The Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider presents an unprecedented opportunity to probe the realm of new physics in the TeV region and shed light on some of the core unresolved issues of particle physics. These include the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking, the origin of mass, the possible constituent of cold dark matter, new sources of CP violation needed to explain the baryon excess in the universe, the possible existence of extra gauge groups and extra matter, and importantly the path Nature chooses to resolve the hierarchy problem - is it supersymmetry or extra dimensions. Many models of new physics beyond the standard model contain a hidden sector which can be probed at the LHC. Additionally, the LHC will be a. top factory and accurate measurements of the properties of the top and its rare decays will provide a window to new physics. Further, the LHC could shed light on the origin of neutralino masses if the new physics associated with their generation lies in the TeV region. Finally, the LHC is also a laboratory to test the hypothesis of TeV scale strings and D brane models. An overview of these possibilities is presented in the spirit that it will serve as a companion to the Technical Design Reports (TDRs) by the particle detector groups ATLAS and CMS to facilitate the test of the new theoretical ideas at the LHC. Which of these ideas stands the test of the LHC data will govern the course of particle physics in the subsequent decades.

Probing neutrino oscillations in supersymmetric models at the Large Hadron Collider

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Using b-tagging to enhance the supersymmetry reach of the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Assuming that supersymmetry is realized with parameters in the hyperbolic branch/focus point region of the minimal supergravity model, we show that by searching for multijet+E-T(miss) events with tagged b jets the reach of experiments at the LHC may be extended by as much as 20% from current projections. The reason for this is that gluino decays to third generation quarks are enhanced because the lightest neutralino has substantial Higgsino components. Although we were motivated to perform this analysis because the hyperbolic branch/focus point region is compatible with the recent determination of the relic density of cold dark matter, our considerations may well have a wider applicability since decays of gluinos to third generation quarks are favored in a wide variety of models.

Probing intermediate mass Higgs interactions at the CERN large hadron collider

We analyze the potentiality of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to probe the Higgs boson couplings to the electroweak gauge bosons. We parametrize the possible deviations of these couplings due to new physics in a model independent way, using the most general dimension-six effective lagrangian where the SU(2)(L) x U(1)(Y) is realized linearly. For intermediate Higgs masses, the decay channel into two photons is the most important one for Higgs searches at the LHC, We study the effects of these new interactions on the Higgs production mechanism and its subsequent decay into two photons. We show that the LHC will be sensitive to new physics scales beyond the present limits extracted from the LEP and Tevatron physics. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. B,V, All rights reserved.

Heavy-flavor tagging and the supersymmetry reach of the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A New Boson with a Mass of 125 GeV Observed with the CMS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for microscopic black hole signatures at the Large Hadron Collider

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for Signatures of Extra Dimensions in the Diphoton Mass Spectrum at the Large Hadron Collider

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for large extra dimensions in the diphoton final state at the Large Hadron Collider

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Extending SUSY reach at the CERN large hadron collider using b-tagging

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Femtoscopia em colisões próton-próton no detector CMS do Large Hadron Collider

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Busca por dimensões extras no detector CMS do large hadron collider

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Probing new physics in diphoton production with proton tagging at the Large Hadron Collider

The sensitivities to anomalous quartic photon couplings at the Large Hadron Collider are estimated using diphoton production via photon fusion. The tagging of the protons proves to be a very powerful tool to suppress the background and unprecedented sensitivities down to 7 x 10(-15) GeV-4 are obtained, providing a new window on extra dimensions and strongly interacting composite states in the multi-TeV range. Generic contributions to quartic photon couplings from charged and neutral particles with arbitrary spin are also presented.

Anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings at hadron colliders

We analyze the potential of the Fermilab Tevatron and CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to study anomalous quartic vector-boson interactions gamma gamma ZZ and gammaW(+)W(-). Working in the framework of SU(2)(L) circle times U(1)(Y) chiral Lagrangians, we study the production of photon pairs accompanied by l(+) l(-), l(+/-) v, and jet pairs to impose bounds on these new couplings, taking into account the unitarity constraints. We compare our findings with the indirect limits coming from precision electroweak measurements as well as with presently available direct searches at CERN LEPII. We show that the Tevatron run II can provide limits on these quartic limits which are of the same order of magnitude as the existing bounds from LEPII searches. LHC will be able to tighten considerably the direct constraints on these possible new interactions, leading to more stringent limits than the presently available indirect ones.

Probing minimal supergravity at the CERN LHC for large tan beta

For large values of the minimal supergravity model parameter tan beta, the tau lepton and the bottom quark Yukawa couplings become large, leading to reduced masses of tau sleptons and b squarks relative to their first and second generation counterparts, and to enhanced decays of charginos and neutralinos to tau leptons and b quarks. We evaluate the reach of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) pp collider for supersymmetry in the MSUGRA model parameter space. We find that values of m((g) over tilde) similar to 1500-2000 GeV can be probed with just 10 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity for tan beta values as high as 45, so that MSUGRA cannot escape the scrutiny of LHC experiments by virtue of having a large value of tan beta. We also perform a case study of an MSUGRA model at tan beta = 45 where (Z) over tilde(2)-->tau<(tau)over tilde>(1) and (W) over tilde(1)-->tau(1)nu(tau) with similar to 100% branching fraction. In this case, at least within our simplistic study, we show that a di-tau mass edge, which determines the value of m((Z) over tilde 2) - m((Z) over tilde 1), can still be reconstructed. This information can be used as a starting point for reconstructing SUSY cascade decays on an event-by-event basis, and can provide a strong constraint in determining the underlying model parameters. Finally, we show that for large tan beta, there can be an observable excess of tau leptons, and argue that tau signals might serve to provide new information about the underlying model framework. [S0556-2821(99)04205-8].