Ayres Freitas

Precision Measurements of Higgs Couplings: Implications for New Physics Scales

The measured properties of the recently discovered Higgs boson are in good agreement with predictions from the Standard Model. However, small deviations in the Higgs couplings may manifest themselves once the currently large uncertainties will be improved as part of the LHC program and at a future Higgs factory. We review typical new physics scenarios that lead to observable modications of the Higgs interactions. They can be divided into two broad categories: mixing eects as in portal models or extended Higgs sectors, and vertex loop eects from new matter or gauge elds. In each model we relate coupling deviations to their eective new physics scale. It turns out that with percent level precision the Higgs couplings will be sensitive to the multi-TeV regime.

Testing the Majorana nature of gluinos and neutralinos

Gluinos and neutralinos, supersymmetric partners of gluons and neutral electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons, are Majorana particles in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). Decays of such self-conjugate particles generate charge symmetric ensembles of final states. Moreover, production channels of supersymmetric particles at colliders are characteristically affected by the Majorana nature of particles exchanged in the production processes. The sensitivity to the Majorana character of the particles can be quantified by comparing the predictions with Dirac exchange mechanisms. A consistent framework for introducing gluino and neutralino Dirac fields can be designed by extending the N=1 supersymmetry of the MSSM to N=2 in the gauge sector. We examine to which extent like-sign dilepton production in the processes qq{yields}q-tildeq-tilde and e{sup -}e{sup -}{yields}e-tilde{sup -}e-tilde{sup -} is affected by the exchange of either Majorana or Dirac gluinos and neutralinos, respectively, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and in the prospective e{sup -}e{sup -} mode of a lepton linear collider.

Higher-order electroweak corrections to the partial widths and branching ratios of the Z boson

A bstractRecently, the calculation of fermionic electroweak two-loop corrections to the total width of the Z boson and hadronic Z-peak cross-section in the Standard Model has been presented, where “fermionic” refers to diagrams with closed fermion loops. Here, these results are complemented by presenting contributions of the same order for the Z-boson partial widths, which are the last missing pieces for a complete description of Z-pole physics at the fermionic two-loop order. The definition of the relevant observables and the calculational techniques are described in detail. Numerical results are presented conveniently in terms of simple parametrization formulae. Finally, the remaining theoretical uncertainties from missing higher-order corrections are analyzed and found to be small compared to the current experimental errors.

Pushing Higgs Effective Theory to its Limits

At the LHC, an effective theory of the Higgs sector allows us to analyze kinematic distributions in addition to inclusive rates, although there is no clear hierarchy of scales. We systematically analyze how well dimension-6 operators describe LHC observables in comparison to the full theory, and in a range where the LHC will be sensitive. The key question is how the breakdown of the dimension-6 description affects Higgs measurements during the upcoming LHC run for weakly interacting models. We cover modified Higgs sectors with a singlet and doublet extension, new top partners, and a vector triplet. First, weakly interacting models only generate small relevant subsets of dimension-6 operators. Second, the dimension-6 description tends to be justified at the LHC. Scanning over model parameters, significant discrepancies can nevertheless arise; their main source is the matching procedure in the absence of a well-defined hierarchy of scales. While these issues require vigilance, they should not present a major problem for future LHC analyses.

Integrating in the Higgs Portal to Fermion Dark Matter

A bstractFermion dark matter (DM) interacting with the standard model through a Higgs portal requires non-renormalizable operators, signaling the presence of new mediator states at the electroweak scale. Collider signatures that involve the mediators are a powerful tool to experimentally probe the Higgs portal interactions, providing complementary information to strong constraints set by direct DM detection searches. Indirect detection experiments are less sensitive to this scenario. We investigate the collider reach for the mediators using three minimal renormalizable models as examples, and requiring the fermion DM to be a thermal relic. The Large Hadron Collider in its high-energy, high-luminosity phase can probe most scenarios if DM is lighter than about 200 GeV. Beyond this scale, future high-energy experiments such as an electron-positron collider or a 100-TeV proton-proton collider, combined with future direct detection experiments, are indispensable to conclusively test these models.

Testing the muon g-2 anomaly at the LHC

A bstractThe long-standing difference between the experimental measurement and the standard-model prediction for the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, aμ = (gμ − 2)/2, may be explained by the presence of new weakly interacting particles with masses of a few 100 GeV. Particles of this kind can generally be directly produced at the LHC, and thus they may already be constrained by existing data. In this work, we investigate this connection between aμ and the LHC in a model-independent approach, by introducing one or two new fields beyond the standard model with spin and weak isospin up to one. For each case, we identify the preferred parameter space for explaining the discrepancy of aμ and derive bounds using data from LEP and the 8 TeV LHC run. Furthermore, we estimate how these limits could be improved with the 14 TeV LHC. We find that the 8 TeV results already rule out a subset of our simplified models, while almost all viable scenarios can be tested conclusively with 14 TeV data.

Dirac Neutralinos and Electroweak Scalar Bosons of N=1/N=2 Hybrid Supersymmetry at Colliders

In the N = 1 supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, neutralinos associated in supermultiplets with the neutral electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons are, as well as gluinos, Majorana fermions. They can be paired with the Majorana fermions of novel gaugino/scalar supermultiplets, as suggested by extended N = 2 supersymmetry, to Dirac particles. Matter fields are not extended beyond the standard N = 1 supermultiplets in N = 1/N = 2 hybrid supersymmetry to preserve the chiral character of the theory. Complementing earlier analyses in the color sector, central elements of such an electroweak scenario are analyzed in the present study. The decay properties of the Dirac fermions

Leptophilic Dark Matter in Lepton Interactions at LEP and ILC

\tilde{\chi}_{ D}