120513086
Flavored Dark Matter
Title of dissertation: FLAVORED DARK MATTER Prateek Agrawal, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Zackaria Chacko Department of Physics Astrophysical observations point to the fact that most of the matter density in the universe is in the form of a non-luminous “dark matter”. No particles detected so far satisfy the criteria to be dark matter candidates. If the present day dark matter density is set by thermal freeze out due to the expansion of the universe, then the dark matter particles likely have weak-scale interactions with ordinary matter. This opens up the possibility of detecting them in current experiments. We focus on a novel class of models – flavored dark matter – which contains multiple copies, or flavors, of dark matter particles, in analogy with the three copies of matter particles observed in nature. We classify such models and consider their implications for various dark matter searches. As an example, we choose one specific model with tau flavored dark matter, and consider its prospects for detection at the Large Hadron Collider. FLAVORED DARK MATTER
55172248
Flavored dark matter beyond Minimal Flavor Violation
A bstractWe study the interplay of flavor and dark matter phenomenology for models of flavored dark matter interacting with quarks. We allow an arbitrary flavor structure in the coupling of dark matter with quarks. This coupling is assumed to be the only new source of violation of the Standard Model flavor symmetry extended by a U(3)χ associated with the dark matter. We call this ansatz Dark Minimal Flavor Violation (DMFV) and highlight its various implications, including an unbroken discrete symmetry that can stabilize the dark matter. As an illustration we study a Dirac fermionic dark matter χ which transforms as triplet under U(3)χ, and is a singlet under the Standard Model. The dark matter couples to right-handed down-type quarks via a colored scalar mediator ϕ with a coupling λ. We identify a number of “flavor-safe” scenarios for the structure of λ which are beyond Minimal Flavor Violation. For dark matter and collider phenomenology we focus on the well-motivated case of b-flavored dark matter. The combined flavor and dark matter constraints on the parameter space of λ turn out to be interesting intersections of the individual ones. LHC constraints on simplified models of squarks and sbottoms can be adapted to our case, and monojet searches can be relevant if the spectrum is compressed.
53520410
Leptophilic dark matter and the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon
A bstractWe consider renormalizable theories such that the scattering of dark matter off leptons arises at tree level, but scattering off nuclei only arises at loop. In this framework, the various dark matter candidates can be classified by their spins and by the forms of their interactions with leptons. We determine the corrections to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon that arise from its interactions with dark matter. We then consider the implications of these results for a set of simplified models of leptophilic dark matter. When a dark matter candidate reduces the existing tension between the standard model prediction of the anomalous magnetic moment and the experimental measurement, the region of parameter space favored to completely remove the discrepancy is highlighted. Conversely, when agreement is worsened, we place limits on the parameters of the corresponding simplified model. These bounds and favored regions are compared against the experimental constraints on the simplified model from direct detection and from collider searches. Although these constraints are severe, we find there do exist limited regions of parameter space in these simple theories that can explain the observed anomaly in the muon magnetic moment while remaining consistent with all experimental bounds.
54749102
Lower limits on the strengths of gamma ray lines from WIMP dark matter annihilation
We study the spectra of gamma ray signals that arise from dark matter annihilation in the Universe. We focus on the large class of theories where the photon spectrum includes both continuum spectrum of gamma rays that arise from annihilation into standard model states at tree level, as well as monochromatic gamma rays arising from annihilation directly into two photons at the one-loop level. In this class of theories we obtain lower bounds on the ratio of the strength of the gamma ray line relative to the gamma ray continuum as a function of the dark matter mass and spin. These limits are obtained from the unitarity relation between the tree-level amplitude of the primary annihilation channel and the imaginary part of the loop-level amplitude for annihilation directly into photons, with the primary decay products running in the loop. These results are exact in the limit that dark matter annihilation at tree level is exclusively to a single standard model species, occurs through the lowest partial wave and respects $CP$. Away from this limit the bounds are approximate. Our conclusions agree with known results in the literature for the cases of the minimal supersymmetric standard model, universal extra dimensions and the littlest Higgs with $T$ parity. We use the Fermi-LAT observations to translate these limits into upper bounds on the dark matter annihilation cross section into any specific standard model state.
54077204
Identifying dark matter interactions in monojet searches
A bstractWe study the discrimination of quark-initiated jets from gluon-initiated jets in monojet searches for dark matter using the technique of averaged jet energy profiles. We demonstrate our results in the context of effective field theories of dark matter interactions with quarks and gluons, but our methods apply more generally to a wide class of models. Different effective theories of dark matter and the standard model backgrounds each have a characteristic quark/gluon fraction for the leading jet. When used in conjunction with the traditional cut-and-count monojet search, the jet energy profile can be used to set stronger bounds on contact interactions of dark matter. In the event of a discovery of a monojet excess at the 14 TeV LHC, contact interactions between dark matter with quarks or with gluons can be differentiated at the 95% confidence level. For a given rate at the LHC, signal predictions at direct detection experiments for different dark matter interactions can span five orders of magnitude. The ability to identify these interactions allows us to make a tighter connection between LHC searches and direct detection experiments.
119222959
Multilepton signatures of the Higgs boson through its production in association with a top-quark pair
We consider the possible production of the Higgs Boson in association with a top-quark pair and its subsequent decay into a tau-lepton pair or a W-boson pair. This process can give rise to many signatures of the Higgs boson. These signatures can have electrons, muons, tau jets, bottom jets and/or light flavour jets. We analyze the viability of some of these signatures. We will look at those signatures where the background is minimal. In particular, we explore the viability of the signatures "isolated 4 electron/muon" and "isolated 3 electron/muon + a jet" The jet can be due to a light flavour quark/gluon, a bottom quark, or a tau lepton. Of all these signatures, we find that "isolated 3 electron/muon + a tau jet", with an extra bottom jet, can be an excellent signature of this mode of the Higgs boson production. We show that this signature may be visible within a year, once the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarts. Some of the other signatures would also be observable after the LHC accumulates sufficient luminosity.
122943004
Looking for a higgs boson of intermediate mass
Abstract It is pointed out that the ability to identify and reconstruct bottoms jets will be important for the identification of the Higgs boson at hadron colliders, if its mass is in the intermediate mass range (2 M W > M H > M Z ). We examine a particular tagging scheme.
119254863
Dilepton Signatures of the Higgs Boson with Tau-jet Tagging
We consider the process pp ! t¯. This process can give rise to many signatures of the Higgs boson. The signatures can have electrons, muons and jets. We consider the signatures that have two electrons/muons and jets. Tagging of a tau jet and a bottom jet can help reduce the backgrounds significantly. We show that for the signatures to be useful, it should have at least two tau jets, or same-sign electrons/muons. These requirements reduce the backgrounds due the process with Z-bosons and the production of a pair of top quarks. In particular, we examine the usefulness of the signatures “isolated 2 electrons/muons + a bottom jet + a tau jet (eµ�b)”, ‘isolated 2 electrons/muons + 2 tau jets”, “isolated 2 electrons/muons + 2 bottom jets + a tau jet”, and “isolated 2 electrons/muons + a bottom jet + 2 tau jets”. We find that signatures with two tau jets are useful. The signatures with one tau jet are also useful, if we restrict to same-sign electrons/muons. We show that these signatures may be visible in less than a year, once the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarts.
119292717
Purification of mixed states with closed timelike curve is not possible
In ordinary quantum theory, any mixed state can be purified in an enlarged Hilbert space by adding an ancillary system. The purified state does not depend on the state of any extraneous system with which the mixed state is going to interact or on the physical interaction. Here, we prove that it is not possible to purify a mixed state that traverses a closed timelike curve (CTC) and is allowed to interact in a consistent way with a causality-respecting (CR) quantum system in the same manner. In other words, if a CTC quantum system with a mixed state has to undergo an arbitrary interaction with an arbitrary CR system then it has to be in a ''proper'' mixture, as it cannot be regarded as a subsystem of a pure entangled state. Thus, in general for arbitrary interactions between CR and CTC systems, there is no universal purification by embedding in a larger Hilbert space for mixed states with CTCs. This shows that in quantum theory with CTCs there can exist proper and improper mixtures.
126306552
Gluon resummation and QCD corrections to the process p p ---> H0 W