High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

Abstract: We discuss a path toward the generalisation of the nested soft-collinear subtraction scheme to arbitrary $2\rightarrow n$ processes. The scheme is designed to provide an efficient and process-independent procedure to extract and regulate infrared (IR) singularities arising from unresolved real radiation and combine them with explicit singularities in virtual corrections. The new approach is based on a reorganisation of the relevant subtraction terms into simple combinations of a relatively small number of recurring structures. This strategy leads to a drastic reduction in the computational effort required to derive integrated subtraction terms, while preserving the full generality of the scheme. We believe that this approach will allow for tackling the issue of regularising IR divergences at next-to-next-to-leading order in the strong coupling constant for arbitrary, multi-parton processes.

Abstract: Weak magnetic field induced corrections for the Yukawa potential due to one pion exchange between two constituent quarks(nucleons) are presented. For that, the magnetic field effect on the pion propagator and on the pion form factor are taken into account. For that, an effective gluon propagator parameterized with an effective gluon mass ($M_g\sim 0.5$GeV) is considered. In the limit of magnetic field weak with respect to the constituent quark mass and pion mass, analytical and semi-analytical expressions can be obtained. Different types of contributions are found, isotropic or anisotropic, dependent on the pion mass and also on the constituent quark and effective gluon masses. Overall the corrections are of the order of $2\%$ to $5\%$ of the Yukawa potential at distances close to $2$fm, and they decrease slower than the Yukawa potential. The anistropic corrections are considerably smaller than the isotropic components. A sizable splitting between results due to magnetic field dependent neutral or charged pion mass is found.

Abstract: When the inflaton is coupled to the gluon Chern-Simons term for successful reheating, mixing between the inflaton and the QCD axion is generally expected given the solution of the strong CP problem by the QCD axion. This is particularly natural if the inflaton is a different, heavier axion. We propose a scenario in which the QCD axion plays the role of the inflaton by mixing with heavy axions. In particular, if the energy scale of inflation is lower than the QCD scale, a hybrid inflation is realized where the QCD axion plays the role of the inflaton in early stages. We perform detailed numerical calculations to take account of the mixing effects. Interestingly, the initial misalignment angle of the QCD axion, which is usually a free parameter, is determined by the inflaton dynamics. It is found to be close to $\pi$ in simple models. This is the realization of the pi-shift inflation proposed in previous literature, and it shows that QCD axion dark matter and inflation can be closely related. The heavy axion may be probed by future accelerator experiments.

Abstract: We present the analytic expressions for the color-planar contributions to the heavy-light form factors at three loops in perturbative QCD. These form factors play an important role in the precision predictions of various observables in top quark and flavour physics. We compute the master integrals using the method of differential equations. We perform the ultraviolet renormalization for all the appearing fields and parameters. The analytic results for the renormalized form factors are expressed in terms of generalized harmonic polylogarithms. We also study the Sudakov behaviour of these form factors in the asymptotic limit, which enables us to obtain the complete logarithmic three-loop and partial four-loop contributions.

Abstract: Several indications for neutral scalars are observed at the LHC. One of them, a broad resonance peaked at about 650 GeV which we call H(650), was first observed by an outsider combining published histograms from ATLAS and CMS on ZZ ->4 leptons searches, and this combination shows a local significance close to 4 s.d. Since then, CMS has reported two other indications at the same mass, with similar local significances: H ->WW -> lepton nu lepton nu and H->bbh(125) where h(125) ->2 photons. ATLAS has completed its analysis of ZZ->4 leptons from which we infer an indication for H(650) with 3.5 s.d. significance. Assuming that the mass is already known from the former set, and combining these three results, one gets a global statistical significance above 6 s.d. H(650) has a coupling to WW similar to h(125) and therefore we argue that a sum rule (SR) required by unitarity for WW scattering implies that there should be a compensating effect from a doubly charged scalar H++, with a large coupling to W+W+. We therefore predict that this mode should become visible through the vector boson fusion process W+W+->H++, naturally provided by LHC. A recent indication for H++(450)->W+W+ from ATLAS allows a model independent interpretation of this result through the SR constraint which gives BR(H++->W+W+)=10%, implying the occurrence of additional decay modes H+W+ and H+H+ from one or several light H+ with masses below mH++ - mW or MH++/2, that is mH+ < 370 GeV or 225 GeV. A similar analysis is provided for H+(375)->ZW, indicated by ATLAS and CMS. Both channels suggest a scalar field content similar to the Georgi Machacek model with triplets, at variance with the models usually considered.