62980375
ATLAS detector simulation: status and outlook
The simulation program for the ATLAS experiment at CERN is currently in a full operational mode and integrated into the ATLAS's common analysis framework, ATHENA. The OO approach, based on GEANT4, and in use during the DC2 data challenge has been interfaced within ATHENA and to GEANT4 using the LCG dictionaries and Python scripting. The robustness of the application was proved during the DC2 data challenge. The Python interface has added the flexibility, modularity and interactivity that the simulation tool needs to tackle, in a common way, different full ATLAS simulations setups, test beams and cosmic ray studies. Generation, simulation and digitization steps were exercised for performance and robustness tests. The comparison with real data has been possible in the context of the ATLAS combined test beam (2004) and ongoing cosmic ray studies
110445306
The distributed production system of the SuperB project: description and results
The SuperB experiment needs large samples of MonteCarlo simulated events in order to finalize the detector design and to estimate the data analysis performances. The requirements are beyond the capabilities of a single computing farm, so a distributed production model capable of exploiting the existing HEP worldwide distributed computing infrastructure is needed. In this paper we describe the set of tools that have been developed to manage the production of the required simulated events. The production of events follows three main phases: distribution of input data files to the remote site Storage Elements (SE); job submission, via SuperB GANGA interface, to all available remote sites; output files transfer to CNAF repository. The job workflow includes procedures for consistency checking, monitoring, data handling and bookkeeping. A replication mechanism allows storing the job output on the local site SE. Results from 2010 official productions are reported.
635697
Running inflation in the Standard Model
Abstract An interacting scalar field with largish coupling to curvature can support a distinctive inflationary universe scenario. Previously this has been discussed for the Standard Model Higgs field, treated classically or in a leading log approximation. Here we investigate the quantum theory using renormalization group methods. In this model the running of both the effective Planck mass and the couplings is important. The cosmological predictions are consistent with existing WMAP5 data, with 0.967 ≲ n s ≲ 0.98 (for N e = 60 ) and negligible gravity waves. We find a relationship between the spectral index and the Higgs mass that is sharply varying for m h ∼ 120 – 135 GeV (depending on the top mass); in the future, that relationship could be tested against data from PLANCK and LHC. We also comment briefly on how similar dynamics might arise in more general settings, and discuss our assumptions from the effective field theory point of view.
118398754
On the Importance of Electroweak Corrections for Majorana Dark Matter Indirect Detection
Recent analyses have shown that the inclusion of electroweak corrections can alter significantly the energy spectra of Standard Model particles originated from dark matter annihilations. We investigate the important situation where the radiation of electroweak gauge bosons has a substantial influence: a Majorana dark matter particle annihilating into two light fermions. This process is in p-wave and hence suppressed by the small value of the relative velocity of the annihilating particles. The inclusion of electroweak radiation eludes this suppression and opens up a potentially sizeable s-wave contribution to the annihilation cross section. We study this effect in detail and explore its impact on the fluxes of stable particles resulting from the dark matter annihilations, which are relevant for dark matter indirect searches. We also discuss the effective field theory approach, pointing out that the opening of the s-wave is missed at the level of dimension-six operators and only encoded by higher orders.
9467477
Benchmarks for dark matter searches at the LHC
A bstractWe propose some scenarios to pursue dark matter searches at the LHC in a fairly model-independent way. The first benchmark case is dark matter co-annihilations with coloured particles (gluinos or squarks being special examples). We determine the masses that lead to the correct thermal relic density including, for the first time, strong Sommerfeld corrections taking into account colour decomposition. In the second benchmark case we consider dark matter that couples to SM particles via the Z or the Higgs. We determine the couplings allowed by present experiments and discuss future prospects. Finally we present the case of dark matter that freezes out via decays and apply our results to invisible Z and Higgs decays.
119263050
A first top partner hunter’s guide
A bstractWe provide a systematic effective lagrangian description of the phenomenology of the lightest top-partners in composite Higgs models. Our construction is based on symmetry, on selection rules and on plausible dynamical assumptions. The structure of the resulting simplified models depends on the quantum numbers of the lightest top partner and of the operators involved in the generation of the top Yukawa. In all cases the phenomenology is conveniently described by a small number of parameters, and the results of experimental searches are readily interpreted as a test of naturalness. We recast presently available experimental bounds on heavy fermions into bounds on top partners: LHC has already stepped well inside the natural region of parameter space.
109930494
Interpretation of AMS-02 results: correlations among dark matter signals
The AMS-02 collaboration has recently released data on the positron fraction e+/(e−+e+) up to energies of about 350 GeV. If one insists on interpreting the observed excess as a dark matter signal, then we find it is best described by a TeV-scale dark matter annihilating into τ+τ−, although this situation is already severely constrained by gamma-ray measurements.The annihilation into μ+μ− is allowed by gamma-rays more than τ+τ−, but it gives a poorer fit to AMS-02 data. Moreover, since electroweak corrections induce correlations among the fluxes of stable particles from dark matter annihilations, the recent AMS-02 data imply a well-defined prediction for the correlated flux of antiprotons. Under the assumption that their future measurements will not show any antiproton excess above the background, the dark matter interpretation of the positron rise will possibly be ruled out by only making use of data from a single experiment. This work is the first of a program where we emphasize the role of correlations among dark matter signals.