Technicolor

The need for reexamination of the standard model of strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions is discussed, especially with regard to 't Hooft's criterion of naturalness. It has been argued that theories with fundamental scalar fields tend to be unnatural at relatively low energies. There are two solutions to this problem: (i) a global supersymmetry, which ensures the absence of all the naturalness-violating effects associated with scalar fields, and (ii) composite structure of the scalar fields, which starts showing up at energy scales where unnatural effects would otherwise have appeared. With reference to the second solution, this article reviews the case for dynamical breaking of the gauge symmetry and the technicolor scheme for the composite Higgs boson. This new interaction, of the scaled-up quantum chromodynamic type, keeps the new set of fermions, the technifermions, together in the Higgs particles. It also provides masses for the electroweak gauge bosons W± and Z0 through technifermion condensate formation. In order to give masses to the ordinary fermions, a new interaction, the extended technicolor interaction, which would connect the ordinary fermions to the technifermions, is required. The extended technicolor group breaks down spontaneously to the technicolor group, possibly as a result of the "tumbling" mechanism, which is discussed here. In addition, the author presents schemes for the isospin breaking of mass matrices of ordinary quarks in the technicolor models. In generalized technicolor models with more than one doublet of technifermions or with more than one technicolor sector, we have additional low-lying degrees of freedom, the pseudo-Goldstone bosons. The pseudo-Goldstone bosons in the technicolor model of Dimopoulos are reviewed and their masses computed. In this context the vacuum alignment problem is also discussed. An effective Lagrangian is derived describing colorless low-lying degrees of freedom for models with two technicolor sectors in the combined limits of chiral symmetry and large number of colors and technicolors. Finally, the author discusses suppression of flavor-changing neutral currents in the extended technicolor models.

Technicolor

In technicolor theories the scalar sector of the Standard Model is replaced by a strongly interacting sector. Although the Standard Model has been exceptionally successful, the scalar sector causes theoretical problems that make these theories seem an attractive alternative. I begin my thesis by considering QCD, which is the known example of strong interactions. The theory exhibits two phenomena: confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. I find the low-energy dynamics to be similar to that of the sigma models. Then I analyze the problems of the Standard Model Higgs sector, mainly the unnaturalness and triviality. Motivated by the example of QCD, I introduce the minimal technicolor model to resolve these problems. I demonstrate the minimal model to be free of anomalies and then deduce the main elements of its low-energy particle spectrum. I find the particle spectrum contains massless or very light technipions, and also technibaryons and techni-vector mesons with a high mass of over 1 TeV. Standard Model fermions remain strictly massless at this stage. Thus I introduce the technicolor companion theory of flavor, called extended technicolor. I show that the Standard Model fermions and technihadrons receive masses, but that they remain too light. I also discuss flavor-changing neutral currents and precision electroweak measurements. I then show that walking technicolor models partly solve these problems. In these models, contrary to QCD, the coupling evolves slowly over a large energy scale. This behavior adds to the masses so that even the light technihadrons are too heavy to be detected at current particle accelerators. Also all observed masses of the Standard Model particles can be generated, except for the bottom and top quarks. Thus it is shown in this thesis that, excluding the masses of third generation quarks, theories based on walking technicolor can in principle produce the observed particle spectrum.

Search for Technicolor Particles Produced in Association with a W Boson at CDF

We present a search for the technicolor particles $\rho_{T}$ and $\pi_{T}$ in the process $p\bar{p} \to \rho_{T} \to W\pi_{T}$ at a center of mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=1.96 \mathrm{TeV}$. The search uses a data sample corresponding to approximately $1.9 \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity accumulated by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The event signature we consider is $W\to \ell\nu$ and $\pi_{T} \to b\bar{b}, b\bar{c}$ or $b\bar{u}$ depending on the $\pi_{T}$ charge. We select events with a single high-$p_T$ electron or muon, large missing transverse energy, and two jets. Jets corresponding to bottom quarks are identified with multiple $b$-tagging algorithms. The observed number of events and the invariant mass distributions are consistent with the standard model background expectations, and we exclude a region at 95% confidence level in the $\rho_T$-$\pi_T$ mass plane. As a result, a large fraction of the region $m(\rho_T) = 180$ - $250 \mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ and $m(\pi_T) = 95$ - $145 \mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ is excluded.

Strength of the trilinear Higgs boson coupling in technicolor models

We discuss the strength of the trilinear Higgs boson coupling in technicolor (or composite) models in a model independent way. The coupling is determined as a function of a very general ansatz for the technicolor self-energy, and turns out to be equal or smaller than the one of the Standard Model Higgs boson depending on the dynamics of the theory. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Triple photon production at the Tevatron in technicolor models

We study the process p (p) over bar --> gammagammagamma as a signal for associated photon-technipion production at the Tevatron. This is a clean signature with relatively low background. Resonant and non-resonant contributions are included and we show that technicolor models can be effectively probed in this mode. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

The origin of the first and third generation fermion massesin a technicolor scenario

We argue that the masses of the first and third fermionic generations, which are respectively of the order of a few MeV up to a hundred GeV, originate from a dynamical symmetry breaking mechanism leading to masses of the order alphamu, where alpha is a small coupling constant, and mu, in the case of the first fermionic generation, is the scale of the dynamical quark mass (approximate to250 MeV). For the third fermion generation mu is the value of the dynamical techniquark mass (approximate to250 GeV). We discuss how this possibility can be implemented in a technicolor scenario, and how the mass of the intermediate generation is generated.

Limit on the fermion masses in technicolor models

Recently it has been pointed out that no limits can be put on the scale of fermion mass generation (M) in technicolor models, because the relation between the fermion masses (m(f)) and M depends on the dimensionality of the interaction responsible for generating the fermion mass. Depending on this dimensionality it may happen that m(f) does not depend on M at all. We show that exactly in this case m(f) may reach its largest value, which is almost saturated by the top quark mass. We make a few comments on the question of how large a dynamically generated fermion mass can be.

Scalar bosons in minimal and ultraminimal technicolor: Masses, trilinear couplings, and widths

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Deciphering the minimum of energy of some walking technicolor models

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Light composite Higgs from an effective action for technicolor

We compute an effective action for a composite Higgs boson formed by new fermions belonging to a general technicolor non-Abelian gauge theory, using a quite general expression for the fermionic self-energy that depends on a certain parameter (alpha), that defines the technicolor theory from the extreme walking behavior up to the one with a standard operator product expansion behavior. We discuss the values of the trilinear and quadrilinear scalar couplings. Our calculation spans all the possible physical possibilities for mass and couplings of the composite system. In the case of extreme walking technicolor theories we verify that it is possible to have a composite Higgs boson with a mass as light as the present experimental limit, contrary to the usual expectation of a heavy mass for the composite Higgs boson. In this case we obtain an upper limit for the Higgs boson mass, (M(H)<= O(700) GeV for SU(2)(TC)), and the experimental data on the Higgs boson mass constrain SU(N)(TC) technicolor gauge groups to be smaller than SU(10)(TC).

Energy criterion to select the behavior of dynamical masses in technicolor models

We propose a quite general ansatz for the dynamical mass in technicolor models. We impose on this ansatz the condition that it should lead to the deepest minimum of energy. This criterion selects a particular form of the technifermion self energy. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The higgs boson mass in minimal technicolor models

Recently a Minimal and an Ultraminimal Technicolor models were proposed where the presence of TC fermions in other representations than the fundamental one led to viable models without conflict with the known value for the measured S parameter. In this work we apply the results of [5] to compute the masses of the Higgs boson in the case of the Minimal and Ultraminimal Technicolor models. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Alguns aspectos sobre a geração dinâmica de massa em modelos de Technicolor

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

Technicolor contribution to lepton plus photon+E-T events at the Fermilab Tevatron

Events with one lepton, one photon, and missing energy are the subject of recent searches at the Fermilab Tevatron. We compute possible contributions to these types of events from the process pp ->gamma l nu(l)nu(tau)nu(tau), where l=e, mu in the context of a low scale technicolor model. We find that with somewhat tighter cuts than the ones used in the CDF search, it could be possible to either confirm or exclude this model in a small region of its parameter space.