ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, [Formula: see text] and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals-scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.

Asymmetric dark matter models are based on the hypothesis that the present-day abundance of dark matter has the same origin as the abundance of ordinary or "visible" matter: an asymmetry in the number densities of particles and antiparticles. They are largely motivated by the observed similarity in the mass densities of dark and visible matter, with the former observed to be about five times the latter. This review discusses the construction of asymmetric dark matter models, summarizes cosmological and astrophysical bounds, and touches on direct detection prospects and collider signatures.

Asymmetric dark matter models are based on the hypothesis that the present-day abundance of dark matter has the same origin as the abundance of ordinary or "visible" matter: an asymmetry in the number densities of particles and antiparticles. They are largely motivated by the observed similarity in the mass densities of dark and visible matter, with the former observed to be about five times the latter. This review discusses the construction of asymmetric dark matter models, summarizes cosmological and astrophysical bounds, and touches on direct detection prospects and collider signatures.

A plausible explanation for the lightness of neutrino masses is that neutrinos are massless at tree level, with their mass (typically Majorana) being generated radiatively at one or more loops. The new couplings, together with the suppression coming from the loop factors, imply that the new degrees of freedom cannot be too heavy (they are typically at the TeV scale). Therefore, in these models there are no large mass hierarchies and they can be tested using different searches, making their detailed phenomenological study very appealing. In particular, the new particles can be searched for at colliders and generically induce signals in lepton-flavor and lepton-number violating processes (in the case of Majorana neutrinos), which are not independent from reproducing correctly the neutrino masses and mixings. The main focus of the review is on Majorana neutrinos. We order the allowed theory space from three different perspectives: (i) using an effective operator approach to lepton number violation, (ii) by the number of loops at which the Weinberg operator is generated, (iii) within a given loop order, by the possible irreducible topologies. We also discuss in more detail some popular radiative models which involve qualitatively different features, revisiting their most important phenomenological implications. Finally, we list some promising avenues to pursue.

We survey contemporary studies of hadrons and strongly interacting quarks using QCD's Dyson-Schwinger equations,addressing the following aspects: confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking; the hadron spectrum; hadron elastic and transition form factors, from small-to large-Q(2); parton distribution functions; the physics of hadrons containing one or more heavy quarks; and properties of the quark gluon plasma.

The authors propose a simple way of explaining dark matter, without modifying the standard model, by positing a hidden sector containing two stable particles, which interact with the visible sector primarily via gravity. The paper discusses cosmological and astrophysical consequences of such a model, showing that it can provide a satisfactory explanation for a number of dark matter phenomena.

The Majorana nature of neutrinos is strongly motivated from the theoretical and phenomenological point of view. A plethora of neutrino mass models, known collectively as Seesaw models, exist that could generate both a viable neutrino mass spectrum and mixing pattern. They can also lead to rich, new phenomenology, including lepton number non-conservation as well as new particles, that may be observable at collider experiments. It is therefore vital to search for such new phenomena and the mass scale associated with neutrino mass generation at high energy colliders. In this review, we consider a number of representative Seesaw scenarios as phenomenological benchmarks, including the characteristic Type I, II, and III Seesaw mechanisms, their extensions and hybridizations, as well as radiative constructions. We present new and updated predictions for analyses featuring lepton number violation and expected coverage in the theory parameter space at current and future colliders. We emphasize new production and decay channels, their phenomenological relevance and treatment across different facilities in e + e -, e -p, and pp collisions, as well as the available Monte Carlo tools available for studying Seesaw partners in collider environments.

A bstract Light pseudoscalars interacting pre-dominantly with Standard Model gauge bosons (so-called axion-like particles or ALPs) occur frequently in extensions of the Standard Model. In this work we review and update existing constraints on ALPs in the keV to GeV mass region from colliders, beam dump experiments and astrophysics. We furthermore provide a detailed calculation of the expected sensitivity of Belle II, which can search for visibly and invisibly decaying ALPs, as well as long-lived ALPs. The Belle II sensitivity is found to be substantially better than previously estimated, covering wide ranges of relevant parameter space. In particular, Belle II can explore an interesting class of dark matter models, in which ALPs mediate the interactions between the Standard Model and dark matter. In these models, the relic abundance can be set via resonant freeze-out, leading to a highly predictive scenario consistent with all existing constraints but testable with single-photon searches at Belle II in the near future.

We project onto the light front the pion's Poincar\'e-covariant Bethe-Salpeter wave function obtained using two different approximations to the kernels of quantum chromodynamics' Dyson-Schwinger equations. At an hadronic scale, both computed results are concave and significantly broader than the asymptotic distribution amplitude, ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\mathrm{asy}}(x)=6x(1\ensuremath{-}x)$; e.g., the integral of ${\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}(x)/{\ensuremath{\varphi}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\mathrm{asy}}(x)$ is 1.8 using the simplest kernel and 1.5 with the more sophisticated kernel. Independent of the kernels, the emergent phenomenon of dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking is responsible for hardening the amplitude.

A simple way to accommodate dark matter is to postulate the existence of a hidden sector. That is, a set of new particles and forces interacting with the known particles predominantly via gravity. In general, this leads to a large set of unknown parameters, however, if the hidden sector is an exact copy of the standard model sector, then, an enhanced symmetry arises. This symmetry, which can be interpreted as space–time parity, connects each ordinary particle (e, ν, p, n, γ, …) with a mirror partner (e′, ν′, p′, n′, γ′, …). If this symmetry is completely unbroken, then the mirror particles are degenerate with their ordinary particle counterparts, and would interact amongst themselves with exactly the same dynamics that govern ordinary particle interactions. The only new interaction postulated is photon–mirror photon kinetic mixing, whose strength ϵ, is the sole new fundamental (Lagrangian) parameter relevant for astrophysics and cosmology. It turns out that such a theory, with suitably chosen initial conditions effective in the very early universe, can provide an adequate description of dark matter phenomena provided that ϵ~10 -9 . This review focusses on three main developments of this mirror dark matter theory during the last decade: early universe cosmology, galaxy structure and the application to direct detection experiments.

Studies of the structure of excited baryons are key factors to the N* program at Jefferson Lab (JLab). Within the first year of data taking with the Hall B CLAS12 detector following the 12 GeV upgrade, a dedicated experiment will aim to extract the N* electrocouplings at high photon virtualities Q 2 . This experiment will allow exploration of the structure of N* resonances at the highest photon virtualities ever achieved, with a kinematic reach up to Q 2 = 12 GeV 2 . This high-Q 2 reach will make it possible to probe the excited nucleon structures at distance scales ranging from where effective degrees of freedom, such as constituent quarks, are dominant through the transition to where nearly massless bare-quark degrees of freedom are relevant. In this document, we present a detailed description of the physics that can be addressed through N* structure studies in exclusive meson electroproduction. The discussion includes recent advances in reaction theory for extracting N* electrocouplings from meson electroproduction off protons, along with Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)-based approaches to the theoretical interpretation of these fundamental quantities. This program will afford access to the dynamics of the nonperturbative strong interaction responsible for resonance formation, and will be crucial in understanding the nature of confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in baryons, and how excited nucleons emerge from QCD.

The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay (DBD) will have important consequences. First it will signal that lepton number is not conserved and the neutrinos are Majorana particles. Second, it represents our best hope for determining the absolute neutrino mass scale at the level of a few tens of meV. To achieve the last goal, however, certain hurdles have to be overcome involving particle, nuclear and experimental physics. Particle physics is important since it provides the mechanisms for neutrinoless DBD. In this review, we emphasize the light neutrino mass mechanism. Nuclear physics is important for extracting the useful information from the data. One must accurately evaluate the relevant nuclear matrix elements (NMEs), a formidable task. To this end, we review the recently developed sophisticated nuclear structure approaches, employing different methods and techniques of calculation. We also examine the question of quenching of the axial vector coupling constant, which may have important consequences on the size of the NMEs. From an experimental point of view it is challenging, since the life times are extremely long and one has to fight against formidable backgrounds. One needs large isotopically enriched sources and detectors with good energy resolution and very low background.

We consider four-dimensional UV descriptions of composite Higgs models without elementary scalars, in which four-fermion interactions are introduced to an underlying gauge theory like in the gauged NJL model. When the anomalous dimension of the fermion bilinear is large, these interactions drive the spontaneous global symmetry breaking in the model, with the Higgs identified as a Nambu-Goldstone boson. The UV descriptions support composite top partner operators, also with large anomalous dimensions, thereby providing an explicit realisation of the idea of partial compositeness. In particular, the composite SO(6)/SO(5) model can be described by an Sp gauge theory with four flavours of fermion, together with a vector-like pair of fermions transforming in the antisymmetric representation and charged under SU(3) colour. These fermions confine to produce both the Higgs and top partner bound states. Our methods can also be applied to different coset groups, suggesting that four-fermion operators can describe the underlying UV dynamics of other composite Higgs models.

We analyse a simple extension of the SM with just an additional scalar singlet coupled to the Higgs boson. We discuss the possible probes for electroweak baryogenesis in this model including collider searches, gravitational wave and direct dark matter detection signals. We show that a large portion of the model parameter space exists where the observation of gravitational waves would allow detection while the indirect collider searches would not.

For almost 50 years the structure of the Λ(1405) resonance has been a mystery. Even though it contains a heavy strange quark and has odd parity, its mass is lower than any other excited spin-1/2 baryon. Dalitz and co-workers speculated that it might be a molecular state of an antikaon bound to a nucleon. However, a standard quark-model structure is also admissible. Although the intervening years have seen considerable effort, there has been no convincing resolution. Here we present a new lattice QCD simulation showing that the strange magnetic form factor of the Λ(1405) vanishes, signaling the formation of an antikaon-nucleon molecule. Together with a Hamiltonian effective-field-theory model analysis of the lattice QCD energy levels, this strongly suggests that the structure is dominated by a bound antikaon-nucleon component. This result clarifies that not all states occurring in nature can be described within a simple quark model framework and points to the existence of exotic molecular meson-nucleon bound states.

We investigate inflation within $$f(R,\phi )$$ -theories, where a dynamical scalar field is coupled to gravity. A class of models which can support early-time acceleration with the emerging of an effective cosmological constant at high curvature is studied. The dynamics of the field allow for exit from inflation leading to the correct amount of inflation in agreement with cosmological data. Furthermore, the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio of the models are carefully analyzed. A generalization of the theory to incorporate dark matter in the context of mimetic gravity, and further extensions of the latter, are also discussed.

In this paper we investigate the phenomenology of a very light scalar, h, with mass 100 MeV < m h < 10 GeV, mixing with the SM Higgs. As a benchmark model we take the real singlet scalar extension of the SM. We point out apparently unresolved uncertainties in the branching ratios and lifetime of h in a crucial region of parameter space for LHC phenomenology. Bounds from LEP, meson decays and fixed target experiments are reviewed. We also examine prospects at the LHC. For m h ≲ m B the dominant production mechanism is via meson decay; our main result is the calculation of the differential p T spectrum of h scalars originating from B mesons and the subsequent prediction of up to thousands of moderate (triggerable) p T displaced dimuons possibly hiding in the existing dataset at ATLAS/CMS or at LHCb. We also demonstrate that the subdominant V h production channel has the best sensitivity for m h ≳ m B and that future bounds in this region could conceivably compete with those of LEP.

Dark matter (DM) particles with mass in the sub-GeV range are an attractive alternative to heavier weakly interacting massive particles, but direct detection of such light particles is challenging. If, however, DM-nucleus scattering leads to ionization of the recoiling atom, the resulting electron may be detected even if the nuclear recoil is unobservable. We demonstrate that including this effect significantly enhances direct detection sensitivity to sub-GeV DM. Existing experiments set world-leading limits, and future experiments may probe the cross sections relevant for thermal freeze-out.

We reconsider a model introducing a scalar leptoquark ϕ ∼ (3 , 1 , −1/3) to explain recent deviations from the standard model in semileptonic B decays. The leptoquark can accommodate the persistent tension in the decays $$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}\tau \overline{\nu} $$ as long as its mass is lower than approximately 10 TeV, and we show that a sizeable Yukawa coupling to the right-chiral tau lepton is necessary for an acceptable explanation. A characteristic prediction of this scenario is a value of $$ {R}_{D^{*}} $$ slightly smaller than the current world average. Agreement with the measured $$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}\tau \overline{\nu} $$ rates is mildly compromised for parameter choices addressing the tensions in b → sμμ, where the model can significantly reduce the discrepancies in angular observables, branching ratios and the lepton-flavor-universality observables R K and $$ {R}_{K^{*}} $$ . The leptoquark can also reconcile the predicted and measured value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and appears naturally in models of radiative neutrino mass derived from lepton-number violating effective operators. As a representative example, we incorporate the particle into an existing two-loop neutrino mass scenario derived from a dimension-nine operator. In this specific model, the structure of the neutrino mass matrix provides enough freedom to explain the small masses of the neutrinos in the region of parameter space dictated by agreement with the anomalies in $$ \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}\tau \overline{\nu} $$ , but not the b → s transition. This is achieved without excessive fine-tuning in the parameters important for neutrino mass.

It has been argued that the existence of old neutron stars excludes the possibility of nonannihilating light bosonic dark matter, such as that arising in asymmetric dark matter scenarios. If nonannihilating dark matter is captured by neutron stars, the density will eventually become sufficient for black hole formation. However, the dynamics of collapse is highly sensitive to dark matter self-interactions. Repulsive self-interactions, even if extremely weak, can prevent black hole formation. We argue that self-interactions will necessarily be present and estimate their strength in representative models. We also consider the coannihilation of dark matter with nucleons, which arises naturally in many asymmetric dark matter models and which again acts to prevent black hole formation. We demonstrate how the excluded region of the dark matter parameter space shrinks as the strength of such interactions is increased and conclude that neutron star observations do not exclude most realistic bosonic asymmetric dark matter models.