118891944
Contributions from dimension six strong flavor changing operators to tt plus gauge boson, and t plus Higgs boson production at the CERN LHC
We study the effects of a set of dimension six flavor changing effective operators on several processes of production of top quarks at the LHC. Namely, top anti-top production and associated production of a top and a gauge or Higgs boson. Analytical expressions for the cross sections of these processes are derived and presented.
119436002
Lepton flavor violating processes at the International Linear Collider
We study the effects of dimension-six effective operators on the flavor violating production and decay of leptons at the International Linear Collider. Analytic expressions for the cross sections, decay widths, and asymmetries of all flavor changing processes will be presented, as well as an analysis of the feasibility of their observation at the ILC.
18964730
Probing wrong-sign Yukawa couplings at the LHC and a future linear collider
We consider the two-Higgs-doublet model as a framework in which to evaluate the viability of scenarios in which the sign of the coupling of the observed Higgs boson to down-type fermions (in particular, b-quark pairs) is opposite to that of the Standard Model (SM), while at the same time all other tree-level couplings are close to the SM values. We show that, whereas such a scenario is consistent with current LHC observations, both future running at the LHC and a future e +e − linear collider could determine the sign of the Higgs coupling to b-quark pairs. Discrimination is possible for two reasons. First, the interference between the b-quark and the t-quark loop contributions to the ggh coupling changes sign. Second, the charged-Higgs loop contribution to the γγh coupling is large and fairly constant up to the largest charged-Higgs mass allowed by tree-level unitarity bounds when the b-quark Yukawa coupling has the opposite sign from that of the SM (the change in sign of the interference terms between the b-quark loop and the W and t loops having negligible impact).
119180593
Metastability bounds on the two Higgs doublet model
A bstractIn the two Higgs doublet model, there is the possibility that the vacuum where the universe resides in is metastable. We present the tree-level bounds on the scalar potential parameters which have to be obeyed to prevent that situation. Analytical expressions for those bounds are shown for the most used potential, that with a softly broken Z2 symmetry. The impact of those bounds on the model’s phenomenology is discussed in detail, as well as the importance of the current LHC results in determining whether the vacuum we live in is or is not stable. We demonstrate how the vacuum stability bounds can be obtained for the most generic CP-conserving potential, and provide a simple method to implement them.
118483060
Can we build a sensible theory with broken charge and colour symmetries
Charge and colour symmetries are broken using the vevs of scalar fields, but it is shown the theory possesses a photon-like massless particle and electroweak interactions almost identical to those of the Standard Model. We consider experimental signatures of this theory.
118589050
Avoiding Death by Vacuum
The two-Higgs doublet model (2HDM) can have two electroweak breaking, CP-conserving, minima. The possibility arises that the minimum which corresponds to the known elementary particle spectrum is metastable, a possibility we call the panic vacuum. We present analytical bounds on the parameters of the softly broken Peccei-Quinn 2HDM which are necessary and sufficient conditions to avoid this possibility. We also show that, for this particular model, the current LHC data already tell us that we are necessarily in the global minimum of the theory, regardless of any cosmological considerations about the lifetime of the false vacua.
119390135
Scale of homogeneity of the universe from WMAP
We review the physics of the Grishchuk-Zel'dovich effect which describes the impact of large amplitude, superhorizon gravitational field fluctuations on the cosmic microwave background anisotropy power spectrum. Using the latest determination of the spectrum by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, we infer a lower limit on the present length scale of such fluctuations of $3.9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$ times the cosmological particle horizon (at the 95% confidence level).
54177748
Fast route to nonlinear clustering statistics in modified gravity theories
We propose a simple and computationally fast method for performing $N$-body simulations for a large class of modified gravity theories with a screening mechanism such as chameleons, symmetrons, and Galileons. By combining the linear Klein\char21{}Gordon equation with a screening factor, calculated from analytical solutions of spherical symmetric configurations, we obtain a modified field equation of which the solution is exact in the linear regime while at the same time taking screening into account on nonlinear scales. The resulting modified field equation remains linear and can be solved just as quickly as the Poisson equation without any of the convergence problems that can arise when solving the full equation. We test our method with $N$-body simulations and find that it compares remarkably well with full simulations well into the nonlinear regime.
119502389
D-branes in topological membranes
Abstract It is shown how two-dimensional states corresponding to D-branes arise in orbifolds of topologically massive gauge and gravity theories. Brane vertex operators naturally appear in induced worldsheet actions when the three-dimensional gauge theory is minimally coupled to external charged matter and the orbifold relations are carefully taken into account. Boundary states corresponding to D-branes are given by vacuum wavefunctionals of the gauge theory in the presence of the matter, and their various constraints, such as the Cardy condition, are shown to arise through compatibility relations between the orbifold charges and bulk gauge invariance. We show that with a further conformally-invariant coupling to a dynamical massless scalar field theory in three dimensions, the brane tension is naturally set by the bulk mass scales and arises through dynamical mechanisms. As an auxilliary result, we show how to describe string descendent states in the three-dimensional theory through the construction of gauge-invariant excited wavefunctionals.
15662898
Toroidal compactification in string theory from Chern–Simons theory
A detailed study of the charge spectrum of three-dimensional Abelian Topological Massive Gauge Theory (TMGT) is given. When this theory is defined on a manifold with two disconnected boundaries there are induced chiral Conformal Field Theories (CFT's) on the boundaries which can be interpreted as the left and right sectors of closed strings. We show that Narain constraints on toroidal compactification (integer, even, self-dual momentum lattice) have a natural interpretation in purely three-dimensional terms. This is an important result which is necessary to construct toroidal compactification and heterotic string from Topological Membrane (TM) approach to string theory. We also derive the block structure of c=1 Rational Conformal Field Theory (RCFT) from the three-dimensional gauge theory.
119431433
First results from the BOOMERanG experiment
We report the first results from the BOOMERanG experiment, which mapped at 90, 150, 240 and 410 GHz a wide (3%) region of the microwave sky with minimal local contamination. From the data of the best 150 GHz detector we find evidence for a well defined peak in the power spectrum of temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, localized at =197+/-6, with an amplitude of (68+/-8)μKCMB. The location, width and amplitude of the peak is suggestive of acoustic oscillations in the primeval plasma. In the framework of inflationary adiabatic cosmological models the measured spectrum allows a Bayesian estimate of the curvature of the Universe and of other cosmological parameters. With reasonable priors we find Ω=(1.07+/-0.06) and ns=(1.00+/-0.08) (68%C.L.) in excellent agreement with the expectations from the simplest inflationary theories. We also discuss the limits on the density of baryons, of cold dark matter and on the cosmological constant.