Andrew Spray

Little Higgs dark matter

The introduction of T parity dramatically improves the consistency of little Higgs models with precision electroweak data, and renders the lightest T-odd particle (LTP) stable. In the littlest Higgs model with T parity, the LTP is typically the T-odd heavy photon, which is weakly interacting and can play the role of dark matter. We analyze the relic abundance of the heavy photon, including its coannihilations with other T-odd particles, and map out the regions of the parameter space where it can account for the observed dark matter. We evaluate the prospects for direct and indirect discovery of the heavy photon dark matter. The direct detection rates are quite low and a substantial improvement in experimental sensitivity would be required for observation. A substantial flux of energetic gamma rays is produced in the annihilation of the heavy photons in the galactic halo. This flux can be observed by the GLAST telescope, and, if the distribution of dark matter in the halo is favorable, by ground-based telescope arrays such as VERITAS and HESS.

Implications of diphoton searches for a Radion in the Bulk-Higgs Scenario

In this work, we point out that the apparent diphoton excess initially presented by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations could have originated from a radion in the bulk Higgs scenario within a warped extra dimension. In this scenario, the couplings of the radion to massive gauge bosons are suppressed, allowing it to evade existing searches. In the presence of mixing with the Higgs, due to the strong constraints from diboson searches, only points near what we denominate the alignment region were able to explain the diphoton signal and evade other experimental constraints. In light of the new measurements presented at ICHEP 2016 by both LHC collaborations, which do not confirm the initial diphoton excess, we study the current and future collider constraints on a radion within the bulk-Higgs scenario. We find that searches in the diphoton channel provide the most powerful probe of this scenario and already exclude large regions of parameter space, particularly for smaller warp factors. The radion has a sizeable branching ratio into top pairs and this channel may also give competitive constraints in the future. Finally, di-Higgs searches can provide a complementary probe in the case of nonzero radion-Higgs mixing but strong alignment.

Indirect Detection of Little Higgs Dark Matter

Little Higgs models with

LHC signatures of a minimal supersymmetric hidden valley

T

The unnatural composite Higgs

parity contain an attractive dark matter candidate, the heavy photon. We compute the cross section of the heavy photon annihilation into

New limits on light hidden sectors from fixed-target experiments

Z

Radion/dilaton-Higgs mixing phenomenology in light of the LHC

-photon pairs, which turns out to be substantially higher than the previously computed cross section for the two photon final state. Unfortunately, even with this enhancement, the monochromatic photon flux from galactic heavy photon annihilation is unlikely to be detectable by GLAST or the currently operating atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes. We also compute the flux of high-energy neutrinos from the annihilation of the heavy photons captured by the Sun and the Earth. The maximum flux of upward-going muons due to such neutrinos is about

Fermionic semi-annihilating dark matter

1\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{yr}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\text{ }{\mathrm{km}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}

Tracking down the top quark forward-backward asymmetry with monotops

.

Four boosted tops from a Regge gluon

A bstractWe investigate the LHC signals of a minimal supersymmetric hidden valley. Our theory consists of the supersymmetric Standard Model along with a light hidden U (1)x gauge multiplet and a pair of hidden chiral superfields that spontaneously break the new Abelian gauge symmetry near a GeV. The visible and hidden sectors interact exclusively through supersymmetric gauge kinetic mixing. We perform a thorough examination of the hidden decay cascades initiated by the lightest Standard Model superpartner and we study the range of LHC signals they can produce. In particular, we find parameter regions that give rise to missing energy, single and multiple lepton jets, and displaced vertices. Given the simplicity of the underlying theory and the broad range of collider signals it can produce, we propose that this model is a useful benchmark for LHC studies of (supersymmetric) hidden valleys.