Related papers: Challenges for a QCD Axion at the 10 MeV Scale
The CMS collaboration has recently produced results of a number of searches for new physics processes using data collected during the 2011 run of the Large Hadron Collider. Up to 5 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV…
We analyze the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model that we have after the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC, the hMSSM (habemus MSSM?), i.e. a model in which the lighter $h$ boson has a mass of approximately 125 GeV…
Preliminary results of the search for a Standard Model like Higgs boson at the LHC with 5 fb-1 data have just been presented by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations and an excess of events at a mass of ~125 GeV has been reported. If this excess…
Possible realistic scenarios are investigated in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) Higgs sector extended by dimension-six effective operators. The CP-odd Higgs boson with low mass around 30--90 GeV could be consistently…
After the discovery of a Higgs-like boson with a mass of m~125 GeV at the LHC, we can now attempt to draw conclusions about physics beyond the Standard Model. I argue that there are several hints towards new physics at intermediate scales >…
Extensions of the Standard Model with extra neutral currents due to additional anomalous abelian gauge factors are considered. We summarize the main features of the effective action associated to these theories. They are characterized by an…
The oscillation of the CMB photons into axions can cause CMB spectral distortion in the presence of large scale magnetic field. With the COBE limit on the $\mu$ parameter and a homogeneous magnetic field with strength $B\lesssim 3.2$ nG at…
Hidden sector particles with sub-GeV masses like hidden U(1) gauge bosons, the NMSSM CP-odd Higgs, and other axion-like particles are experimentally little constrained as they interact only very weakly with the visible sector. For masses…
A QCD axion with a decay constant below $ 10 ^{ 11} ~{\rm GeV} $ is a strongly-motivated extension to the Standard Model, though its relic abundance from the misalignment mechanism or decay of cosmic defects is insufficient to explain the…
We perform a global analysis of electroweak precision measurements to find constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular, we discuss oblique parameters, which are useful to constrain additional matter fields, as well as…
We show that if the Standard Model gauge fields and fermions propagate in extra dimenions, a composite Higgs field with the correct quantum number can arise naturally as a bound state due to the strong gauge interactions in higher…
We argue that the QCD axion can arise from many aligned axions with decay constants much smaller than the conventional axion window. If the typical decay constant is of {\cal O}{(100)} GeV to 1 TeV, one or more of the axions or saxions may…
I quickly review the successes of quantum chromodynamics. Then I assess the current state of the electroweak theory, making brief comments about the search for the Higgs boson and some of the open issues for the theory. I sketch the…
We study the Higgs sector in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with and without explicit CP violation, focusing on the case of weak scale expectation value of the singlet field. We scan a wide range of the parameter space to…
The QCD axion has been postulated to exist because it solves the strong CP problem. Furthermore, if it exists axions should be created in the early Universe and could account for all the observed dark matter. In particular, axion masses of…
We investigate the implications of models that achieve a Standard Model-like Higgs boson of mass near 125 GeV by introducing additional TeV-scale supermultiplets in the vector-like 10+\bar{10} representation of SU(5), within the context of…
Depending on the Higgs-boson and top-quark masses, $M_H$ and $M_t$, the effective potential of the {\bf Standard Model} can develop a non-standard minimum for values of the field much larger than the weak scale. In those cases the standard…
Axions, grand unification, and string theory are each compelling extensions of the Standard Model. We show that combining these frameworks imposes strong constraints on the QCD axion mass. Using unitarity arguments and explicit string…
The fit of precision electroweak data to the Minimal Standard Model currently gives an upper limit on the Higgs boson mass of 170 GeV at 95% confidence. Nevertheless, it is often said that the Higgs boson could be much heavier in more…
With the reported observation of the Higgs boson at the LHC, the Standard Model of particle physics seems to be complete now as for its particle content. However, several experimental data at low and intermediate energies indicate that…