119114779
Displaced Supersymmetry
A bstractThe apparent absence of light superpartners at the LHC strongly constrains the viability of the MSSM as a solution to the hierarchy problem. These constraints can be significantly alleviated by R-parity violation (RPV). Bilinear R-parity violation, with the single operator LHu, does not require any special flavor structure and can be naturally embedded in a GUT while avoiding constraints from proton decay (unlike baryon-number-violating RPV). The LSP in this scenario can be naturally long-lived, giving rise to displaced vertices. Many collider searches, particularly those selecting b-jets or leptons, are insensitive to events with such detector-scale displaced decays owing to cuts on track quality and impact parameter. We demonstrate that for decay lengths in the window ∼1–103 mm, constraints on superpartner masses can be as low as ∼450 GeV for squarks and ∼40 GeV for LSPs. In some parts of parameter space light LSPs can dominate the Higgs decay width, hiding the Higgs from existing searches. This framework motivates collider searches for detector-scale displaced vertices. LHCb may be ideally suited to trigger on such events, while ATLAS and CMS may need to trigger on missing energy or multijet signatures.
117763830
A Half composite standard model at a TeV and sin**2 theta(W)
We apply a recently proposed mechanism -- in which an SU(3) symmetry predicts the weak mixing angle -- to construct realistic theories with composite quarks and leptons at a TeV. Although the models are strongly coupled, they are reliably analyzed using complementarity and 't Hooft's anomaly matching. In the simplest models the right-handed fermions are composite, while the left-handed are elementary. Strong SU(2)_R forces give rise to 12-particle instanton-mediated processes. They violate baryon and lepton numbers by three units and result in spectacular multilepton and multijet events at the LHC. Models in which the leptons are in an SU(3)-triplet can be directly tested in muonium-antimuonium conversion experiments.
117196443
Leptonic Indirect Detection Signals from Strongly Interacting Asymmetric Dark Matter
Particles with TeV mass and strong self-interactions generically have the right annihilation cross section to explain an observed excess of cosmic electrons and positrons if the end-product of the annihilation is charged leptons. We present an explicit model of strongly-coupled TeV-scale dark matter whose relic abundance related to the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the observed universe. The B - L asymmetry of the standard model is transfered to the dark sector by an operator carrying standard model lepton number. Lepton number violation naturally induces dark matter particle-antiparticle oscillations at late times, allowing dark matter-antimatter annihilations today. The dark matter annihilates into lighter strongly-interacting particles in the dark sector that decay to leptons via the transfer operator. The strong dynamics in the dark sector is at the weak scale due to supersymmetry breaking. The correct dark matter abundance is automatically obtained for natural values of dimensionless parameters, analogous to the situation for conventional WIMPs.
6978447
Perturbative, Non-Supersymmetric Completions of the Little Higgs
The little Higgs mechanism produces a light 100 GeV Higgs while raising the natural cutoff from 1 TeV to 10 TeV. We attempt an iterative little Higgs mechanism to produce multiple factors of 10 between the cutoff and the 100 GeV Higgs mass in a perturbative theory. In the renormalizable sector of the theory, all quantum corrections to the Higgs mass proportional to mass scales greater than 1 TeV are absent – this includes quadratically divergent, log-divergent, and finite loops at all orders. However, even loops proportional to scales just a factor of 10 above the Higgs (or any other scalar) mass come with large numerical factors that reintroduce fine-tuning. Top loops, for example, produce an expansion parameter of not 1/(4π) but 1/5. The geometric increase in the number of fields at higher energies simply exacerbates this problem. We build a complete two-stage model up to 100 TeV, show that direct sensitivity of the electroweak scale to the cutoff is erased, and estimate the tuning due to large numerical factors. We then discuss the possibility, in a toy model with only scalar and gauge fields, of generating a tower of little Higgs theories and show that the theory quickly becomes a large-N gauge theory with ~ N fundamental scalars. We find evidence that at least this toy model could successfully generate light scalars with an exponentially large cutoff in the absence of supersymmetry or strong dynamics. The fine-tuning is not completely eliminated, but evidence suggests that this result is model dependent. We then speculate as to how one might marry a working tower of fields of this type at high scales to a realistic theory at the weak scale.
119238060
New Light Windows for Sparticle Masses and Higgs Decays in the R Parity Violating MSSM
In supersymmetric models with R parity violation, constraints on superpartner masses are significantly weaker than in models which conserve R parity. We find in regions of parameter space where a neutral gaugino or third generation scalar is decoupled from the Z and/or traditional gaugino mass relationships do not hold allow some particles to be light enough to allow them to be the decay products of the Higgs. For example, surprisingly a stau could be lighter than 30 GeV if it decays hadronically. We estimate the Higgs bounds when one of these decays dominates and find allowed Higgs masses well below the current LEP bound on the standard model Higgs. We also survey the rich variety of final states in Higgs production.
116188317
Flavor mediated supersymmetry breaking
14970155
Multi-wavelength Observations of the Radio Magnetar PSR J1622-4950 and Discovery of Its Possibly Associated Supernova Remnant
We present multi-wavelength observations of the radio magnetar PSR J1622-4950 and its environment. Observations of PSR J1622-4950 with Chandra (in 2007 and 2009) and XMM (in 2011) show that the X-ray flux of PSR J1622-4950 has decreased by a factor of ~50 over 3.7 years, decaying exponentially with a characteristic time of τ = 360 ± 11 days. This behavior identifies PSR J1622-4950 as a possible addition to the small class of transient magnetars. The X-ray decay likely indicates that PSR J1622-4950 is recovering from an X-ray outburst that occurred earlier in 2007, before the 2007 Chandra observations. Observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array show strong radio variability, including a possible radio flaring event at least one and a half years after the 2007 X-ray outburst that may be a direct result of this X-ray event. Radio observations with the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope reveal that PSR J1622-4950 is 8' southeast of a diffuse radio arc, G333.9+0.0, which appears non-thermal in nature and which could possibly be a previously undiscovered supernova remnant (SNR). If G333.9+0.0 is an SNR then the estimates of its size and age, combined with the close proximity and reasonable implied velocity of PSR J1622-4950, suggest that these two objects could be physically associated.
120064744
On the Eigenvalues of Orbital Angular Momentum
Using only the elementary commutation relations in quantum mechanics, it is shown that the eigenvalues of Lz=xpy-ypx are integers.