mostly occur in the filamentary gaseous regions surrounding and connecting collapsed objects, while those with N(HI) 10^14.5 cm-2 (i.e., gas in the filaments) were probably prodcued in situ by Pop II stars, in the sense that they were either made by stars within the clouds or were ejected from nearby star-forming galaxies. Within this context, clouds with N(HI)<10^14 cm-2 (i.e., gas in void regions) may only have e experienced pollution from Pop III stars.
13956524
Constraining reionization using the thermal history of the baryons
The thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) depends on the reionization history of the universe. Numerical simulations indicate that the low density IGM, which is responsible for the low column density Ly-alpha forest, follows a well defined temperature-density relation. This results in a cut-off in the distribution of line widths as a function of column density. We use hydrodynamic simulations to calibrate the relation between the cut-off and the temperature-density relation and apply this relation to Keck spectra spanning a redshift range z=2-4.5. We find that the temperature peaks at z~3 and interpret this as evidence for reheating due to the reionization of helium.
7156607
Gravitational collapse of small scale structure as the origin of the Lyman alpha forest
If gravitational clustering is a hierarchical process, the present large-scale structure of the galaxy distribution implies that structures on smaller scales must have formed at high redshift. We simulate the formation of small-scale structure (average cell mass: (delta) bar m(sub b) = 10(sup 4.2) solar mass) and the evolution of photoionized gas, in the specific case of the CDM + Lambda model. The photoionized gas has a natural minimal scale of collapse, the Jeans scale (m(sub b,J) is approximately equal to 10(exp 9) solar mass). We find that low column density (N(sub HI) is less than or equal to 10(exp 14)/sq cm) lines originate in regions resembling Zel'dovich pancakes, where gas with overdensities in the range 3-30 is enclosed by two shocks but is typically reexpanding at approximately the Hubble velocity. However, higher column density lines stem from more overdense regions where the shocked gas is cooling. We show that this model can probably account for the observed number of lines, their distribution in column density and b-parameters, as well as the cloud physical sizes as observed in gravitationally lensed quasars. We find a redshift evolution that is too steep; however, this may be due to insufficient dynamical range in the simulation or because the specific model is incorrect. The model predicts that high signal-to-noise observations should find systematic deviations from Voigt profiles, mainly in the form of broad wings in the line profiles, and that a fluctuating Gunn-Peterson effect will be detected, which can be modeled as a superposition of weak lines with a wide range of b-parameters.