Andre Lessa

SModelS: a tool for interpreting simplified-model results from the LHC and its application to supersymmetry

We present a general procedure to decompose Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) collider signatures presenting a

Coupled Boltzmann calculation of mixed axion/neutralino cold dark matter production in the early universe

\mathbb {Z}_2

Fine-tuning implications for complementary dark matter and LHC SUSY searches

Z2 symmetry into Simplified Model Spectrum (SMS) topologies. Our method provides a way to cast BSM predictions for the LHC in a model independent framework, which can be directly confronted with the relevant experimental constraints. Our concrete implementation currently focusses on supersymmetry searches with missing energy, for which a large variety of SMS results from ATLAS and CMS are available. As show-case examples we apply our procedure to two scans of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We discuss how the SMS limits constrain various particle masses and which regions of parameter space remain unchallenged by the current SMS interpretations of the LHC results.

Wh plus missing-ET signature from gaugino pair production at the LHC

We consider supersymmetric (SUSY) models wherein the strong CP problem is solved by the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) mechanism with a concommitant axion/axino supermultiplet. We examine R-parity conserving models where the neutralino is the lightest SUSY particle, so that a mixture of neutralinos and axions serve as cold dark matter (a1 CDM). The mixed a1 CDM scenario can match the measured dark matter abundance for SUSY models which typically give too low a value of the usual thermal neutralino abundance, such as models with wino-like or higgsino-like dark matter. The usual thermal neutralino abundance can be greatly enhanced by the decay of thermally-produced axinos (a) to neutralinos, followed by neutralino re-annihilation at temperatures much lower than freeze-out. In this case, the relic density is usually neutralino dominated, and goes as ~ (fa/N)/ma3/2. If axino decay occurs before neutralino freeze-out, then instead the neutralino abundance can be augmented by relic axions to match the measured abundance. Entropy production from late-time axino decays can diminish the axion abundance, but ultimately not the neutralino abundance. In a1 CDM models, it may be possible to detect both a WIMP and an axion as dark matter relics. We also discuss possible modifications of our results due to production and decay of saxions. In the appendices, we present expressions for the Hubble expansion rate and the axion and neutralino relic densities in radiation, matter and decaying-particle dominated universes.

Discovery potential for supersymmetry at a high luminosity upgrade of LHC14

We calculate the relic abundance of mixed axion/neutralino cold dark matter which arises in R-parity conserving supersymmetric (SUSY) models wherein the strong CP problem is solved by the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) mechanism with a concommitant axion/saxion/axino supermultiplet. By numerically solving the coupled Boltzmann equations, we include the combined effects of 1. thermal axino production with cascade decays to a neutralino LSP, 2. thermal saxion production and production via coherent oscillations along with cascade decays and entropy injection, 3. thermal neutralino production and re-annihilation after both axino and saxion decays, 4. gravitino production and decay and 5. axion production both thermally and via oscillations. For SUSY models with too high a standard neutralino thermal abundance, we find the combined effect of SUSY PQ particles is not enough to lower the neutralino abundance down to its measured value, while at the same time respecting bounds on late-decaying neutral particles from BBN. However, models with a standard neutralino underabundance can now be allowed with either neutralino or axion domination of dark matter, and furthermore, these models can allow the PQ breaking scale fa to be pushed up into the 1014−1015 GeV range, which is where it is typically expected to be in string theory models.

Thermal leptogenesis and the gravitino problem in the Asaka-Yanagida axion/axino dark matter scenario

Recent analyses of CMB data combined with the measurement of BAO and H0 show that dark radiation — parametrized by the apparent number of additional neutrinos ΔNeff contributing to the cosmic expansion — is bounded from above by about ΔNeff1.6 at 95% CL. We consider the mixed axion/neutralino cold dark matter scenario which arises in R-parity conserving supersymmetric (SUSY) models wherein the strong CP problem is solved by hadronic axions with a concommitant axion(a)/saxion(s)/axino(a) supermultiplet. Our new results include improved calculations of thermal axion and saxion production and include effects of saxion decay to axinos and axions. We show that the above bound on ΔNeff is easily satisfied if saxions are mainly thermally produced and mLSP < mams. However, if the dominant mechanism of saxion production is through coherent oscillations, the CMB data provides a strong bound on saxion production followed by saxion decays to axions. Furthermore we show that scenarios with mixed neutralino/axion dark matter are highly constrained by combined CMB, BBN and Xe-100 constraints. In particular, supersymmetric models with a standard overabundance of neutralino dark matter are excluded for all values of the Peccei-Quinn breaking scale. Next generation WIMP direct detection experiments may be able to discover or exclude mixed axion-neutralino CDM scenarios where s → aa is the dominant saxion decay mode.

Capability of LHC to discover supersymmetry with

The requirement that SUSY should solve the hierarchy problem without undue fine-tuning imposes severe constraints on the new supersymmetric states. With the MSSM spectrum and soft SUSY breaking originating from universal scalar and gaugino masses at the Grand Unification scale, we show that the low-fine-tuned regions fall into two classes that will require complementary collider and dark matter searches to explore in the near future. The first class has relatively light gluinos or squarks which should be found by the LHC in its first run. We identify the multijet plus ETmiss signal as the optimal channel and determine the discovery potential in the first run. The second class has heavier gluinos and squarks but the LSP has a significant Higgsino component and should be seen by the next generation of direct dark matter detection experiments. The combined information from the 7 TeV LHC run and the next generation of direct detection experiments can test almost all of the CMSSM parameter space consistent with dark matter and EW constraints, corresponding to a fine-tuning not worse than 1:100. To cover the complete low-fine-tuned region by SUSY searches at the LHC will require running at the full 14 TeV CM energy; in addition it may be tested indirectly by Higgs searches covering the mass range below 120 GeV.

\sqrt {s} = 7\;{\text{TeV}}

In SUSY models with heavy squarks and gaugino mass unification, the gaugino pair production reaction