Gauge-Higgs unification, neutrino masses, and dark matter in warped extra dimensions
Gauge-Higgs unification in warped extra dimensions provides an attractive solution to the hierarchy problem. The extension of the standard model gauge symmetry to SO(5)xU(1){sub X} allows the incorporation of the custodial symmetry SU(2){sub R} plus a Higgs boson doublet with the right quantum numbers under the gauge group. In the minimal model, the Higgs mass is in the range 110-150 GeV, while a light Kaluza-Klein excitation of the top quark appears in the spectrum, providing agreement with precision electroweak measurements and a possible test of the model at a high luminosity LHC. The extension of the model to the lepton sector has several interesting features. We discuss the conditions necessary to obtain realistic charged lepton and neutrino masses. After the addition of an exchange symmetry in the bulk, we show that the odd neutrino Kaluza-Klein modes provide a realistic dark-matter candidate, with a mass of the order of 1 TeV, which will be probed by direct dark-matter detection experiments in the near future.

title: Indirect probes of the MSSM after the Higgs discovery
abstract: A bstractWe study the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with minimal flavor violation (MFV), imposing constraints from flavor physics observables and MSSM Higgs searches, in light of the recent discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs boson by ATLAS and CMS. We analyze the electroweak vacuum stability conditions to further restrict the MSSM parameter space. In addition, a connection to ultraviolet physics is shown via an implementation of renormalization group running, which determines the TeV-scale spectrum from a small set of minimal supergravity parameters. Finally, we investigate the impact from dark matter direct detection searches. Our work highlights the complementarity of collider, flavor and dark matter probes in exploring the MSSM, and shows that even in a MFV framework, flavor observables constrain the MSSM parameter space well beyond the current reach of direct SUSY particle searches.

title: A Heavy Higgs and a Light Sneutrino NLSP in the MSSM with Enhanced SU(2) D-terms
abstract: The Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model provides a solution to the hierarchy problem and leads to the presence of a light Higgs. A Higgs boson with mass above the present experimental bound may only be obtained for relatively heavy third generation squarks, requiring a precise, somewhat unnatural balance between different contributions to the effective Higgs mass parameter. It was recently noticed that somewhat heavier Higgs bosons, which are naturally beyond the LEP bound, may be obtained by enhanced weak SU(2) Dterms. Such contributions appear in models with an enhanced electroweak gauge symmetry, provided the supersymmetry breaking masses associated with the scalars responsible for the breakdown of the enhanced gauge symmetry group to the Standard Model one, are larger than the enhanced symmetry breaking scale. In this article we emphasize that the enhanced SU(2) D-terms will not only raise the Higgs boson mass but also affect the spectrum of the nonstandard Higgs bosons, sleptons and squarks, which therefore provide a natural contribution to the T parameter, compensating for the negative one coming from the heavy Higgs boson. The sleptons and non-standard Higgs bosons of these models, in particular, may act in a way similar to the so-called inert Higgs doublet. The phenomenological properties of these models are emphasized and possible cosmological implications as well as collider signatures are described.

title: Vacuum stability and Higgs diphoton decays in the MSSM
abstract: A bstractCurrent Higgs data at the Large Hadron Collider is compatible with a SM signal at the 2σ level, but the central value of the signal strength in the diphoton channel is enhanced with respect to the SM expectation. If the enhancement resides in the diphoton partial decay width, the data could be accommodated in the Minimally Super-symmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with highly mixed light staus. We revisit the issue of vacuum instability induced by large mixing in the stau sector, including effects of a radiatively-corrected tau Yukawa coupling. Further, we emphasize the importance of taking into account the tan β dependence in the stability bound. While the metastability of the Universe constrains the possible enhancement in the Higgs to diphoton decay width in the light stau scenario, an increase of the order of 50% can be achieved in the region of large tan β. Larger enhancements may be obtained, but would require values of tan β associated with non-perturbative values of the tau Yukawa coupling at scales below the GUT scale, thereby implying the presence of new physics beyond the MSSM.

title: Determining the structure of supersymmetry breaking with renormalization group invariants
abstract: If collider experiments demonstrate that the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) is a good description of nature at the weak scale, the experimental priority will be the precise determination of superpartner masses. These masses are governed by the weak scale values of the soft supersymmetry-breaking (SUSY-breaking) parameters, which are in turn highly dependent on the SUSY-breaking scheme present at high scales. It is therefore of great interest to find patterns in the soft parameters that can distinguish different high-scale SUSY-breaking structures, identify the scale at which the breaking is communicated to the visible sector, and determine the soft breaking parameters at that scale. In this work, we demonstrate that 1-loop renormalization group invariant quantities present in the MSSM may be used to answer each of these questions. We apply our method first to generic flavor-blind models of SUSY breaking, and then we examine in detail the subset of these models described by general gauge mediation and the constrained MSSM with nonuniversal Higgs masses. As renormalization group invariance generally does not hold beyond leading-log order, we investigate the magnitude and direction of the 2-loop corrections. We find that with superpartners at the TeV scale, these 2-loop effects are either negligible, ormore » they are of the order of optimistic experimental uncertainties and have definite signs, which allows them to be easily accounted for in the overall uncertainty.« less

title: Collider phenomenology of gauge-Higgs unification scenarios in warped extra dimensions
abstract: We compute the couplings of the zero modes and first excited states of gluons, W's, Z gauge bosons, as well as the Higgs, to the zero modes and first excited states of the third generation quarks, in a Randall-Sundrum Gauge-Higgs unification scenario based on a bulk SO(5)xU(1){sub X} gauge symmetry, with gauge and fermion fields propagating in the bulk. Using the parameter space consistent with electroweak precision tests and radiative electroweak symmetry breaking, we study numerically the dependence of these couplings on the parameters of our model. Furthermore, after emphasizing the presence of light excited states of the top quark, which couple strongly to the Kaluza-Klein gauge bosons, the associated collider phenomenology is analyzed. In particular, we concentrate on the possible detection of the first excited state of the top, t{sup 1}, which tends to have a higher mass than the ones accessible via regular QCD production processes. We stress that the detection of these particles is still possible due to an increase in the pair production of t{sup 1} induced by the first excited state of the gluon, G{sup 1}.

title: Physics with the new WASA-at-COSY facility
abstract: The Wide Angle Shower Apparatus (WASA), previously operated at Uppsala, Sweden, is now installed at the COSY accelerator at Jülich Forschungszentrum, Germany. The main goal of the WASA-at-COSY collaboration is to study symmetry violations in hadronic reactions focusing on η and η′ decays. The Nuclear Physics Institute at Jülich Forschungszentrum and Department of Physics at IIT Bombay are collaborating to understand QCD at intermediate distance scales using the proton beam from the COSY accelerator with proton and deuteron targets. In this paper, we present the preliminary analysis on three different channels being investigated jointly by the two groups.

title: Energy and system-size dependence of two- and four-particle $v_2$ measurements in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and their implications on flow fluctuations and nonflow
abstract: We present STAR measurements of azimuthal anisotropy by means of the two- and four-particle cumulants $v_2$ ($v_2\{2\}$ and $v_2\{4\}$) for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at center of mass energies $\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}} = 62.4$ and 200 GeV. The difference between $v_2\{2\}^2$ and $v_2\{4\}^2$ is related to $v_{2}$ fluctuations ($\sigma_{v_2}$) and nonflow $(\delta_{2})$. We present an upper limit to $\sigma_{v_2}/v_{2}$. Following the assumption that eccentricity fluctuations $\sigma_{\epsilon}$ dominate $v_2$ fluctuations $\frac{\sigma_{v_2}}{v_2} \approx \frac{\sigma_{\epsilon}}{\epsilon}$ we deduce the nonflow implied for several models of eccentricity fluctuations that would be required for consistency with $v_2\{2\}$ and $v_2\{4\}$. We also present results on the ratio of $v_2$ to eccentricity.

title: Ultrafine ash aerosols from coal combustion: Characterization and health effects ☆
abstract: Ultrafine coal fly-ash particles, defined here as those with diameters less than 0.5 μm, typically comprise less than 1% of the total fly-ash mass. These particles are formed primarily through ash vaporization, nucleation, and coagulation/condensation mechanisms, which lead to compositions notably different compared to other fine or coarse particle fractions formed by fragmentation. Whereas previous studies have focused on health effects of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ) (including both vaporization and fragmentation modes), this paper reports results of interdisciplinary research focused on both characterization and health effects of primary ultrafine coal ash aerosols alone. Ultrafine, fine, and coarse ash particles were segregated and collected from a coal burned in a 20 kW laboratory combustor and two additional coals burned in an externally heated drop tube furnace. Extracted samples from both combustors were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) spectroscopy, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. Pulmonary inflammation was characterized by albumin concentrations in mouse lung lavage fluid after instillation of collected particles in saline solutions and a single direct inhalation exposure. Results indicate that coal ultrafine ash sometimes, but not always, contains significant amounts of carbon, probably soot originating from coal tar volatiles, depending on coal type and combustion device. Surprisingly, XAFS results revealed the presence of chromium and thiophenic sulfur in the ultrafine ash particles. Although the single direct inhalation study failed to reveal significant health effects, the instillation results suggested potential lung injury, the severity of which could be correlated with the carbon (soot) content of the ultrafines. Further, this increased toxicity is consistent with theories in which the presence of carbon mediates transition metal (i.e., Fe) complexes, as revealed in this work by TEM and XAFS spectroscopy, promoting reactive oxygen species, oxidation–reduction cycling, and oxidative stress.

title: System-size dependence of transverse momentum correlations at √s NN=62.4 and 200 GeV at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
abstract: We present a study of the average transverse momentum ($p_t$) fluctuations and $p_t$ correlations for charged particles produced in Cu+Cu collisions at midrapidity for $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =$ 62.4 and 200 GeV. These results are compared with those published for Au+Au collisions at the same energies, to explore the system size dependence. In addition to the collision energy and system size dependence, the $p_t$ correlation results have been studied as functions of the collision centralities, the ranges in $p_t$, the pseudorapidity $\eta$, and the azimuthal angle $\phi$. The square root of the measured $p_t$ correlations when scaled by mean $p_t$ is found to be independent of both colliding beam energy and system size studied. Transport-based model calculations are found to have a better quantitative agreement with the measurements compared to models which incorporate only jetlike correlations.

title: Beam-energy dependence of the directed flow of protons, antiprotons, and pions in Au+Au collisions.
abstract: Rapidity-odd directed flow (v1) measurements for charged pions, protons, and antiprotons near midrapidity (y=0) are reported in sNN=7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV Au+Au collisions as recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. At intermediate impact parameters, the proton and net-proton slope parameter dv1/dy|y=0 shows a minimum between 11.5 and 19.6 GeV. In addition, the net-proton dv1/dy|y=0 changes sign twice between 7.7 and 39 GeV. The proton and net-proton results qualitatively resemble predictions of a hydrodynamic model with a first-order phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined matter, and differ from hadronic transport calculations.