Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Jet modifications from colour rope formation in dense systems of non-parallel strings

  Christian Bierlich, Smita Chakraborty, Gösta Gustafson, Leif Lönnblad

  SciPost Phys. 13, 023 (2022) · published 17 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We revisit our rope model for string fragmentation that has been shown to give a reasonable description of strangeness and baryon enhancement in high-multiplicity pp events at the LHC. A key feature of the model is that the enhancement is driven by the increased string tension due to strings overlapping in dense systems. By introducing an improved space-time picture for the overlap between fragmenting strings, where also non-parallel strings are properly taken into account, we are now able to investigate the enhancement both in jets and in the underlying event in a consistent way.

  3 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.

  3 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.

  3 citations

• The MSHT20 Parton Distribution Functions

  R.S. Thorne, S. Bailey, T. Cridge, L. Harland-Lang, A.D. Martin

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 8, 018 (2022) · published 11 July 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We present the new MSHT20 set of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton, determined from a global analysis of the available hard scattering data and superseding the MMHT14 sets. The parameterisation is now adapted and extended and we include a large number of new data sets: the final HERA and Tevatron data, and a significant number of LHC data sets on vector boson production, inclusive jets and top quark distributions. We include up to NNLO QCD corrections for all data sets that play a major role in the fit. There are some changes to central PDF values and a significant reduction in the uncertainties, but the PDFs and the predictions using them are generally within one standard deviation of the MMHT14 results. We discuss the phenomenological impact of our results.

  3 citations

• Hitting two BSM particles with one lepton-jet: search for a top partner decaying to a dark photon, resulting in a lepton-jet

  K. du Plessis, M. M. Flores, D. Kar, S. Sinha, H. van der Schyf

  SciPost Phys. 13, 018 (2022) · published 15 August 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A maverick top partner model, decaying to a dark photon was suggested. The dark photon decays to two overlapping electrons for dark photon masses of $\approx 100$ GeV, and results in a so-called lepton-jet. The event includes a top quark as well, which results in events with two boosted objects, one heavy and the other light. We propose a search strategy exploiting the unique signal topology. We show that for a set of kinematic selections, both in hadronic and leptonic decay channel of the SM top quark, almost all background can be eliminated, leaving enough signal events up to top partner mass of about 3 TeV for the search to be viable at the LHC.

  3 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.

  3 citations

• The Boring Monopole

  Prateek Agrawal, Michael Nee

  SciPost Phys. 13, 049 (2022) · published 2 September 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study false vacuum decays catalysed by magnetic monopoles which act as tunnelling sites with exponentially enhanced decay rates. The field profiles describing the decay do not have the typically assumed $O(3)/O(4)$ symmetry, thus requiring an extension of the usual decay rate calculation. To numerically determine the saddle point solutions which describe the tunnelling process we use a new algorithm based on the mountain pass theorem. This method can be applied more widely to phase transitions with reduced symmetry, such as decays away from the zero and infinite temperature limits. Our results show that monopole-catalysed tunnelling can dominate over the homogeneous false vacuum decay for a wide range of parameters, significantly modify the gravitational wave signal or trigger phase transitions which would otherwise never complete. A single boring monopole in our Hubble patch may determine the lifetime of the Standard Model vacuum.

  3 citations

• The WIMP paradigm: Theme and variations

  Jonathan L. Feng

  SciPost Phys. Lect. Notes 71 (2023) · published 13 June 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  WIMPs, ↑ weakly-interacting massive particles, have been leading candidates for particle dark matter for decades, and they remain a viable and highly motivated possibility. In these lectures, I describe the basic motivations for WIMPs, beginning with the WIMP miracle and its under-appreciated cousin, the discrete WIMP miracle. I then give an overview of some of the basic features of WIMPs and how to find them. These lectures conclude with some variations on the WIMP theme that have by now become significant topics in their own right and illustrate the richness of the WIMP paradigm.

  3 citations

• Two-loop gauge coupling $β$-function in a four-dimensional framework: the Standard Model case

  Adriano Cherchiglia

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 7, 043 (2022) · published 22 June 2022 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  At present, the gauge coupling $\beta$-function in the Standard Model (SM) is known up to four-loop order. As most SM calculations, dimensional regularization was employed. Despite its striking success, other regularization schemes have emerged, which aim to stay in the physical dimension as far as possible. In this contribution, we apply Implicit Regularization, a scheme defined in momentum space that complies with BPHZ, to obtain the two-loop gauge coupling $\beta$-function in the Standard Model. We reproduce the same result obtained when applying dimensional regularization.

  3 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