High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

Abstract: We investigate the possibilities of probing the electroweak scale seesaw scenarios such as type-I, type-II and type-III seesaw at $e^-\gamma$ and $\gamma\gamma$ colliders. For the case of type-I seesaw, the heavy neutrinos can be produced at $e^{-}\gamma$ colliders in association with a $W$ boson. We study a variety of final states in this case including single and multilepton modes in association with jets to estimate bounds on the light-heavy neutrino mixing angle. In case of type-II seesaw, doubly charged multiplets of the SU$(2)_L$ triplet scalar can be produced in pair at $\gamma \gamma$ collider. We study the multi-leptonic decay modes coming from this pair production of doubly charged Higgs and show how one can probe neutrino mass hierarchy. We also study same sign $W$ boson production from the doubly charged Higgs to study multilepton modes in association with missing energy. From the type-III seesaw, we study same sign dilepton+jets and trilepton+jets modes at $e^-\gamma$ collider which are coming from the neutral and charged component of the triplet fermion in association with a $W$ boson and $Z$ boson, respectively. Due to the existing limits on the triplet fermions from the LHC we choose heavier mass so that the gauge boson originated from the decay of a neutral multiplet can be sufficiently boosted producing a fat-jet signature in association with same sign dilepton and trilepton. Finally we estimate bounds on the light neutrino-heavy triplet fermion mixing angle and compare with the existing bounds.

Abstract: Using a simple model for medium modification of the jet function through a parameterized form of the jet energy loss distribution, we carry out a comprehensive Bayesian analysis of the world data on single inclusive jet spectra in heavy-ion collisions at both RHIC and LHC energies. We extract the average jet energy loss $\langle \Delta E\rangle$ as a function of jet transverse momentum $p_T$ for each collision system and centrality independently. Assuming jet energy loss is proportional to the initial parton density $\rho \sim dN_{\rm ch}/d\eta/\pi R_{\rm eff}^2$ as estimated from the pseudorapidity density of charged hadron multiplicity $dN_{\rm ch}/d\eta$ and the effective system size $R_{\rm eff}\sim N_{\rm part}^{1/3}$ given by the number of participant nucleons $N_{\rm part}$, the scaled average jet energy loss $\langle \Delta E\rangle/\rho \sim R_{\rm eff}^{0.59} p_T^{0.13}\ln p_T $ for jet cone-size $R=0.4$ is found to have a momentum dependence that is slightly stronger than a logarithmic form while the system size or length dependence is slower than a linear one. The fluctuation of jet energy loss is, however, independent of the initial parton density or the system size. These are consistent with results from Monte Carlo simulations of jet transport in a fast expanding quark-gluon plasma in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.

Abstract: We carry out the calculation of kinematical higher-twist corrections to the cross section of $\gamma^* \to M \bar{M} \gamma$ up to twist 4, where $M$ is a scalar or pseudoscalar neutral meson. The three independant helicity amplitudes are presented in terms of the twist-2 generalized distribution amplitudes (GDAs), which are important non-perturbative quantities for understanding the 3D structure of hadrons. Since this process can be measured by BESIII in $e^+ e^-$ collisions, we also perform the numerical estimate of the kinematical higher-twist corrections by using the kinematics of BESIII. We adopt the $\pi \pi$ GDA extracted from Belle measurements and the asymptotic $\pi \pi$ GDA to study the size of the kinematical corrections in the case of pion meson pair, and a model $\eta \eta$ GDA is used to see the impact of target mass corrections $\mathcal O(m^2/s)$ for $\gamma^* \to \eta \eta \gamma$. Our results show that the kinematical higher-twist corrections account for $\sim 20\%$ of the cross sections at BESIII on the average, and it is necessary to include them if one tries to extract GDAs from experimental measurements precisely. Furthermore, the energy-momentum tensor (EMT) form factors can be obtained for mesons with the help of their GDAs, from which one can investigate interesting quantities such as the meson mass radius and mass distribution.

Abstract: We study transverse momentum anisotropies, in particular, the elliptic flow $v_2$ due to the interference effect sourced by valence quarks in high-energy hadron-hadron collisions. Our main formula is derived as the high-energy (eikonal) limit of the impact-parameter dependent cross section in quantum field theory, which agrees with that in terms of the impact parameter in the classical picture. As a quantitative assessment of the interference effect, we calculate $v_2$ in the azimuthal distribution of gluons at a comprehensive coverage of the impact parameter and the transverse momentum in high-energy pion-pion collisions. In a broad range of the impact parameter, a sizable amount of $v_2$, comparable with that produced due to saturated dense gluons or final-state interactions, is found to develop. In our calculations, the valence sector of the pion wave function is obtained numerically from the Basis Light-Front Quantization, a non-perturbative light-front Hamiltonian approach. And our formalism is generic and can be applied to other small collision systems like proton-proton collisions.

Abstract: We investigate the effects of the low-scale cosmological first-order phase transitions on the neutrino decoupling and constrain the PT parameters with the cosmological observations of big bang nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave background. We consider the phase transitions that occur at the MeV-scale which can produce stochastic gravitational wave background to be probed by pulsar timing array experiments. We find that the phase transition can modify the effective number of neutrinos and the primordial nucleosynthesis. In turn, the cosmological observations can exclude slow and strong phase transitions around the MeV scale.

Abstract: We study the evolution of magnetic fields coupled with chiral fermion asymmetry in the framework of chiral magnetohydrodynamics with zero initial total chirality. The initial magnetic field has a turbulent spectrum peaking at a certain characteristic scale and is fully helical with positive helicity. The initial chiral chemical potential is spatially uniform and negative. We consider two opposite cases where the ratio of the length scale of the chiral plasma instability (CPI) to the characteristic scale of the turbulence is smaller and larger than unity. These initial conditions might be realized in cosmological models such as certain types of axion inflation. The magnetic field and chiral chemical potential evolve with inverse cascading in such a way that the magnetic helicity and chirality cancel each other at all times. The CPI time scale is found to determine mainly the time when the magnetic helicity spectrum attains negative values at high wave numbers. The turnover time of the energy-carrying eddies, on the other hand, determines the time when the peak of the spectrum starts to shift to smaller wave numbers via an inverse cascade. The onset of helicity decay is determined by the time when the chiral magnetic effect becomes efficient at the peak of the initial magnetic energy spectrum. When spin flipping is important, the chiral chemical potential vanishes and the magnetic helicity becomes constant, which leads to a faster increase of the correlation length, as expected from magnetic helicity conservation. This also happens when the initial total chirality is imbalanced. Our findings have important implications for baryogenesis after axion inflation.

Abstract: We analyze the constraints obtainable from present data using the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) on extensions of the Standard Model with additional electroweak singlet or triplet scalar fields. We compare results obtained using only contributions that are linear in dimension-6 operator coefficients with those obtained including terms quadratic in these coefficients as well as contributions that are linear in dimension-8 operator coefficients. We also implement theoretical constraints arising from the stability of the electroweak vacuum and perturbative unitarity. Analyzing the models at the dimension-8 level constrains scalar couplings that are not bounded at the dimension-6 level. The strongest experimental constraints on the singlet model are provided by Higgs coupling measurements, whereas electroweak precision observables provide the strongest constraints on the triplet model. In the singlet model the present di-Higgs constraints already play a significant role. We find that the current constraints on model parameters are already competitive with those anticipated from future di- and tri-Higgs measurements. We compare our results with calculations in the full model, exhibiting the improvements when higher-order SMEFT terms are included. We also identify regions in parameter space where the SMEFT approximation appears to break down. We find that the combination of current constraints with the theoretical bounds still admits regions where the SMEFT approach is not valid, particularly for lower scalar boson masses.

Abstract: In this work, we provide a comprehensive set of differential cross-section distributions for photon + di-jet production in proton-proton collisions with next-to-next-to-leading order precision in massless QCD. The event selection corresponds to recent measurements by the ATLAS collaboration. We observe an improved description of data in comparison to lower-order calculations in the case of observables that are expected to be well described by perturbation theory. The results also show better agreement with data than parton-shower-matched and multi-jet-merged predictions generated for the ATLAS analysis using the \textsc{Sherpa} Monte Carlo. A particular highlight of our study is the use of exact five-point two-loop virtual amplitudes. This is the first calculation of a complete two-to-three hadron-collider process at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD that does not rely on the leading-colour approximation at two loops. We demonstrate, nevertheless, that the sub-leading-colour effects present in the infrared- and ultraviolet-finite double-virtual contributions are negligible in view of the remaining scale uncertainties.