Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• PDF4LHC21: Update on the benchmarking of the CT, MSHT and NNPDF global PDF fits

  Thomas Cridge

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 101 (2022) · published 13 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  There have been recent updates to the three global PDF fits (CT, MSHT and NNPDF), all adding large amounts of data from the LHC, and this has resulted in significant changes to the global PDFs. Given the impact that the new PDFs will have on physics comparisons at the LHC, it is crucial to perform a benchmarking among the PDFs, similar in spirit to that which was carried out for PDF4LHC15, widely used for LHC physics. In this article we detail a benchmarking comparison of three global PDF sets - CT18, MSHT20 and NNPDF3.1 - and their similarities and differences that have been observed. The end result of this study will be a new PDF4LHC21 ensemble of combined PDFs suitable for a wide range of LHC applications.

  4 citations

• Predictions for neutron stars from holographic nuclear matter

  Nicolas Kovensky, Aaron Poole, Andreas Schmitt

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 6, 019 (2022) · published 31 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss masses, radii, and tidal deformabilities of neutron stars constructed from the holographic Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model. Using the same model for crust and core of the star, we combine our theoretical results with the latest astrophysical data, thus deriving more stringent constraints than given by the data alone. For instance, our calculation predicts - independent of the model parameters - an upper limit for the maximal mass of the star of about 2.46 solar masses and a lower limit of the (dimensionless) tidal deformability of a 1.4-solar-mass star of about 277.

  4 citations

• Hamiltonian Truncation Effective Theory

  Timothy Cohen, Kara Farnsworth, Rachel Houtz, Markus A. Luty

  SciPost Phys. 13, 011 (2022) · published 4 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Hamiltonian truncation is a non-perturbative numerical method for calculating observables of a quantum field theory. The starting point for this method is to truncate the interacting Hamiltonian to a finite-dimensional space of states spanned by the eigenvectors of the free Hamiltonian $H_0$ with eigenvalues below some energy cutoff $E_\text{max}$. In this work, we show how to treat Hamiltonian truncation systematically using effective field theory methodology. We define the finite-dimensional effective Hamiltonian by integrating out the states above $E_\text{max}$. The effective Hamiltonian can be computed by matching a transition amplitude to the full theory, and gives corrections order by order as an expansion in powers of $1/E_\text{max}$. The effective Hamiltonian is non-local, with the non-locality controlled in an expansion in powers of $H_0/E_\text{max}$. The effective Hamiltonian is also non-Hermitian, and we discuss whether this is a necessary feature or an artifact of our definition. We apply our formalism to 2D $\lambda \phi^4$ theory, and compute the the leading $1/E_\text{max}^2$ corrections to the effective Hamiltonian. We show that these corrections non-trivially satisfy the crucial property of separation of scales. Numerical diagonalization of the effective Hamiltonian gives residual errors of order $1/E_\text{max}^3$, as expected by our power counting. We also present the power counting for 3D $\lambda \phi^4$ theory and perform calculations that demonstrate the separation of scales in this theory.

  4 citations

• Picking the low-hanging fruit: testing new physics at scale with active learning

  Juan Rocamonde, Louie Corpe, Gustavs Zilgalvis, Maria Avramidou, Jon Butterworth

  SciPost Phys. 13, 002 (2022) · published 15 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Since the discovery of the Higgs boson, testing the many possible extensions to the Standard Model has become a key challenge in particle physics. This paper discusses a new method for predicting the compatibility of new physics theories with existing experimental data from particle colliders. By using machine learning, the technique obtained comparable results to previous methods (>90% precision and recall) with only a fraction of their computing resources (<10%). This makes it possible to test models that were impossible to probe before, and allows for large-scale testing of new physics theories.

  4 citations

• Colour unwound - disentangling colours for azimuthal asymmetries in Drell-Yan scattering

  Daniël Boer, Tom van Daal, Jonathan R. Gaunt, Tomas Kasemets, Piet J. Mulders

  SciPost Phys. 3, 040 (2017) · published 19 December 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  It has been suggested that a colour-entanglement effect exists in the Drell-Yan cross section for the 'double T-odd' contributions at low transverse momentum $Q_T$, rendering the colour structure different from that predicted by the usual factorisation formula [1]. These T-odd contributions can come from the Boer-Mulders or Sivers transverse momentum dependent distribution functions. The different colour structure should be visible already at the lowest possible order that gives a contribution to the double Boer-Mulders (dBM) or double Sivers (dS) effect, that is at the level of two gluon exchanges. To discriminate between the different predictions, we compute the leading-power contribution to the low-$Q_T$ dBM cross section at the two-gluon exchange order in the context of a spectator model. The computation is performed using a method of regions analysis with Collins subtraction terms implemented. The results conform with the predictions of the factorisation formula. In the cancellation of the colour entanglement, diagrams containing the three-gluon vertex are essential. Furthermore, the Glauber region turns out to play an important role - in fact, it is possible to assign the full contribution to the dBM cross section at the given order to the region in which the two gluons have Glauber scaling. A similar disentanglement of colour is found for the dS effect.

  4 citations

• Sub-GeV dark matter models and direct detection

  Tongyan Lin

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 43 (2022) · published 18 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Lecture notes for Les Houches Summer School 2021: Dark Matter. These lectures give a brief introduction to sub-GeV dark matter models, and then reviews theory and approaches to direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter.

  4 citations

• Strength in numbers: Optimal and scalable combination of LHC new-physics searches

  Jack Y. Araz, Andy Buckley, Benjamin Fuks, Humberto Reyes-Gonzalez, Wolfgang Waltenberger, Sophie L. Williamson, Jamie Yellen

  SciPost Phys. 14, 077 (2023) · published 20 April 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  To gain a comprehensive view of what the LHC tells us about physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), it is crucial that different BSM-sensitive analyses can be combined. But in general search-analyses are not statistically orthogonal, so performing comprehensive combinations requires knowledge of the extent to which the same events co-populate multiple analyses' signal regions. We present a novel, stochastic method to determine this degree of overlap, and a graph algorithm to efficiently find the combination of signal regions with no mutual overlap that optimises expected upper limits on BSM-model cross-sections. The gain in exclusion power relative to single-analysis limits is demonstrated with models with varying degrees of complexity, ranging from simplified models to a 19-dimensional supersymmetric model.

  4 citations

• A standard convention for particle-level Monte Carlo event-variation weights

  Enrico Bothmann, Andy Buckley, Christian Gütschow, Stefan Prestel, Marek Schönherr, Peter Skands, Jeppe R. Andersen, Saptaparna Bhattacharya, Jonathan Butterworth, Gurpreet Singh Chahal, Louie Corpe, Leif Gellersen, Matthew Gignac, Stefan Höche, Deepak Kar, Frank Krauss, Jan Kretzschmar, Leif Lönnblad, Josh McFayden, Andreas Papaefstathiou, Simon Plätzer, Steffen Schumann, Michael H. Seymour, Frank Siegert, Andrzej Siódmok

  SciPost Phys. Core 6, 007 (2023) · published 8 February 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Streams of event weights in particle-level Monte Carlo event generators are a convenient and immensely CPU-efficient approach to express systematic uncertainties in phenomenology calculations, providing systematic variations on the nominal prediction within a single event sample. But the lack of a common standard for labelling these variation streams across different tools has proven to be a major limitation for event-processing tools and analysers alike. Here we propose a well-defined, extensible community standard for the naming, ordering, and interpretation of weight streams that will serve as the basis for semantically correct parsing and combination of such variations in both theoretical and experimental studies.

  3 citations

• Functional flows for complex effective actions

  Friederike Ihssen, Jan M. Pawlowski

  SciPost Phys. 15, 074 (2023) · published 31 August 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the present work we set up a general functional renormalisation group framework for the computation of complex effective actions. For explicit computations we consider both flows of the Wilsonian effective action and the one-particle irreducible (1PI) effective action. The latter is based on an appropriate definition of a Legendre transform for complex actions, and we show its validity by comparison to exact results in zero dimensions, as well as a comparison to results for the Wilsonian effective action. In the present implementations of the general approaches, the flow of the Wilsonian effective action has a wider range of applicability and we obtain results for the effective potential of complex fields in $\phi^4$-theories from zero up to four dimensions. These results are also compared with results from the 1PI effective action within its range of applicability. The complex effective action also allows us to determine the location of the Lee-Yang zeros for general parameter values. We also discuss the extension of the present results to general theories including QCD.

  3 citations

• Freezing In with lepton flavored fermions

  G. D'Ambrosio, Shiuli Chatterjee, Ranjan Laha, Sudhir K Vempati

  SciPost Phys. 11, 006 (2021) · published 12 July 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Dark, chiral fermions carrying lepton flavor quantum numbers are natural candidates for freeze-in. Small couplings with the Standard Model fermions of the order of lepton Yukawas are `automatic' in the limit of Minimal Flavor Violation. In the absence of total lepton number violating interactions, particles with certain representations under the flavor group remain absolutely stable. For masses in the GeV-TeV range, the simplest model with three flavors, leads to signals at future direct detection experiments like DARWIN. Interestingly, freeze-in with a smaller flavor group such as $SU(2)$ is already being probed by XENON1T.

  3 citations