Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Accelerating Monte Carlo event generation -- rejection sampling using neural network event-weight estimates

  Katharina Danziger, Timo Janßen, Steffen Schumann, Frank Siegert

  SciPost Phys. 12, 164 (2022) · published 18 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The generation of unit-weight events for complex scattering processes presents a severe challenge to modern Monte Carlo event generators. Even when using sophisticated phase-space sampling techniques adapted to the underlying transition matrix elements, the efficiency for generating unit-weight events from weighted samples can become a limiting factor in practical applications. Here we present a novel two-staged unweighting procedure that makes use of a neural-network surrogate for the full event weight. The algorithm can significantly accelerate the unweighting process, while it still guarantees unbiased sampling from the correct target distribution. We apply, validate and benchmark the new approach in high-multiplicity LHC production processes, including $Z/W$+4 jets and $t\bar{t}$+3 jets, where we find speed-up factors up to ten.

  23 citations

• AMS-02 antiprotons and dark matter: Trimmed hints and robust bounds

  Francesca Calore, Marco Cirelli, Laurent Derome, Yoann Genolini, David Maurin, Pierre Salati, Pasquale D. Serpico

  SciPost Phys. 12, 163 (2022) · published 18 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Based on 4 yr AMS-02 antiproton data, we present bounds on the dark matter (DM) annihilation cross section vs. mass for some representative final state channels. We use recent cosmic-ray propagation models, a realistic treatment of experimental and theoretical errors, and an updated calculation of input antiproton spectra based on a recent release of the PYTHIA code. We find that reported hints of a DM signal are statistically insignificant; an adequate treatment of errors is crucial for credible conclusions. Antiproton bounds on DM annihilation are among the most stringent ones, probing thermal DM up to the TeV scale. The dependence of the bounds upon propagation models and the DM halo profile is also quantified. A preliminary estimate reaches similar conclusions when applied to the 7 years AMS-02 dataset, but also suggests extra caution as for possible future claims of DM excesses.

  30 citations

• Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter

  Tracy R. Slatyer

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 53 (2022) · published 13 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These lectures, presented at the 2021 Les Houches Summer School on Dark Matter, provide an introduction to key methods and tools of indirect dark matter searches, as well as a status report on the field circa summer 2021. Topics covered include the possible effects of energy injection from dark matter on the early universe, methods to calculate both the expected energy distribution and spatial distribution of particles produced by dark matter interactions, an outline of theoretical models that predict diverse signals in indirect detection, and a discussion of current constraints and some claimed anomalies. These notes are intended as an introduction to indirect dark matter searches for graduate students, focusing primarily on intuition-building estimates and useful concepts and tools.

  15 citations

• Dark atoms and composite dark matter

  James M. Cline

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 52 (2022) · published 13 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  I selectively review the theoretical properties and observational limits pertaining to dark atoms, as well as composite dark matter candidates bound by a confining gauge interaction: dark glueballs, glueballinos, mesons and baryons. Emphasis is given to cosmological, direct and indirect detection constraints.

  16 citations

• Probing the particle spectrum of nature with evaporating black holes

  Michael J. Baker, Andrea Thamm

  SciPost Phys. 12, 150 (2022) · published 9 May 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Photons radiated from an evaporating black hole in principle provide complete information on the particle spectrum of nature up to the Planck scale. If an evaporating black hole were to be observed, it would open a unique window onto models beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. To demonstrate this, we compute the limits that could be placed on the size of a dark sector. We find that observation of an evaporating black hole at a distance of 0.01 parsecs could probe dark sector models containing one or more copies of the Standard Model particles, with any mass scale up to 100 TeV.

  17 citations

• Targeting multi-loop integrals with neural networks

  Ramon Winterhalder, Vitaly Magerya, Emilio Villa, Stephen P. Jones, Matthias Kerner, Anja Butter, Gudrun Heinrich, Tilman Plehn

  SciPost Phys. 12, 129 (2022) · published 13 April 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Numerical evaluations of Feynman integrals often proceed via a deformation of the integration contour into the complex plane. While valid contours are easy to construct, the numerical precision for a multi-loop integral can depend critically on the chosen contour. We present methods to optimize this contour using a combination of optimized, global complex shifts and a normalizing flow. They can lead to a significant gain in precision.

  23 citations

• An introduction to axions and their detection

  Igor García Irastorza

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 45 (2022) · published 29 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In these notes I try to introduce the reader to the topic of axions: their theoretical motivation and expected phenomenology, their role in astrophysics and as dark matter candidate, and the experimental techniques to detect them. Special emphasis is made in this last point, for which a relatively updated review of worldwide efforts and future prospects is made. The material is intended as an introduction to the topic, and it was prepared as lecture notes for Les Houches summer school 2021. Abundant references are included to direct the reader to deeper insight on the different aspects of axion physics.

  13 citations

• Smearing of causality by compositeness divides dispersive approaches into exact ones and precision-limited ones

  Felipe J. Llanes-Estrada, Raúl Roldán-González

  SciPost Phys. Core 5, 016 (2022) · published 29 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scattering off the edge of a composite particle or finite--range interaction can precede that off its center. An effective theory treatment with pointlike particles and contact interactions must find that the scattered experimental wave is slightly advanced, in violation of causality (the fundamental underlying theory being causal). In practice, partial--wave or other projections of multivariate amplitudes exponentially grow with ${\rm Im}(E)$, so that analyticity is not sufficient to obtain a dispersion relation for them, but only for a slightly modified function (the modified relations additionally connect different $J$). This can limit the precision of certain dispersive approaches to compositeness based on Cauchy's theorem. Awareness of this may be of interest to some dispersive tests of the Standard Model with hadrons, and to unitarization methods used to extend electroweak effective theories. Interestingly, the Inverse Amplitude Method is safe (as the inverse amplitude has the opposite, convergent behavior allowing contour closure). Generically, one-dimensional sum rules such as for the photon vacuum polarization, form factors or the Adler function are not affected by this uncertainty; nor are fixed-$t$ dispersion relations, cleverly constructed to avoid it and whose consequences are solid.

  2 citations

• Uncertainties associated with GAN-generated datasets in high energy physics

  Konstantin T. Matchev, Alexander Roman, Prasanth Shyamsundar

  SciPost Phys. 12, 104 (2022) · published 24 March 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Recently, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) trained on samples of traditionally simulated collider events have been proposed as a way of generating larger simulated datasets at a reduced computational cost. In this paper we point out that data generated by a GAN cannot statistically be better than the data it was trained on, and critically examine the applicability of GANs in various situations, including a) for replacing the entire Monte Carlo pipeline or parts of it, and b) to produce datasets for usage in highly sensitive analyses or sub-optimal ones. We present our arguments using information theoretic demonstrations, a toy example, as well as in the form of a formal statement, and identify some potential valid uses of GANs in collider simulations.

  16 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

  7 citations