Higgs boson pair production at the LHC in the $b \bar{b} W^+ W^-$ channel
We consider Higgs boson pair production at the LHC in the $b \bar{b} W^+ W^-$ channel, with subsequent decay of the $W^+W^-$ pair into $\ell \nu j j$. Employing jet substructure and event reconstruction techniques, we show that strong evidence for this channel can be found at the 14 TeV LHC with 600 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, thus improving the current reach for the production of Higgs boson pairs. This measurement will allow to probe the trilinear Higgs boson coupling $\lambda$.

title: Soft gluon resummation effects in single graviton production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in the Randall-Sundrum model
abstract: We study QCD effects in single graviton production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model. We present in detail the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the inclusive total cross sections. The NLO QCD corrections enhance significantly the total cross sections and decrease efficiently the dependence of the total cross sections on the factorization and renormalization scales. We also examine the uncertainty of the total cross sections due to the parton distribution function (PDF) uncertainties. For the differential cross sections on the transverse momentum (q{sub T}) of the graviton, within the CSS resummation formalism, we resum the logarithmically-enhanced terms at small q{sub T} to all orders up to NLO logatithmic accuracy. Combined with the fixed-order calculations, we give consistent predictions for both small q{sub T} and large q{sub T}.

title: Higgs boson pair production in the D = 6 extension of the SM
abstract: A bstractWe derive the constraints that can be imposed on the dimension-6 effective theory extension of the Standard Model, using gluon fusion-initiated Higgs boson pair production at the LHC. We use a realistic analysis focussing on the hh→bb¯τ+τ−$$ hh\to \left(b\overline{b}\right)\left({\tau}^{+}{\tau}^{-}\right) $$ final state, including initial-state radiation and non-perturbative effects. We include the statistical uncertainties on the signal rates as well as conservative estimates of the theoretical uncertainties. We first consider a theory containing only modifications of the trilinear coupling, through a c6λ H6/v2 Lagrangian term, and then examine the full parameter space of the effective theory, incorporating current bounds obtained through single Higgs boson measurements. We also consider an alternative scenario, where we vary a smaller sub-set of parameters. Allowing, finally, the values of the other coefficients to vary within projected experimental ranges, we find that the currently unbounded parameter, c6, could be constrained to lie within |c6| ≲ 0.6 at 1σ confidence, at the end of the high-luminosity run of the LHC (14 TeV) in the full model, and to −0.6 ≲ c6 ≲ 0.5 in the alternative model. This study constitutes a first step towards the inclusion of multi-Higgs boson production in a full fit to the dimension-6 effective field theory framework.

title: TOP-CHARM ASSOCIATED PRODUCTION VIA SUSY FCNC COUPLINGS AT THE CERN LHC IN THE MSSM
abstract: We evaluate the total cross-sections of top-charm associated production induced by SUSY–QCD FCNC at the LHC within the general unconstrained MSSM framework. Our results show that these production rates may be as large as a few pb for favorable parameter values allowing by current precise experiments. It means that the LHC may produce abundant events of this process, and the SUSY FCNC effects through the above process may be observable in the future experiments.

title: Soft-gluon resummation for boosted top-quark production at hadron colliders
abstract: We investigate the production of highly energetic top-quark pairs at hadron colliders, focusing on the case where the invariant mass of the pair is much larger than the mass of the top quark. In particular, we set up a factorization formalism appropriate for describing the differential partonic cross section in the double soft and small-mass limit, and explain how to resum simultaneously logarithmic corrections arising from soft gluon emission and from the ratio of the pair-invariant mass to that of the top quark to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We explore the implications of our results on approximate next-to-next-to-leading order formulas for the differential cross section in the soft limit, pointing out that they offer a simplified calculational procedure for determining the currently unknown delta-function terms in the limit of high invariant mass.

title: The top-pair forward-backward asymmetry beyond NLO
abstract: Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zu¨rich, CH-8057 Zu¨rich, Switzerland(Dated: July 1, 2011)We make use of recent results in eﬀective theory and higher-order perturbative calculations to im-prove the theoretical predictions of the QCD contribution to the top-quark pair production forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. In particular, we supplement the ﬁxed-order NLO calculationwith higher-order corrections from soft gluon resummation at NNLL accuracy performed in two dif-ferent kinematic schemes, which allows us to make improved predictions for the asymmetry in thepp¯ and t¯trest frames as a function of the rapidity and invariant mass of the t¯tpair. Furthermore,we provide binned results which can be compared with the recent measurements of the forward-backward asymmetry in events with a large pair invariant mass or rapidity diﬀerence. Finally, wecalculate at NLO+NNLL order the top-quark charge asymmetry at the LHC as a function of a lowerrapidity cut-oﬀ for the top and antitop quarks.

title: Warmth Elevating the Depths: Shallower Voids with Warm Dark Matter
abstract: Author(s): Yang, LF; Neyrinck, MC; Aragon-Calvo, MA; Falck, B; Silk,  Warm dark matter (WDM) has been proposed as an alternative to cold dark matter (CDM), to resolve issues such as the apparent lack of satellites around the MilkyWay. Even ifWDMis not the answer to observational issues, it is essential to constrain the nature of the dark matter. The effect of WDM on haloes has been extensively studied, but the small-scale initial smoothing in WDM also affects the present-day cosmic web and voids. It suppresses the cosmic 'subweb' inside voids, and the formation of both void haloes and subvoids. In N-body simulations run with different assumed WDM masses, we identify voids with the ZOBOV algorithm, and cosmic-web components with the ORIGAMI algorithm. As dark-matter warmth increases (i.e. particle mass decreases), void density minima grow shallower, while void edges change little. Also, the number of subvoids decreases. The density field in voids is particularly insensitive to baryonic physics, so if void density profiles and minima could be measured observationally, they would offer a valuable probe of the nature of dark matter. Furthermore, filaments and walls become cleaner, as the substructures in between have been smoothed out; this leads to a clear, mid-range peak in the density PDF.

title: Dark matter contribution to Galactic diffuse gamma ray emission
abstract: Author(s): Yang, Lin F; Silk, Joseph; Szalay, Alexander S; Wyse, Rosemary FG; Bozek, Brandon; Madau,  Observations of diffuse Galactic gamma ray emission (DGE) by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) allow a detailed study of cosmic rays and the interstellar medium. However, diffuse emission models of the inner Galaxy underpredict the Fermi-LAT data at energies above a few GeV and hint at possible nonastrophysical sources including dark matter (DM) annihilations or decays. We present a study of the possible emission components from DM using the high-resolution Via Lactea II N-body simulation of a Milky Way - sized DM halo. We generate full-sky maps of DM annihilation and decay signals that include modeling of the adiabatic contraction of the host density profile, Sommerfeld-enhanced DM annihilations, p-wave annihilations, and decaying DM. We compare our results with the DGE models produced by the Fermi-LAT team over different sky regions, including the Galactic center, high Galactic latitudes, and the Galactic anticenter. This work provides possible smooth component templates of DM to fit the observational data. The subhalo contributions can be considered to provide statistically meaningful templates and demonstrate how spatial profiles are significantly modified according to different annihilation or decay scenarios. We argue that a subhalo-based approach can help constrain the DM physics.

title: Ringing the initial Universe: the response of overdensity and transformed-density power spectra to initial spikes
abstract: We present an experiment in which we 'ring' a set of cosmological N-body-simulation initial conditions, placing spikes in the initial power spectrum at different wavenumber bins. We then measure where these spikes end up in the final conditions. In the usual overdensity power spectrum, most sensitive to contracting and collapsing dense regions, initial power on slightly non-linear scales (k ~ 0.3 h/Mpc) smears to smaller scales, coming to dominate the initial power once there. Log-density and Gaussianized-density power spectra, sensitive to low-density (expanding) and high-density regions, respond differently: initial spikes spread symmetrically in scale, both upward and downward. In fact, in the power spectrum of 1/(1 + {\delta}), spikes migrate to larger scales, showing the magnifying effect of voids on small-scale modes. These power spectra show much greater sensitivity to small-scale initial features. We also test the difference between an approximation of the Ly-{\alpha} flux field, and its Gaussianized form, and give a toy model that qualitatively explains the symmetric power spreading in Gaussianized-density power spectra. Also, we discuss how to use this framework to estimate power-spectrum covariance matrices. This can be used to track the fate of information in the Universe, that takes the form of initial degrees of freedom, one random spike per initial mode.