No Arabic abstract
Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT) is deployed to study elastic vector-boson scattering at the high LHC energies. The interaction is strong over most of the parameter space, with the minimal Standard Model being a remarkable exception. One-loop HEFT complemented with dispersion relations and the Equivalence Theorem leads to two different unitarization methods which produce analytical amplitudes corresponding to different approximate solutions to the dispersion relations: the Inverse Amplitude method (IAM) and the N/D method. The partial waves obtained can show poles in the second Riemann sheet whose natural interpretation is that of dynamical resonances with masses and widths depending on the starting HEFT parameters. Different unitarizations yield qualitatively, and in many cases quantitatively, very similar results. The amplitudes obtained provide realistic resonant and nonresonant cross sections to be compared with and to be used for a proper interpretation of the LHC data.
In the present work we study the production of vector resonances at the LHC by means of the vector boson scattering $WZ to WZ$ and explore the sensitivities to these resonances for the expected future LHC luminosities. We are assuming that these vector resonances are generated dynamically from the self interactions of the longitudinal gauge bosons, $W_L$ and $Z_L$, and work under the framework of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian to describe in a model independent way the supposedly strong dynamics of these modes. The properties of the vector resonances, mass, width and couplings to the $W$ and $Z$ gauge bosons are derived from the inverse amplitude method approach. We implement all these features into a single model, the IAM-MC, adapted for MonteCarlo, built in a Lagrangian language in terms of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian and a chiral Lagrangian for the vector resonances, which mimics the resonant behavior of the IAM and provides unitary amplitudes. The model has been implemented in MadGraph, allowing us to perform a realistic study of the signal versus background events at the LHC. In particular, we have focused our study on the $ppto WZjj$ type of events, discussing first on the potential of the hadronic and semileptonic channels of the final $WZ$, and next exploring in more detail the clearest signals. These are provided by the leptonic decays of the gauge bosons, leading to a final state with $ell_1^+ell_1^-ell_2^+ u jj$, $ell=e,mu$, having a very distinctive signature, and showing clearly the emergence of the resonances with masses in the range of 1.5-2.5 TeV, which we have explored.
We consider the possibility of studying novel particles at the TeV scale with enhanced couplings to the top quark via top quark pair production at the LHC and VLHC. In particular we discuss the case of neutral scalar and vector resonances associated with a strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking sector. We constrain the couplings of these resonances by imposing appropriate partial wave unitarity conditions and known low energy constraints. We evaluate the new physics signals via WW -> tt~ for various models without making approximation for the initial state W bosons, and optimize the acceptance cuts for the signal observation. We conclude that QCD backgrounds overwhelm the signals in both the LHC and a 200 TeV VLHC, making it impossible to study this type of physics in the tt~ channel at those machines.
We present a study of the production of vector resonances at the LHC via $W^+Z$ vector boson scattering and explore the sensitivities to these resonances for expected LHC luminosities. We work in the framework of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian, where these resonances can be generated dynamically by unitarizing the scattering amplitudes. We implement all these features into a model adapted for MonteCarlo, the IAM-MC, that allows us to give predictions for the sensitivity to these resonances and to the relevant parameters involved for $pp to W^+Zjj$, $ppto ell_1^+ell_1^-ell_2^+ u jj$, and $pp to JJjj$.
We propose novel collider searches which can significantly improve the LHC reach to new gauge bosons $Z$ with mixed anomalies with the electroweak (EW) gauge group. Such a $Z$ necessarily acquires a Chern-Simons coupling to the EW gauge bosons and these couplings can drive both exotic $Z$ decays into $Zgamma$ if the new gauge boson is sufficiently light, as well as $Z$ decays into EW gauge bosons.While the exotic decay rate of the heavy $Z$ into $Zgamma$ is too small to be observed at the LHC, for a light $Z$, we show the potential of a lepton jet search in association with a photon to probe the rare decay $Z to Z gamma$.
We study the existence of skyrmions in the presence of all the electroweak degrees of freedom, including a dynamical Higgs boson, with the electroweak symmetry being non-linearly realized in the scalar sector. For this, we use the formulation of the Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT). In contrast with the linear realization, a well-defined winding number exists in HEFT for all scalar field configurations. We classify the effective operators that can potentially stabilize the skyrmions and numerically find the region in parameter spaces that support them. We do so by minimizing the static energy functional using neural networks. This method allows us to obtain the minimal-energy path connecting the vacuum to the skyrmion configuration and calculate its mass and radius. Since skyrmions are not expected to be produced at colliders, we explore the experimental and theoretical bounds on the operators that generate them. Finally, we briefly consider the possibility of skyrmions being dark matter candidates.