Person:

Reece, Matthew

The recently discovered 125 GeV boson appears very similar to a Standard Model Higgs, but with data favoring an enhanced (h \rightarrow \gamma \gamma) rate. A number of groups have found that fits would allow (or, less so after the latest updates, prefer) that the (ht \bar t)coupling have the opposite sign. This can be given meaning in the context of an electroweak chiral Lagrangian, but it might also be interpreted to mean that a new colored and charged particle runs in loops and reinforces the W-loop contribution to hFF, while also producing the opposite-sign hGG amplitude to that generated by integrating out the top. Due to a correlation in sign of the new physics amplitudes, when the SM hFF coupling is enhanced the hGG coupling is decreased. Thus, in order to not suppress the rate of (h \rightarrow WW) and (h \rightarrow Z Z), which appear to be approximately Standard Model-like, one would need the loop to “overshoot,” not only canceling the top contribution but producing an opposite-sign hGG vertex of about the same magnitude as that in the SM. We argue that most such explanations have severe problems with fine-tuning and, more importantly, vacuum stability. In particular, the case of stop loops producing an opposite-sign hGG vertex of the same size as the Standard Model one is ruled out by a combination of vacuum decay bounds and LEP constraints. We also show that scenarios with a sign flip from loops of color octet charged scalars or new fermionic states are highly constrained.

We propose a framework of supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model that can ameliorate both the SUSY Higgs mass problem and the missing superpartner problem. New vectorlike matter fields couple to the Higgs and provide new loop contributions to its mass. New Yukawa couplings are sizable and large supersymmetry breaking is not needed to lift the Higgs mass. To avoid a Landau pole for the new Yukawa couplings, these fields are charged under a new gauge group, which confines and leads to a Hidden Valley-like phenomenology. The Hidden Valley sector is almost supersymmetric and ordinary sparticles decay to exotic new states which decay back to Standard Model particles and gravitinos with reduced missing energy. We construct a simplified model to simulate this scenario and find a viable parameter space of specific benchmark models which ameliorates both of the major phenomenological problems with supersymmetry.

Dark matter direct detection searches for signals coming from dark matter scattering against nuclei at a very low recoil energy scale ∼ 10 keV. In this paper, a simple non-relativistic effective theory is constructed to describe interactions between dark matter and nuclei without referring to any underlying high energy models. It contains the minimal set of operators that will be tested by direct detection. The effective theory approach highlights the set of distinguishable recoil spectra that could arise from different theoretical models. If dark matter is discovered in the near future in direct detection experiments, a measurement of the shape of the recoil spectrum will provide valuable information on the underlying dynamics. We bound the coefficients of the operators in our non-relativistic effective theory by the null results of current dark matter direct detection experiments. We also discuss the mapping between the non-relativistic effective theory and field theory models or operators, including aspects of the matching of quark and gluon operators to nuclear form factors.

We study current constraints and search prospects for a GeV scale vector boson at a range of low energy experiments. It couples to the Standard Model charged particles with a strength ≤ 10−3 − 10−4 of that of the photon. The possibility of such a particle mediating dark matter self-interactions has received much attention recently. We consider searches at low energy high luminosity colliders, meson decays, and fixed target experiments. Based on available data, searches both at colliders and in meson decays can discover or exclude such a scenario if the coupling strength is on the larger side. We emphasize that a dedicated fixed target experiment has a much better potential in searching for such a gauge boson, and outline the desired properties of such an experiment. Two different optimal designs should be implemented to cover the range of coupling strength 10−3 − 10−5, and < 10−5 of the photon, respectively. We also briefly comment on other possible ways of searching for such a gauge boson.

We consider the immediate or near-term experimental opportunities offered by some scenarios that could explain the new diphoton excess at the LHC. If the excess is due to a new particle Xs at 750 GeV, additional new particles are required, providing further signals. If connected with naturalness, the Xs may be produced in top partner decays. Then a t 0 t¯0 signal, with t 0 → tXs and Xs → gg dominantly, might be discovered by reinterpreting 13 TeV SUSY searches in multijet events with low MET and/or a lepton. If Xs is a bound state of quirks, the signal events may be accompanied by an unusual number of soft tracks or soft jets. Other resonances including dilepton and photon+jet as well as dijet may lie at or above this mass, and signatures of hidden glueballs might also be observable. If the “photons” in the excess are actually long-lived particles decaying to photon pairs or to electron pairs, there are opportunities for detecting overlapping photons and/or unusual patterns of apparent photon-conversions in either Xs or 125 GeV Higgs decays. There is also the possibility of events with a hard “photon” recoiling against a narrow isolated HCAL-only “jet”, which, after the jet’s energy is corrected for its electromagnetic origin, would show a peak at 750 GeV.

Based on observational tests of large scale structure and constraints on halo structure, dark matter is generally taken to be cold and essentially collisionless. On the other hand, given the large number of particles and forces in the visible world, a more complex dark sector could be a reasonable or even likely possibility. This hypothesis leads to testable consequences, perhaps portending the discovery of a rich hidden world neighboring our own. We consider a scenario that readily satisfies current bounds that we call Partially Interacting Dark Matter (PIDM). This scenario contains self-interacting dark matter, but it is not the dominant component. Even if PIDM contains only a fraction of the net dark matter density, comparable to the baryonic fraction, the subdominant component’s interactions can lead to interesting and potentially observable consequences. Our primary focus will be the special case of Double-Disk Dark Matter (DDDM), in which self-interactions allow the dark matter to lose enough energy to lead to dynamics similar to those in the baryonic sector. We explore a simple model in which DDDM can cool efficiently and form a disk within galaxies, and we evaluate some of the possible observational signatures. The most prominent signal of such a scenario could be an enhanced indirect detection signature with a distinctive spatial distribution. Even though subdominant, the enhanced density at the center of the galaxy and possibly throughout the plane of the galaxy (depending on precise alignment) can lead to large boost factors, and could even explain a signature as large as the 130 GeV Fermi line. Such scenarios also predict additional dark radiation degrees of freedom that could soon be detectable and would influence the interpretation of future data, such as that from Planck and from the Gaia satellite. We consider this to be the first step toward exploring a rich array of new possibilities for dark matter dynamics.

Indirect detection constraints on gamma rays (both continuum and lines) have set strong constraints on wino dark matter. By combining results from Fermi-LAT and HESS, we show that: dark matter made entirely of light nonthermal winos is strongly excluded; dark matter consisting entirely of thermal winos is allowed only if the Milky Way dark matter distribution has a significant (≳ 0.4 kpc) core; and for plausible NFW and Einasto distributions the possibility that winos are all the dark matter can be excluded over the entire range of wino masses from 100 GeV up to 3 TeV. The case of light, nonthermal wino dark matter is particularly interesting in scenarios with decaying moduli that reheat the universe to a low temperature. Typically such models have been discussed for low reheating temperatures, not far above the BBN bound of a few MeV. We show that constraints on the allowed wino relic density push such models to higher reheating temperatures and hence heavier moduli. Even for a flattened halo model consisting of an NFW profile with constant-density core inside 1 kpc and a density near the sun of 0.3 GeV/cm3, for 150 GeV winos current data constrains the reheat temperature to be above 1.4 GeV. As a result, for models in which the wino mass is a loop factor below m 3/2, the data favor moduli that are more than an order of magnitude heavier than m 3/2. We discuss some of the sobering implications of this result for the status of supersymmetry. We also comment on other neutralino dark matter scenarios, in particular the case of mixed bino/higgsino dark matter. We show that in this case, direct and indirect searches are complementary to each other and could potentially cover most of the parameter space.

Numerous experiments currently underway offer the potential to indirectly probe new charged particles with masses at the weak scale. For example, the tentative excess in h → γγ decays and the tentative gamma-ray line in Fermi-LAT data have recently attracted attention as possible one-loop signatures of new charged particles. We explore the interplay between such signals, dark matter direct detection through Higgs exchange, and measurements of the electron EDM, by studying the size of these effects in several models. We compute one-loop effects to explore the relationship among couplings probed by different experiments. In particular, models in which dark matter and the Higgs both interact with charged particles at a detectable level typically induce, at loop level, couplings between dark matter and the Higgs that are around the level of current direct detection sensitivity. Intriguingly, one-loop h → γγ and DM DM → γγ, two-loop EDMs, and loop-induced direct detection rates are all coming within range of existing experiments for approximately the same range of charged particle masses, offering the prospect of an exciting coincidence of signals at collider, astrophysical, underground and atomic physics measurements.

Recently evidence for gamma ray lines at energies of approximately 111 and 128 GeV has been found in Fermi-LAT data from the center of the Galaxy and from unassociated point sources. Many explanations in terms of dark matter particle pairs annihilating to γγ and γZ have been suggested, but these typically require very large couplings or mysterious coincidences in the masses of several new particles to fit the signal strength. We propose a simple novel explanation in which dark matter is part of a multiplet of new states which all have mass near 260 GeV as a result of symmetry. Two dark matter particles annihilate to a pair of neutral particles in this multiplet which subsequently decay to γγ and γZ. For example, one may have a triplet of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons, (π^h_±) and (π^h_0), where (π^h_±) are stabilized by their charge under a new U(1) symmetry and the slightly lighter neutral state (π^h_0) decays to γγ and γZ. The symmetry structure of such a model explains the near degeneracy in masses needed for the resulting photons to have a linelike shape and the large observed flux. The tunable lifetime of the neutral state allows such models to go unseen at direct detection or collider experiments that can constrain most other explanations. However, nucleosynthesis constraints on the (π^h_0) lifetime fix a minimum necessary coupling between the new multiplet and the Standard Model. The spectrum is predicted to be not a line but a box with a width of order a few GeV, smaller than but on the order of the Fermi-LAT resolution.

We investigate the behavior of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) under toroidal compactification and RG flows, finding evidence that WGC bounds for single photons become weaker in the infrared. By contrast, we find that a photon satisfying the WGC will not necessarily satisfy it after toroidal compactification when black holes charged under the Kaluza-Klein photons are considered. Doing so either requires an infinite number of states of different charges to satisfy the WGC in the original theory or a restriction on allowed compactification radii. These subtleties suggest that if the Weak Gravity Conjecture is true, we must seek a stronger form of the conjecture that is robust under compactification. We propose a “Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture” that meets this requirement: a superextremal particle should exist for every charge in the charge lattice. The perturbative heterotic string satisfies this conjecture. We also use compactification to explore the extent to which the WGC applies to axions. We argue that gravitational instanton solutions in theories of axions coupled to dilaton-like fields are analogous to extremal black holes, motivating a WGC for axions. This is further supported by a match between the instanton action and that of wrapped black branes in a higher-dimensional UV completion.