Germano Nardini

Constraining Dark Sectors with Monojets and Dijets

A bstractWe consider dark sector particles (DSPs) that obtain sizeable interactions with Standard Model fermions from a new mediator. While these particles can avoid observation in direct detection experiments, they are strongly constrained by LHC measurements. We demonstrate that there is an important complementarity between searches for DSP production and searches for the mediator itself, in particular bounds on (broad) dijet resonances. This observation is crucial not only in the case where the DSP is all of the dark matter but whenever — precisely due to its sizeable interactions with the visible sector — the DSP annihilates away so efficiently that it only forms a dark matter subcomponent. To highlight the different roles of DSP direct detection and LHC monojet and dijet searches, as well as perturbativity constraints, we first analyse the exemplary case of an axial-vector mediator and then generalise our results. We find important implications for the interpretation of LHC dark matter searches in terms of simplified models.

Large diphoton Higgs rates from supersymmetric triplets

Recent results on Higgs searches at the LHC point toward the existence of a Higgs boson with mass of about 126 GeV whose diphoton decay rate tends to be larger than in the Standard Model. These results are in tension with natural minimal supersymmetric Standard Model scenarios: such a Higgs mass requires heavy (third-generation) squarks which reintroduce some amount of fine-tuning and in general the Higgs diphoton decay rate tends to follow the Standard Model result. In this paper we prove that these problems can be alleviated by introducing an extra supersymmetric triplet coupled to the Higgs in the superpotential. This superfield generates a sizeable tree-level correction to the Higgs mass so that the third generation is no longer required to be heavy, and its charged component enhances the diphoton Higgs decay rates by as much as 50% with respect to the Standard Model values. We also show that such a scenario is compatible with present electroweak precision observables.

MSSM electroweak baryogenesis and LHC data

A bstractElectroweak baryogenesis is an attractive scenario for the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the universe as its realization depends on the presence at the weak scale of new particles which may be searched for at high energy colliders. In the MSSM it may only be realized in the presence of light stops, and with moderate or small mixing between the left- and right-handed components. Consistency with the observed Higgs mass around 125 GeV demands the heavier stop mass to be much larger than the weak scale. Moreover the lighter stop leads to an increase of the gluon-gluon fusion Higgs production cross section which seems to be in contradiction with indications from current LHC data. We show that this tension may be considerably relaxed in the presence of a light neutralino with a mass lower than about 60 GeV, satisfying all present experimental constraints. In such a case the Higgs may have a significant invisible decay width and the stop decays through a three or four body decay channel, including a bottom quark and the lightest neutralino in the final state. All these properties make this scenario testable at a high luminosity LHC.

Gravitational Backreaction Effects on the Holographic Phase Transition

We study radion stabilization in the compact Randall-Sundrum model by introducing a bulk scalar field, as in the Goldberger and Wise mechanism, but (partially) taking into account the backreactions from the scalar field on the metric. Our generalization reconciles the radion potential found by Goldberger and Wise with the radion mass obtained with the so-called superpotential method where backreaction is fully considered. Moreover we study the holographic phase transition and its gravitational wave signals in this model. The improved control over backreactions opens up a large region in parameter space and leads, compared to former analysis, to weaker constraints on the rank N of the dual gauge theory. We conclude that, in the regime where the 1/N expansion is justified, the gravitational wave signal is detectable by LISA.

The effective theory of the light stop scenario

Electroweak baryogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model may be realized within the light stop scenario, where the right-handed stop mass remains close to the top-quark mass to allow for a sufficiently strong first order electroweak phase transition. All other supersymmetric scalars are much heavier to comply with the present bounds on the Higgs mass and the electron and neutron electric dipole moments. Heavy third generation scalars render it necessary to resum large logarithm contributions to perform a trustable Higgs mass calculation. We have studied the one-loop RGE improved effective theory below the heavy scalar mass scale and obtained reliable values of the Higgs mass. Moreover, assuming a common mass for all heavy scalar particles, and values of all gaugino masses and the Higgsino mass parameter about the weak scale, and imposing gauge coupling unification, a two-loop calculation yields values of the mass in the interval between three TeV and six hundred TeV. Furthermore for a stop mass around the top quark mass, this translates into an upper bound on the Higgs mass of about 150 GeV. The Higgs mass bound becomes even stronger, of about 129 GeV, for the range of stop and gaugino masses consistent with electroweak baryogenesis. The collider phenomenology implications of this scenario are discussed in some detail.

A light supersymmetric Higgs sector hidden by a standard model-like Higgs

A bstractExtending the Higgs sector of the MSSM by triplets alleviates the little hierarchy problem and naturally allows for enhancements in the diphoton decay rate of the lightest CP-even Higgs h. In the present paper we analyze in detail the Higgs phenomenology of this theory with mh ≃ 126 GeV. We mostly focus on a light Higgs sector where lightest CP-even scalar A, the next-to-lightest CP-even scalar H and the charged H± Higgses are naturally at the electroweak scale. It turns out that for any value mA ≳ mh there is a parameter region at small tan β where the CP-even Higgs sector appears at colliders as the SM one, except for loop-induced corrections. Notably the existence of this SM-like point, which is absent in the MSSM, is shared with supersymmetric theories where there are extra singlets. We also highlight a second parameter region at small mA and small tan β where the h signal strengths, diphoton channel included, are SM-like except those of bottoms and taus which can have at most a 10-15% splitting. Improvements in the A and H± searches are worth while in order to discriminate this scenario from the SM.

A confining strong first-order electroweak phase transition

In the Randall-Sundrum model where the radion is stabilized by a Goldberger-Wise (GW) potential there is a supercooled transition from a deconfined to a confined phase at temperatures orders of magnitude below the typical Standard Model critical temperature. When the Higgs is localized at the IR brane the electroweak phase transition is delayed and becomes a strong first-order one where the Universe expands by a few e-folds. This generates the possibility of having the out-of-equilibrium condition required by electroweak baryogenesis in the electroweak phase transition. We have studied numerically the region of the GW parameter space where the theory is consistent and the latter possibility is realized. We have found that in most of the parameter space the nucleation temperature is so low that sphalerons are totally inactive inside the bubbles. The condition for sphalerons to be inactive after reheating imposes an upper bound on the reheating temperature that is weaker for heavy Higgs bosons so that the out-of-equilibrium condition seems to favor heavy over light Higgses. The condition for sphalerons to be active outside the bubbles puts an upper bound on the number of e-folds at the phase transition, roughly consistent with the critical value required by low-scale inflation to solve the cosmological horizon problem.

Lattice study of an electroweak phase transition at mh ~ 126 GeV

We carry out lattice simulations of a cosmological electroweak phase transition for a Higgs mass mh 126 GeV. The analysis is based on a dimensionally reduced effective theory for an MSSM-like scenario including a relatively light coloured SU(2)-singlet scalar, referred to as a right-handed stop. The non-perturbative transition is stronger than in 2-loop perturbation theory, and may offer a window for electroweak baryogenesis. The main remaining uncertainties concern the physical value of the right-handed stop mass which according to our analysis could be as high as mR 155 GeV; a more precise effective theory derivation and vacuum renormalization than available at present are needed for confirming this value.

From Boltzmann equations to steady wall velocities

By means of a relativistic microscopic approach we calculate the expansion velocity of bubbles generated during a first-order electroweak phase transition. In particular, we use the gradient expansion of the Kadanoff-Baym equations to set up the fluid system. This turns out to be equivalent to the one found in the semi-classical approach in the non-relativistic limit. Finally, by including hydrodynamic deflagration effects and solving the Higgs equations of motion in the fluid, we determine velocity and thickness of the bubble walls. Our findings are compared with phenomenological models of wall velocities. As illustrative examples, we apply these results to three theories providing first-order phase transitions with a particle content in the thermal plasma that resembles the Standard Model.

Magnetic Fields at First Order Phase Transition: A Threat to Electroweak Baryogenesis

The generation of the observed baryon asymmetry may have taken place during the electroweak phase transition, thus involving physics testable at LHC, a scenario dubbed electroweak baryogenesis. In this paper we point out that the magnetic field which is produced in the bubbles of a first order phase transition endangers the baryon asymmetry produced in the bubble walls. The reason being that the produced magnetic field couples to the sphaleron magnetic moment and lowers the sphaleron energy; this strengthens the sphaleron transitions inside the bubbles and triggers a more effective wash out of the baryon asymmetry. We apply this scenario to the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) where, in the absence of a magnetic field, successful electroweak baryogenesis requires the lightest CP-even Higgs and the right-handed stop masses to be lighter than about 127 GeV and 120 GeV, respectively. We show that even for moderate values of the magnetic field, the Higgs mass required to preserve the baryon asymmetry is below the present experimental bound. As a consequence electroweak baryogenesis within the MSSM should be confronted on the one hand to future measurements at the LHC on the Higgs and the right-handed stop masses, and on the other hand to more precise calculations of the magnetic field produced at the electroweak phase transition.