Indirect Searches For New Physics

This is the first book to discuss the search for new physics in charged leptons, neutrons, and quarks in one coherent volume. The area of indirect searches for new physics is highly topical; though no new physics particles have yet been observed directly at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the methods described in this book will provide researchers with the necessary tools to keep searching for new physics. It describes the lines of research that attempt to identify quantum effects of new physics particles in low-energy experiments, in addition to detailing the mathematical basis and theoretical and phenomenological methods involved in the searches, whilst making a clear distinction between model-dependent and model-independent methods employed to make predictions. This book will be a valuable guide for graduate students and early-career researchers in particle and high energy physics who wish to learn about the techniques used in modern predictions of new physics effects at low energies, whilst also serving as a reference for researchers at other levels. Key features: • Takes an accessible, pedagogical approach suitable for graduate students and those seeking an overview of this new and fast-growing field • Illustrates common theoretical trends seen in different subfields of particle physics • Valuable both for researchers in the phenomenology of elementary particles and for experimentalists

Dark matter is among the most important open problems in modern physics. Aimed at graduate students and researchers, this book describes the theoretical and experimental aspects of the dark matter problem in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Featuring contributions from 48 leading theorists and experimentalists, it presents many aspects, from astrophysical observations to particle physics candidates, and from the prospects for detection at colliders to direct and indirect searches. The book introduces observational evidence for dark matter along with a detailed discussion of the state-of-the-art of numerical simulations and alternative explanations in terms of modified gravity. It then moves on to the candidates arising from theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, and to the prospects for detection at accelerators. It concludes by looking at direct and indirect dark matter searches, and the prospects for detecting the particle nature of dark matter with astrophysical experiments.

Dark matter is a frequently discussed topic in contemporary particle physics. Written strictly in the language of particle physics and quantum field theory, these course-based lecture notes focus on a set of standard calculations that students need in order to understand weakly interacting dark matter candidates. After introducing some general features of these dark matter agents and their main competitors, the Higgs portal scalar and supersymmetric neutralinos are introduced as our default models. In turn, this serves as a basis for exploring four experimental aspects: the dark matter relic density extracted from the cosmic microwave background; indirect detection including the Fermi galactic center excess; direct detection; and collider searches. Alternative approaches, like an effective theory of dark matter and simplified models, naturally follow from the discussions of these four experimental directions.

The LHC is in the frontline of experimental searches for New Physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Its power is accompanied by no smaller challenges in analyzing and interpreting its results. In this thesis I explore ways to parameterize new physics phenomena, design search strategies that are sensitive to them, and interpret experimental results in general new physics contexts. In particular, I discuss interpretations of the first ATLAS analysis for supersymmetry with 70/nb of integrated luminosity. I also carry a careful investigation of comprehensive search strategies for new physics with jets and missing energy signatures, and estimate the sensitivity bounds of the 7 TeV LHC to new colored particles decaying to jets and and a neutral particle that escapes detection. Finally, I discuss the implications of the recent LHC excesses hinting to a Higgs boson with mass in the range 142-147 GeV. If confirmed, this range for the Higgs mass will be an important evidence for Split Supersymmetry. I work out the phenomenological predictions of this scenario that will be tested in the very near future by a variety of experiments, including direct and indirect dark matter detection, EDM experiments searching for CP violation and the 7 TeV run of the LHC.

This thesis provides a detailed and comprehensive description of the search for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the mono-jet final state, using the first 3.2 fb-1 of data collected at the centre of mass energy of colliding protons of 13~TeV recorded in the ATLAS experiment at LHC. The results are interpreted as limits in different theoretical contexts such as compressed supersymmetric models, theories that foresee extra-spatial dimensions and in the dark matter scenario. In the latter the limits are then compared with those obtained by other ATLAS analyses and by experiments based on completely different experimental techniques, highlighting the role of the mono-jet results in the context of dark matter searches.Lastly, a set of possible analysis improvements are proposed to reduce the main uncertainties that affect the signal region and to increase the discovery potential by further exploiting the information on the final state.

This book provides a general description of the search for and discovery of the Higgs boson (particle) at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The goal is to provide a relatively brief overview of the issues, instruments and techniques relevant for this search; written by a physicist who was directly involved. The Higgs boson mat be the one particle that was studied the most before its discovery and the story from postulation in 1964 to detection in 2012 is a fascinating one. The story is told here while detailing the fundamentals of particle physics.

Publisher description

This book presents topics of major interest to the high energy physics community, as well as recent research results.