Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Interleaved resonance decays and electroweak radiation in the Vincia parton shower

  Helen Brooks, Peter Skands, Rob Verheyen

  SciPost Phys. 12, 101 (2022) · published 22 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose a framework for high-energy interactions in which resonance decays and electroweak branching processes are interleaved with the QCD evolution in a single com- mon sequence of decreasing resolution scales. The interleaved treatment of resonance decays allows for a new treatment of finite-width effects in parton showers. At scales above their offshellness (i.e., typically Q > Γ ), resonances participate explicitly as incom- ing and outgoing states in branching processes, while they are effectively “integrated out” of the description at lower scales. We implement this formalism, together with a full set of antenna functions for branching processes involving electroweak (W/Z/H) bosons in the Vincia shower module in Pythia 8.3, and study some of the consequences

  9 citations

• Tagging Jets in Invisible Higgs Searches

  Anke Biekoetter, Fabian Keilbach, Rhea Moutafis, Tilman Plehn, Jennifer M. Thompson

  SciPost Phys. 4, 035 (2018) · published 22 June 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Searches for invisible Higgs decays in weak boson fusion are a well-known laboratory for jets and QCD studies. We present a series of results on tagging jets and central jet activity. First, precision analyses of the central jet activity require full control of single top production in some analyses. Second, the rate dependence on the size of the tagging jets is not limited to weak boson fusion. For the first time, we show how subjet information on the tagging jets and on the additional jet activity can be used to extract the Higgs signal. The additional observables relieve some of the pressure on other, critical observables. Finally, we compare the performance of weak boson fusion and associated Higgs production.

  9 citations

• Reconstructing the EFT of inflation from cosmological data

  Amel Durakovic, Paul Hunt, Subodh P. Patil, Subir Sarkar

  SciPost Phys. 7, 049 (2019) · published 10 October 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Reconstructions of the primordial power spectrum (PPS) of curvature perturbations from cosmic microwave background anisotropies and large-scale structure data suggest that the usually assumed power-law PPS has localised features (up to $\sim 10\%$ in amplitude), although of only marginal significance in the framework of $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. On the other hand if the underlying cosmology is assumed to be Einstein-de Sitter, larger features in the PPS (up to $\sim 20\%$) are required to accurately fit the observed acoustic peaks. Within the context of single clock inflation, we show that any given reconstruction of the PPS can be mapped on to functional parameters of the underlying effective theory of the adiabatic mode within a 2nd-order formalism, provided the best fit fractional change of the PPS, $\Delta\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{R}/\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{R}$ is such that $(\Delta\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{R}/\mathcal{P}_\mathcal{R})^3$ falls within the $1\,\sigma$ confidence interval of the reconstruction for features induced by variations of either the sound speed $c_\mathrm{s}$ or the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$. Although there is a degeneracy amongst these functional parameters (and the models that project onto them), we can identify simple representative inflationary models that yield such features in the PPS. Thus we provide a dictionary (more accurately, a thesaurus) to go from observational data, via the reconstructed PPS, to models that reproduce them to per cent level precision.

  9 citations

• Effective field theory descriptions of Higgs boson pair production

  Lina Alasfar, Luca Cadamuro, Christina Dimitriadi, Arnaud Ferrari, Ramona Gröber, Gudrun Heinrich, Tom Ingebretsen Carlson, Jannis Lang, Serhat Ördek, Laura Pereira Sánchez, Ludovic Scyboz, Jörgen Sjölin

  SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 2 (2024) · published 16 October 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Higgs boson pair production is traditionally considered to be of particular interest for a measurement of the trilinear Higgs self-coupling. Yet it can offer insights into other couplings as well, since -- in an effective field theory (EFT) parameterisation of potential new physics -- both the production cross section and kinematical properties of the Higgs boson pair depend on various other Wilson coefficients of EFT operators. This note summarises the ongoing efforts related to the development of EFT tools for Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion, and provides recommendations for the use of distinct EFT parameterisations in the Higgs boson pair production process. This document also outlines where further efforts are needed and provides a detailed analysis of theoretical uncertainties. Additionally, benchmark scenarios are updated. We also re-derive a parameterisation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections in terms of the EFT Wilson coefficients both for the total cross section and the distribution in the invariant mass of the Higgs boson pair, providing for the first time also the covariance matrix. A reweighting procedure making use of the newly derived coefficients is validated, which can be used to significantly speed up experimental analyses.

  9 citations

• New physics through flavor tagging at FCC-ee

  Admir Greljo, Hector Tiblom, Alessandro Valenti

  SciPost Phys. 18, 152 (2025) · published 12 May 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Leveraging recent advancements in machine learning-based flavor tagging, we develop an optimal analysis for measuring the hadronic cross-section ratios $R_b$, $R_c$, and $R_s$ at the FCC-ee during its $WW$, $Zh$, and $t\bar{t}$ runs. Our results indicate up to a two-order-of-magnitude improvement in precision, providing an unprecedented test of the SM. Using these observables, along with $R_\ell$ and $R_t$, we project sensitivity to flavor non-universal four-fermion (4F) interactions within the SMEFT, contributing both at the tree-level and through the renormalization group (RG). We highlight a subtle complementarity with RG-induced effects at the FCC-ee's $Z$-pole. Our analysis demonstrates significant improvements over the current LEP-II and LHC bounds in probing flavor-conserving 4F operators involving heavy quark flavors and all lepton flavors. As an application, we explore simplified models addressing current $B$-meson anomalies, demonstrating that FCC-ee can effectively probe the relevant parameter space. Finally, we design optimized search strategies for quark flavor-violating 4F interactions.

  9 citations

• Decays of a bino-like particle in the low-mass regime

  Florian Domingo, Herbi K. Dreiner

  SciPost Phys. 14, 134 (2023) · published 30 May 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the phenomenology associated with a light bino-like neutralino with mass under the tau mass in the context of the R-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. This is a well-motivated example of scenarios producing potentially light and long-lived exotic particles, which might be testable in far-detector experiments, such as the FASER experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. A quantitative assessment of the discovery potential or the extraction of limits run through a detailed understanding of the interactions of the light exotic fermion with Standard Model matter, in particular, the hadronic sector. Here, we propose a systematic analysis of the decays of such a particle and proceed to a model-independent derivation of the low-energy effects, so that this formalism may be transposed to other UV-completions or even stand as an independent effective field theory. We then stress the diversity of the possible phenomenology and more specifically discuss the features associated with the R-parity violating supersymmetric framework, for example neutron-antineutron oscillations.

  8 citations

• Instantons, renormalons and the theta angle in integrable sigma models

  Marcos Mariño, Ramon Miravitllas, Tomas Reis

  SciPost Phys. 15, 184 (2023) · published 3 November 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Some sigma models which admit a theta angle are integrable at both $\vartheta=0$ and $\vartheta=\pi$. This includes the well-known $O(3)$ sigma model and two families of coset sigma models studied by Fendley. We consider the ground state energy of these models in the presence of a magnetic field, which can be computed with the Bethe Ansatz. We obtain explicit results for its non-perturbative corrections and we study the effect of the theta angle on them. We show that imaginary, exponentially small corrections due to renormalons remain unchanged, while instanton corrections change sign, as expected. We find in addition corrections due to renormalons which also change sign as we turn on the theta angle. Based on these results we present an explicit non-perturbative formula for the topological susceptibility of the $O(3)$ sigma model in the presence of a magnetic field, in the weak coupling limit.

  8 citations

• One loop verification of SMEFT Ward Identities

  Tyler Corbett, Michael Trott

  SciPost Phys. 10, 144 (2021) · published 14 June 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We verify Standard Model Effective Field Theory Ward identities to one loop order when background field gauge is used to quantize the theory. The results we present lay the foundation of next to leading order automatic generation of results in the SMEFT, in both the perturbative and non-perturbative expansion using the geoSMEFT formalism, and background field gauge.

  8 citations

• Class imbalance techniques for high energy physics

  Christopher W. Murphy

  SciPost Phys. 7, 076 (2019) · published 5 December 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A common problem in a high energy physics experiment is extracting a signal from a much larger background. Posed as a classification task, there is said to be an imbalance in the number of samples belonging to the signal class versus the number of samples from the background class. In this work we provide a brief overview of class imbalance techniques in a high energy physics setting. Two case studies are presented: (1) the measurement of the longitudinal polarization fraction in same-sign $WW$ scattering, and (2) the decay of the Higgs boson to charm-quark pairs.

  8 citations

• Higgs associated production with a vector decaying to two fermions in the geoSMEFT

  Tyler Corbett, Adam Martin

  SciPost Phys. 16, 019 (2024) · published 19 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the inclusive calculations of a Higgs boson produced in association with massive vector bosons in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) to order $1/\Lambda^4$ for the 13 TeV LHC. The calculations include the decay of the vector boson into massless constituents and are done using the geometric formulation of the SMEFT supplemented by the relevant dimension eight operators not included in the geoSMEFT. We include some discussion of distributions to motivate how detailed collider and experimental searches for SMEFT signals could be improved.

  8 citations