Search for new physics in final states with a lepton and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at the LHC

This Letter describes the search for an enhanced production rate of events with a charged lepton and a neutrino in high-energy pp collisions at the LHC. The analysis uses data collected with the CMS detector, with an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb-1 at √s=7 TeV, and a further 3.7 fb -1 at √s=8 TeV. No evidence is found for an excess. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on a heavy charged gauge boson (W ′) in the sequential standard model, a split universal extra dimension model, and contact interactions in the helicity-nonconserving model. For the last, values of the binding energy below 10.5 (8.8) TeV in the electron (muon) channel are excluded at a 95% confidence level. Interpreting the ℓν final state in terms of a heavy W′ with standard model couplings, masses below 2.90 TeV are excluded. © 2013 CERN.

Note on linearized new massive gravity in arbitrary dimensions

By means of a triple master action we deduce here a linearized version of the new massive gravity (NMG) in arbitrary dimensions. The theory contains a 4th-order and a 2nd-order term in derivatives. The 4th-order term is invariant under a generalized Weyl symmetry. The action is formulated in terms of a traceless ημνΩμνρ=0 mixed symmetry tensor Ωμνρ=-Ωμρν and corresponds to the massive Fierz-Pauli action with the replacement e μν=∂ρΩμνρ. The linearized 3D and 4D NMG theories are recovered via the invertible maps Ωμνρ=Ïμνρβhβμ and Ωμνρ=ÏμνργδT [γδ]μ respectively. The properties h μν=hνμ and T[[γδ]μ]= 0 follow from the traceless restriction. The equations of motion of the linearized NMG theory can be written as zero curvature conditions ∂νTρμ-∂ρT νμ=0 in arbitrary dimensions. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Ideas of four-fermion operators in electromagnetic form factor calculations

Four-fermion operators have been used in the past to link the quark-exchange processes in the interaction of hadrons with the effective meson-exchange amplitudes. In this paper, we apply the similar idea of a Fierz rearrangement to the self-energy and electromagnetic processes and focus on the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon and the electron. We explain the motivation of using four-fermion operators and discuss the advantage of this method in computing electromagnetic processes. © 2013 American Physical Society.

125 GeV scalar boson and SU(NTC)⊗ - SU(3) L⊗ - U(1)X models

We verify that SU(N)TC⊗ - SU(3) L⊗ - U(1)X models, where the gauge symmetry breaking is totally dynamical and promoted by the non-Abelian technicolor group and the strong Abelian interactions, are quite constrained by the LHC data. The theory contains a T quark self-energy involving the mixing between the neutral gauge bosons, which introduces the coupling between the light and heavy composite scalar bosons of the model. We determine the lightest scalar boson mass for these models from an effective action for composite operators, assuming details about the dynamics of the strong interaction theories. Comparing the value of this mass with the ATLAS and CMS observation of a new boson with a mass M∼125 GeV and considering the lower bound determined by the LHC Collaboration on the heavy neutral gauge boson (Z′) present in these models, we can establish constraints on the possible models. For example, if SU(N)TC≡SU(2)TC, with technifermions in the fundamental representation, the model barely survives the confrontation with the LHC data. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Search for fractionally charged particles in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

A search is presented for free heavy long-lived fractionally charged particles produced in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV. The data sample was recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb-1. Candidate fractionally charged particles are identified by selecting tracks with associated low charge measurements in the silicon tracking detector. Observations are found to be consistent with expectations for background processes. The results of the search are used to set upper limits on the cross section for pair production of fractionally charged, massive spin-1/2 particles that are neutral under SU(3)C and SU(2)L. We exclude at 95% confidence level such particles with electric charge ±2e/3 with masses below 310 GeV, and those with charge ±e/3 with masses below 140 GeV. © 2013 CERN. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0/Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

DBI equations and holographic dc conductivity

We provide a simple method for writing the Dirac-Born-Infeld equations of a Dp-brane in an arbitrary static background whose metric depends only on the holographic radial coordinate z. Using this method we revisit the Karch-O'Bannon procedure to calculate the dc conductivity in the presence of constant electric and magnetic fields for backgrounds where the boundary is four- or three-dimensional and satisfies homogeneity and isotropy. We find a frame-independent expression for the dc conductivity tensor. For particular backgrounds we recover previous results on holographic metals and strange metals. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Awaking the vacuum with spheroidal shells

It has been shown that well-behaved spacetimes may induce the vacuum fluctuations of some nonminimally coupled free scalar fields to go through a phase of exponential growth. Here, we discuss this mechanism in the context of spheroidal thin shells emphasizing the consequences of deviations from spherical symmetry. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Effective gravitational equations for f(R) braneworld models

The viability of achieving gravitational consistent braneworld models in the framework of a f(R) theory of gravity is investigated. After a careful generalization of the usual junction conditions encompassing the embedding of the 3-brane into a f(R) bulk, we provide a prescription giving the necessary constraints in order to implement the projected second-order effective field equations on the brane. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Measurements of differential jet cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV with the CMS detector

Measurements of inclusive jet and dijet production cross sections are presented. Data from LHC proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV, corresponding to 5.0 fb-1 of integrated luminosity, have been collected with the CMS detector. Jets are reconstructed up to rapidity 2.5, transverse momentum 2 TeV, and dijet invariant mass 5 TeV, using the anti-k T clustering algorithm with distance parameter R=0.7. The measured cross sections are corrected for detector effects and compared to perturbative QCD predictions at next-to-leading order, using five sets of parton distribution functions. © 2013 CERN.

Search for narrow resonances using the dijet mass spectrum in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV

Results are presented of a search for the production of new particles decaying to pairs of partons (quarks, antiquarks, or gluons), in the dijet mass spectrum in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.0 fb-1, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2012. No significant evidence for narrow resonance production is observed. Upper limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of hypothetical new particles decaying to quark-quark, quark-gluon, or gluon-gluon final states. These limits are then translated into lower limits on the masses of new resonances in specific scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. The limits reach up to 4.8 TeV, depending on the model, and extend previous exclusions from similar searches performed at lower collision energies. For the first time mass limits are set for the Randall-Sundrum graviton model in the dijet channel. © 2013 CERN. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Post-sphaleron baryogenesis and an upper limit on the neutron-antineutron oscillation time

A recently proposed scenario for baryogenesis, called post-sphaleron baryogenesis (PSB), is discussed within a class of quark-lepton unified framework based on the gauge symmetry SU(2)L×SU(2) R×SU(4)c realized in the multi-TeV scale. The baryon asymmetry of the Universe in this model is produced below the electroweak phase transition temperature after the sphalerons have decoupled from the Hubble expansion. These models embed naturally the seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses and predict color-sextet scalar particles in the TeV range which may be accessible to the LHC experiments. A necessary consequence of this scenario is the baryon-number-violating ΔB=2 process of neutron-antineutron (n-n̄) oscillations. In this paper we show that the constraints of PSB, when combined with the neutrino oscillation data and restrictions from flavor changing neutral currents mediated by the colored scalars, imply an upper limit on the n-n̄ oscillation time of 5×1010 sec regardless of the quark-lepton unification scale. If this scale is relatively low, in the (200-250) TeV range, τn-n̄ is predicted to be less than 1010 sec, which is accessible to the next generation of proposed experiments. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Massive spin-2 particle from a rank-2 tensor

Here we obtain all possible second-order theories for a rank-2 tensor which describe a massive spin-2 particle. We start with a general second-order Lagrangian with ten real parameters. The absence of lower-spin modes and the existence of two local field redefinitions leads us to only one free parameter. The solutions are split into three one-parameter classes according to the local symmetries of the massless limit. In the class which contains the usual massive Fierz-Pauli theory, the subset of spin-1 massless symmetries is maximal. In another class where the subset of spin-0 symmetries is maximal, the massless theory is invariant under Weyl transformations and the mass term does not need to fit into the form of the Fierz-Pauli mass term. In the remaining third class neither the spin-1 nor the spin-0 symmetry is maximal and we have a new family of spin-2 massive theories. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Conformally and gauge invariant spin-2 field equations

Using an approach based on the Casimir operators of the de Sitter group, conformally invariant equations for a fundamental spin-2 field are obtained, and their consistency is discussed. It is shown that only when the spin-2 field is interpreted as a 1-form assuming values in the Lie algebra of the translation group, rather than a symmetric second-rank tensor, the field equation is both conformally and gauge invariant. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

Zero mode effect generalization for the electromagnetic current in the light front

We consider in this work the electromagnetic current for a system composed of two charged bosons and show that it has a structure of many bodies even in the impulse approximation, when described in the light-front time x+. In terms of the two-body component for the bound state, the current contains two-body operators. We consider the photon interacting with two bosons and the process of pair creation connected to this interaction, interpreting it as a zero mode contribution to the current and discuss the consequences of this pair creation to the components of currents in the light front. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Note on the nonuniqueness of the massive Fierz-Pauli theory and spectator fields

It is possible to show that there are three independent families of models describing a massive spin-2 particle via a rank-2 tensor. One of them contains the massive Fierz-Pauli model, the only case described by a symmetric tensor. The three families have different local symmetries in the massless limit and can not be interconnected by any local field redefinition. We show here, however, that they can be related with the help of a decoupled and nondynamic (spectator) field. The spectator field may be either an antisymmetric tensor B μν=-Bνμ, a vector Aμ or a scalar field φ, corresponding to each of the three families. The addition of the extra field allows us to formulate master actions which interpolate between the symmetric Fierz-Pauli theory and the other models. We argue that massive gravity models based on the Fierz-Pauli theory are not expected to be equivalent to possible local self-interacting theories built up on top of the two new families of massive spin-2 models. The approach used here may be useful to investigate dual (nonsymmetric) formulations of higher-spin particles. © 2013 American Physical Society.