Precision sparticle spectroscopy in the inclusive same-sign dilepton channel at LHC
The inclusive same-sign dilepton channel is already recognized as a promising discovery signature for supersymmetry in the early days of the LHC. We point out that it can also be used for precision measurements of sparticle masses after the initial discovery. As an illustration, we consider the LM6 CMS study point in minimal supergravity, where the same-sign leptons most often result from chargino decays to sneutrinos. We discuss three different techniques for determining the chargino and sneutrino masses in an inclusive manner, i.e. using only the two well measured lepton momenta, while treating all other upstream objects in the event as a single entity of total transverse momentum PT. This approach takes full advantage of the large production rates of colored superpartners, but does not rely on the poorly measured hadronic jets, and avoids any jet combinatorics problems. We discuss the anticipated precision of our methods in the early LHC data.

title: Interplay between Fermi gamma-ray lines and collider searches
abstract: A bstractWe explore the interplay between lines in the gamma-ray spectrum and LHC searches involving missing energy and photons. As an example, we consider a singlet Dirac fermion dark matter with the mediator for Fermi gamma-ray line at 130 GeV. A new chiral or local U(1) symmetry makes weak-scale dark matter natural and provides the axion or Z′ gauge boson as the mediator connecting between dark matter and electroweak gauge bosons. In these models, the mediator particle can be produced in association with a monophoton at colliders and it produces large missing energy through the decays into a DM pair or ZZ, Zγ with at least one Z decaying into a neutrino pair. We adopt the monophoton searches with large missing energy at the LHC and impose the bounds on the coupling and mass of the mediator field in the models. We show that the parameter space of the Z′ mediation model is already strongly constrained by the LHC 8TeV data, whereas a certain region of the parameter space away from the resonance in axion-like mediator models are bounded. We foresee the monophoton bounds on the Z′ and axion mediation models at the LHC 14 TeV.

title: The role of interference in unraveling the ZZ-couplings of the newly discovered boson at the LHC
abstract: We present a general procedure for measuring the tensor structure of the coupling of the scalar Higgs-like boson recently discovered at the LHC to two Z bosons, including the effects of interference among different operators. To motivate our concern with this interference, we explore the parameter space of the couplings in the effective theory describing these interactions and illustrate the effects of interference on the differential dilepton mass distributions. Kinematic discriminants for performing coupling measurements that utilize the effects of interference are developed and described. We present projections for the sensitivity of coupling measurements that use these discriminants in future LHC operation in a variety of physics scenarios.

title: From Lagrangians to Events: Computer Tutorial at the MC4BSM-2012 Workshop
abstract: This is a written account of the computer tutorial oered at the Sixth MC4BSM workshop at Cornell University, March 22-24, 2012. The tools covered during the tutorial include: FeynRules, LanHEP, MadGraph, CalcHEP, Pythia 8, Herwig++, and Sherpa. In the tutorial, we specify a simple extension of the Standard Model, at the level of a Lagrangian. The software tools are then used to automatically generate a set of Feynman rules, compute the invariant matrix element for a sample process, and generate both parton-level and fully hadronized/showered Monte Carlo event samples. The tutorial is designed to be self-paced, and detailed instructions for all steps are included in this write-up. Installation instructions for each tool on a variety of popular platforms are also provided.

title: Superpartner mass measurement technique using 1D orthogonal decompositions of the Cambridge transverse mass variable M(T2).
abstract: We propose a new model-independent technique for mass measurements in missing energy events at hadron colliders. We illustrate our method with the most challenging case of a single-step decay chain. We consider inclusive same-sign chargino pair production in supersymmetry, followed by leptonic decays to sneutrinos χ+ χ+ → ℓ+ ℓ'+ ν(ℓ)ν(ℓ') and invisible decays ν(ℓ) → ν(ℓ) χ(1)(0). We introduce two one-dimensional decompositions of the Cambridge MT2 variable: M(T2∥) and M(T2⊥), on the direction of the upstream transverse momentum P→T and the direction orthogonal to it, respectively. We show that the sneutrino mass Mc can be measured directly by minimizing the number of events N(Mc) in which MT2 exceeds a certain threshold, conveniently measured from the end point M(T2⊥)(max) (Mc).

title: Spin effects in the antler event topology at hadron colliders
abstract: A bstractWe investigate spin correlation effects in the “antler” event topology pp → A(A*) → B1B2 → (ℓ−C1)(ℓ+C2) at the LHC. We study the shapes of several kinematic variables, including the relative pseudorapidity, relative azimuthal angle and the energies of the two leptons, as well as several mass variables Mℓℓ, Meff, $ \sqrt {{{{s}_{{\min }}}}} $, MT2, MCT and MCTx. We focus on the two kinematic extremes of $\sqrt{S}$ — threshold and infinity — and derive analytical expressions for the differential distributions of several variables, most notably the cos $\theta_{{\ell -\ell +}}^{*}$ variable proposed by Barr in  For all possible spin assignments of particles A, B and C, we derive the cos $\theta_{{\ell -\ell +}}^{*}$ differential distribution at threshold, including the effects of spin correlations. Our analytical results help identify the problematic cases for spin discrimination.

title: Recovering Particle Masses from Missing Energy Signatures with Displaced Tracks
abstract: If physics beyond the Standard Model contains metastable new particle states, its signatures may manifest themselves at the LHC through the presence of displaced vertices or displaced tracks. Such signatures are common in low-scale supersymmetry breaking scenarios as well as a host of other well-studied new physics models. Here we analyze the kinematics of dual cascade decays with missing energy resulting from a stable non-interacting new particle state at the bottom of the decay chain. We find that if the final step of the decay chain involves a metastable particle, the resulting presence of displaced tracks provides strong constraints with which to solve for the unknown kinematic quantities lost through missing energy. In addition we develop techniques with which to recover all kinematic unknowns, even in situations where the unknown quantities outnumber the constraints. These techniques can all be performed using a very small number of events and can thus be applied to very early discovery level searches at the LHC.

title: Unified approach to cosmic acceleration
abstract: We present a unified framework for the study of late time cosmic acceleration. Using methods of effective field theory, we show that existing proposals for late time acceleration can be subsumed in a single framework, rather than many compartmentalized theories. We construct the most general action consistent with symmetry principles, derive the background and perturbation evolution equations, and demonstrate that for special choices of our parameters we can reproduce results already existing in the literature. Lastly, we lay the foundation for future work placing phenomenological constraints on the parameters of the effective theory. Although in this paper we focus on late time acceleration, our construction also generalizes the effective field theory of inflation to the scalar-tensor and multifield case for perturbatively constructed backgrounds.

title: Revamped braneworld gravity
abstract: Gravity in five-dimensional braneworld backgrounds often exhibits problematic features, including kinetic ghosts, strong coupling, and the vDVZ discontinuity. These problems are an obstacle to producing and analyzing braneworld models with interesting and potentially observable modifications of 4d gravity. We examine these problems in a general AdS{sub 5}/AdS{sub 4} setup with two branes and localized curvature from arbitrary brane kinetic terms. We use the interval approach and an explicit ''straight'' gauge-fixing. We compute the complete quadratic gauge-fixed effective 4d action, as well as the leading cubic order corrections. We compute the exact Green's function for gravity as seen on the brane. In the full parameter space, we exhibit the regions which avoid kinetic ghosts and tachyons. We give a general formula for the strong coupling scale, i.e. the energy scale at which the linearized treatment of gravity breaks down, for relevant regions of the parameter space. We show how the vDVZ discontinuity can be naturally but nontrivially avoided by ultralight graviton modes. We present a direct comparison of warping versus localized curvature in terms of their effects on graviton mode couplings. We exhibit the first example of DGP-like crossover behavior in a general warped setup.

title: Interval approach to braneworld gravity
abstract: Gravity in five-dimensional braneworld backgrounds may exhibit extra scalar degrees of freedom with problematic features, including kinetic ghosts and strong coupling behavior. Analysis of such effects is hampered by the standard heuristic approaches to braneworld gravity, which use the equations of motion as the starting point, supplemented by orbifold projections and junction conditions. Here we develop the interval approach to braneworld gravity, which begins with an action principle. This shows how to implement general covariance, despite allowing metric fluctuations that do not vanish on the boundaries. We reproduce simple ${\mathbf{Z}}_{\mathbf{2}}$ orbifolds of gravity, even though in this approach we never perform a ${\mathbf{Z}}_{\mathbf{2}}$ projection. We introduce a family of ``straight gauges'', which are bulk coordinate systems in which both branes appear as straight slices in a single coordinate patch. Straight gauges are extremely useful for analyzing metric fluctuations in braneworld models. By explicit gauge-fixing, we show that a general $\mathrm{Ad}{\mathrm{S}}_{5}/\mathrm{Ad}{\mathrm{S}}_{4}$ setup with two branes has at most a radion, but no physical ``brane-bending'' modes.

title: Multi-lepton signals of the Higgs boson
abstract: A bstractThe possibility of searching for the Higgs boson in channels with multiple non-resonant leptons is evaluated in light of recent advances in multi-lepton search techniques at the LHC. The total multi-lepton Higgs signal exceeds the four lepton gold-plated resonant mode, but is spread over many channels with same-sign di-lepton, tri-lepton, and four lepton final states. While any individual channel alone is not significant, the exclusive combination across multiple channels is shown to provide a sensitivity nearly comparable to other discovery level searches for the Higgs boson. We estimate that with 5 fb−1 of data, existing non-optimized multi-lepton searches at the LHC could exclude the Higgs boson to 95 % CL at a few times the predicted Standard Model cross section in the mass range 120 − 150 GeV. Refinements focused specifically on the Higgs boson signal are suggested that would further increase sensitivity. We illustrate the possibility of discerning patterns in production and decay modes using correlations across multiple channels by comparing sensitivities to Standard Model, Fermi-phobic, and b-phobic Higgs bosons.