119346782
Technifermion representations and precision electroweak constraints
Abstract We discuss the selection of fermion representations in technicolor models with a view toward minimizing technicolor contributions to the precision electroweak S parameter. We present and analyze models that involve one technifermion SU ( 2 ) L doublet with standard-model singlet technifermion sectors that lead to walking behavior, which further reduces S. We also consider models that have technifermions in higher-dimensional representations and study embeddings in extended technicolor theories.
118404970
Identifying Better Effective Higgsless Theories via WL WL Scattering
The three site Higgsless model has been offered as a benchmark for studying the collider phenomenology of Higgsless models. In this talk, we present how well the three site Higgsless model performs as a general representative of Higgsless models, in describing WLWL scattering, and which modifications can make it more representative. We employ general sum rules relating the masses and couplings of the Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes of the gauge fields in continuum and deconstructed Higgsless models as a way to compare the different theories. After comparing the three site Higgsless model to flat and warped continuum Higgsless models, we analyze an extensions of the three site Higgsless model, namely, the Hidden Local Symmetry (HLS) Higgsless model. We demonstrate that WLWL scattering in the HLS Higgsless model can very closely approximate scattering in the continuum models, provided that the parameter ‘a’ is chosen to mimic �-meson dominance of �� scattering in QCD.
51806520
New developments in FEYNRULES
The program FeynRules is a Mathematica package developed to facilitate the implementation of new physics theories into high-energy physics tools. Starting from a minimal set of information such as the model gauge symmetries, its particle content, parameters and Lagrangian, FeynRules provides all necessary routines to extract automatically from the Lagrangian (that can also be computed semi-automatically for supersymmetric theories) the associated Feynman rules. These can be further exported to several Monte Carlo event generators through dedicated interfaces, as well as translated into a Python library, under the so-called UFO model format, agnostic of the model complexity, especially in terms of Lorentz and/or color structures appearing in the vertices or of number of external legs. In this work, we briefly report on the most recent new features that have been added to FeynRules, including full support for spin- 3 fermions, a new module allowing for the automated diagonalization of the particle spectrum and a new set of routines dedicated to decay width calculations.
119409593
Unitarity and bounds on the scale of fermion mass generation
The scale of fermion mass generation can, as shown by Appelquist and Chanowitz, be bounded from above by relating it to the scale of unitarity violation in the helicity nonconserving amplitude for fermion-anti-fermion pairs to scatter into pairs of longitudinally polarized electroweak gauge bosons. In this paper, we examine the process tt{yields}W{sub L}{sup +}W{sub L}{sup -} in a family of phenomenologically-viable deconstructed Higgsless models and we show that scale of unitarity violation depends on the mass of the additional vectorlike fermion states that occur in these theories (the states that are the deconstructed analogs of Kaluza-Klein partners of the ordinary fermions in a five-dimensional theory). For sufficiently light vector fermions, and for a deconstructed theory with sufficiently many lattice sites (that is, sufficiently close to the continuum limit), the Appelquist-Chanowitz bound can be substantially weakened. More precisely, we find that, as one varies the mass of the vectorlike fermion for fixed top-quark and gauge-boson masses, the bound on the scale of top-quark mass generation interpolates smoothly between the Appelquist-Chanowitz bound and one that can, potentially, be much higher. In these theories, therefore, the bound on the scale of fermion mass generation is independent of the bound on the scale ofmore » gauge-boson mass generation. While our analysis focuses on deconstructed Higgsless models, any theory in which top-quark mass generation proceeds via the mixing of chiral and vector fermions will give similar results.« less
118577263
Vector Bosons Signals of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
We study the physics potential of the 8 TeV LHC to discover signals of extended gauge models or extra dimensional models whose low energy behavior is well represented by an SU(2) x SU(2) x U(1) electroweak gauge structure. We find that with a combined integrated luminosity of 40 fb^(-1), the first new Kaluza-Klein mode of the W gauge boson can be discovered up to a mass of about 400 GeV, when produced in association with a Z boson.
119223957
Introducing an interface between WHIZARD and FeynRules
While Monte Carlo event generators like WHIZARD have become indispensable tools in studying the impact of new physics on collider observables over the last decades, the implementation of new models in such packages has remained a rather awkward and error-prone process. Recently, the FeynRules package was introduced which greatly simplifies this process by providing a single unified model format from which model implementations for many different Monte Carlo codes can be derived automatically. In this note, we present an interface which extends FeynRules to provide this functionality also for the WHIZARD package, thus making WHIZARD's strengths and performance easily available to model builders.
4995593
Status of Virgo detector
The commissioning of the Virgo gravitational wave detector has restarted after several major hardware upgrades carried out during winter 2005. Now Virgo is fully operative and its sensitivity greatly improved and continually improving. A program of short scientific data taking has already started and Virgo is moving towards a period of continuous data taking, which should start at the end of May 2007. The actual status of the Virgo detector is reported, describing the actual detector sensitivity as well as the limiting noises and the mid-term plans.
31073237
Bayesian methods for cosmological parameter estimation from cosmic microwave background measurements
We present a strategy for a statistically rigorous Bayesian approach to the problem of determining cosmological parameters from the results of observations of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Our strategy relies on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, specifically the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, to perform the necessary high-dimensional integrals. We describe the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm in detail and discuss the results of our test on simulated data.
42152212
A comparison of methods for gravitational wave burst searches from LIGO and Virgo
The search procedure for burst gravitational waves has been studied using 24 h of simulated data in a network of three interferometers (Hanford 4 km, Livingston 4 km and Virgo 3 km are the example interferometers). Several methods to detect burst events developed in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and Virgo Collaboration have been studied and compared. We have performed coincidence analysis of the triggers obtained in the different interferometers with and without simulated signals added to the data. The benefits of having multiple interferometers of similar sensitivity are demonstrated by comparing the detection performance of the joint coincidence analysis with LSC and Virgo only burst searches. Adding Virgo to the LIGO detector network can increase by 50% the detection efficiency for this search. Another advantage of a joint LIGO–Virgo network is the ability to reconstruct the source sky position. The reconstruction accuracy depends on the timing measurement accuracy of the events in each interferometer, and is displayed in this paper with a fixed source position example.
430846
Gravitational waves by gamma-ray bursts and the Virgo detector: the case of GRB 050915a
In the framework of the expected association between gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave signals, we present the preliminary results of an analysis aimed to search for bursts of gravitational waves associated with the long GRB 050915a. GRB 050915a was detected by the Swift satellite in 2005, when the Virgo detector was engaged in one of its science runs, namely the C7 run, during which the best sensitivity attained in 2005 was exhibited. This offered the opportunity for the first coincident analysis between a gamma-ray burst and the Virgo gravitational wave detector. Here we give an overview of this ongoing analysis, which at the end will play the role of a prototype, crucial in defining a methodology for gamma-ray burst triggered searches with Virgo. The final results of our analysis will also allow us to evaluate up to which level Virgo will be able to constrain the amplitude of the gravitational wave signal from a typical long gamma-ray burst.
24077435
Bayesian reconstruction of gravitational wave burst signals from simulations of rotating stellar core collapse and bounce
Presented in this paper is a technique that we propose for extracting the physical parameters of a rotating stellar core collapse from the observation of the associated gravitational wave signal from the collapse and core bounce. Data from interferometric gravitational wave detectors can be used to provide information on the mass of the progenitor model, precollapse rotation, and the nuclear equation of state. We use waveform libraries provided by the latest numerical simulations of rotating stellar core collapse models in general relativity, and from them create an orthogonal set of eigenvectors using principal component analysis. Bayesian inference techniques are then used to reconstruct the associated gravitational wave signal that is assumed to be detected by an interferometric detector. Posterior probability distribution functions are derived for the amplitudes of the principal component analysis eigenvectors, and the pulse arrival time. We show how the reconstructed signal and the principal component analysis eigenvector amplitude estimates may provide information on the physical parameters associated with the core collapse event.