Collider phenomenology of gauge-Higgs unification scenarios in warped extra dimensions
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: 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: 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: Light Dark Matter and the Electroweak Phase Transition in the NMSSM
abstract: We analyze the stability of the vacuum and the electroweak phase transition in the NMSSM close to the Peccei-Quinn symmetry limit. This limit contains light Dark Matter (DM) particles with a mass signicantly smaller than the weak scale and also light CP-even and CP-odd Higgs bosons. Such light particles lead to a consistent relic density and facilitate a large spin-independent direct DM detection cross section, that may accommodate the recently reported signatures at the DAMA and CoGeNT experiments. Studying the one-loop eective potential at nite temperature, we show that when the lightest CP-even Higgs mass is of the order of a few GeV, the electroweak phase transition tends to become rst order and strong. The inverse relationship between the direct-detection cross-section and the lightest CP-even Higgs mass implies that a cross-section of the order of 10 41 cm 2 is correlated with a strong rst order phase transition.

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: Gravitons and dark matter in universal extra dimensions
abstract: Models of universal extra dimensions (UED) at the TeV scale lead to the presence of Kaluza Klein (KK) excitations of the ordinary fermions and bosons of the standard model that may be observed at hadron and lepton colliders. A conserved discrete symmetry, KK-parity, ensures the stability of the lightest KK particle (LKP), which, if neutral, becomes a good dark matter particle. It has been recently shown that for a certain range of masses of the LKP a relic density consistent with the experimentally observed one may be obtained. These works, however, ignore the impact of KK graviton production at early times. Whether the G{sup 1} is the LKP or not, the G{sup n} tower thus produced can decay to the LKP, and depending on the reheating temperature, may lead to a modification of the relic density. In this article, we show that this effect may lead to a relevant modification of the range of KK masses consistent with the observed relic density. Additionally, if evidence for UED is observed experimentally, we find a stringent upper limit on the reheating temperature depending on the mass of the LKP observed.

title: Longitudinal and transverse spin asymmetries for inclusive jet production at mid-rapidity in polarized p+p collisions at sqrt{s}=200 GeV
abstract: We report STAR measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A_LL, the transverse single-spin asymmetry A_N, and the transverse double-spin asymmetries A_Sigma and A_TT for inclusive jet production at mid-rapidity in polarized p+p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt{s} = 200 GeV. The data represent integrated luminosities of 7.6 /pb with longitudinal polarization and 1.8 /pb with transverse polarization, with 50-55% beam polarization, and were recorded in 2005 and 2006. No evidence is found for the existence of statistically significant jet A_N, A_Sigma, or A_TT at mid-rapidity. Recent model calculations indicate the A_N results may provide new limits on the gluon Sivers distribution in the proton. The asymmetry A_LL significantly improves the knowledge of gluon polarization in the nucleon.

title: Beam-energy dependence of charge separation along the magnetic field in Au+Au collisions at RHIC.
abstract: Local parity-odd domains are theorized to form inside a quark-gluon plasma which has been produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The local parity-odd domains manifest themselves as charge separation along the magnetic field axis via the chiral magnetic effect. The experimental observation of charge separation has previously been reported for heavy-ion collisions at the top RHIC energies. In this Letter, we present the results of the beam-energy dependence of the charge correlations in Au+Au collisions at midrapidity for center-of-mass energies of 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, and 62.4 GeV from the STAR experiment. After background subtraction, the signal gradually reduces with decreased beam energy and tends to vanish by 7.7 GeV. This implies the dominance of hadronic interactions over partonic ones at lower collision energies.

title: Measurements of $D^{0}$ and $D^{*}$ Production in $p$ + $p$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV
abstract: We report measurements of charmed-hadron ($D^{0}$, $D^{*}$) production cross sections at mid-rapidity in $p$ + $p$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the hadronic decays $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}$, $D^{*+}\rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+}$ and their charge conjugates, covering the $p_T$ range of 0.6$-$2.0 GeV/$c$ and 2.0$-$6.0 GeV/$c$ for $D^{0}$ and $D^{*+}$, respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross section at mid-rapidity is $d\sigma/dy|_{y=0}^{c\bar{c}}$ = 170 $\pm$ 45 (stat.) $^{+38}_{-59}$ (sys.) $\mu$b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.

title: RADIO SHOWERS AT MT. CHACALTAYA.

title: ABC Effect in Basic Double-Pionic Fusion --- Observation of a new resonance?
abstract: P. Adlarson, C. Adolph, W. Augustyniak, V. Baru, 5 M. Bashkanov, F.S. Bergmann, M. Berłowski, H. Bhatt, K.–T. Brinkmann, M. Büscher, 11 H. Calén, H. Clement, D. Coderre, 11, 12 E. Czerwiński, ∗ E. Doroshkevich, C. Ekström, R. Engels, 11 W. Erven, 11 W. Eyrich, P. Fedorets, 5 K. Föhl, K. Fransson, F. Goldenbaum, 11 P. Goslawski, K. Grigoryev, 11, 17 V. Grishina, C.–O. Gullström, J. Hampe, 11, 18 C. Hanhart, 11, 19 L. Heijkenskjöld, V. Hejny, 11 F. Hinterberger, M. Hodana, 11, 13 B. Höistad, M. Jacewicz, M. Janusz, A. Jany, B.R. Jany, L. Jarczyk, J. Jaus, T. Johansson, B. Kamys, G. Kemmerling, 11 O. Khakimova, A. Khoukaz, S. Kistryn, J. Klaja, 11, 13 H. Kleines, 11 B. Kłos, F. Kren, W. Krzemień, P. Kulessa, S. Kullander, A. Kupść, K. Lalwani, B. Lorentz, 11 A. Magiera, R. Maier, 11 P. Marciniewski, B. Mariański, M. Mikirtychiants, 11, 17 P. Moskal, H.–P. Morsch, B.K. Nandi, H. Ohm, 11 A. Passfeld, C. Pauly, 11, † E. Perez del Rio, Y. Petukhov, N. Piskunov, P. Pluciński, P. Podkopał, A. Povtoreyko, D. Prasuhn, 11 A. Pricking, 10 K. Pysz, T. Rausmann, C.F. Redmer, J. Ritman, 11, 12 A. Roy, R.J.M.Y. Ruber, Z. Rudy, S. Schadmand, 11 A. Schmidt, W. Schroeder, T. Sefzick, 11 V. Serdyuk, 11, 24 N. Shah, M. Siemaszko, R. Siudak, T. Skorodko, M. Skurzok, J. Smyrski, V. Sopov, R. Stassen, 11 J. Stepaniak, G. Sterzenbach, 11 H. Stockhorst, 11 H. Ströher, 11 A. Szczurek, A. Täschner, T. Tolba, 11 A. Trzciński, R. Varma, P. Vlasov, G.J. Wagner, W. Węglorz, A. Winnemöller, A. Wirzba, 11, 19 M. Wolke, A. Wrońska, P. Wüstner, 11 P. Wurm, 11 L. Yurev, 11, 24 J. Zabierowski, M.J. Zieliński, W. Zipper, J. Złomańczuk, and P. Żuprański