Toroidal Dipole Moment of the Lightest Neutralino in the MSSM
In order to characterize one of the most favored candidates for dark matter, we calculate the anapole form factor of the lightest neutralino in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) at the one-loop level. As a Majorana fermion, this particle only shows one electromagnetic property, the toroidal dipole moment, which is directly related to the anapole form factor. We obtain the result analitically in terms of two- and three-points Passarino-Veltman scalar functions and evaluate it for a given spectrum of supersymmetric masses and matrix elements. This work is part of a broader project still in progress.

title: Top quark mass predictions from gauge Yukawa unification
abstract: Gauge-Yukawa Unification (GYU) is a renormalization group invariant functional relation among gauge and Yukawa couplings which holds beyond the unification point in Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). Here, GYU is obtained by requiring finiteness and reduction of couplings to all orders in perturbation theory. We examine the consequences of GYU in various supersymmetric GUTs and in particular the predictions for the top quark mass. These predictions are such that they distinguish already GYU from ordinary GUTs. Moreover, when more accurate measurements of the top quark mass are available, it is expected that it will be possible to discriminate among the various GYUs.

title: Finite unification at all-loops

title: Finite unified theories and the top quark mass
abstract: We present results of a study of two phenomenologically interesting SU (5) supersymmetric Grand Unified models, which are finite to all-loops before spontaneous symmetry breaking. The finiteness conditions provide us with relationships among the Yukawa and gauge couplings at the unification point, which in turn predict a heavy top quark mass (∼ 175 – 190 GeV).

title: Conditions for vacuum stability in an S3 extension of the Standard Model
abstract: In this work we study the Higgs sector in the minimal S3 extension of the Standard Model. The S3 extended Standard Model, which has three Higgs doublets fields that belong to the three-dimensional reducible representation of the permutation group S3, has naturally new phenomena: there are several Higgs bosons, charged, neutral and pseuodscalar ones, and more than one potential minimum. We analyzed the stability of the minimal S3 invariant extension of the Higgs potential and show that at tree-level, the potential minimum preserving electric charge and CP symmetries, when it exists, is the global one.

title: Finite GUTs within conventional N=1 gauge theories
abstract: Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are conventional N=1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories, which can be made all-loop finite, both in the dimensionless (gauge and Yukawa couplings) and dimensionful (soft supersymmetry breaking terms) sectors. This remarkable property leads to a drastic reduction in the number of free parameters, which in turn leads to an accurate prediction of the top quark mass in the dimensionless sector, and predictions for the Higgs boson mass and the s-spectrum in the dimensionful sector. Among the characteristics of the latter ones are: 1) The lightest Higgs boson mass is predicted to be in the window 120–130 GeV, in case the LSP is neutralino, while in case the LSP is the τ (which can be consistently accommodated in presence of bilinear R-parity violating terms) it can be as light as 111 GeV. 2) The s-spectrum starts above several hundreds of GeV.

title: Search for Neutral Higgs Bosons in Events with Multiple Bottom Quarks at the Tevatron
abstract: The combination of searches performed by the CDF and D0 collaborations at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider for neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with b quarks is reported. The data, corresponding to 2.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity at CDF and 5.2 fb-1 at D0, have been collected in final states containing three or more b jets. Upper limits are set on the cross section multiplied by the branching ratio varying between 44 pb and 0.7 pb in the Higgs boson mass range 90 to 300 GeV, assuming production of a narrow scalar boson. Significant enhancements to the production of Higgs bosons can be found in theories beyond the standard model, for example in supersymmetry. The results are interpreted as upper limits in the parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in a benchmark scenario favoring this decay mode.

title: Operational Experience with the CDF Run II Silicon Detector
abstract: The CDF Run II Silicon Detector is the largest operating silicon detector in High Energy Physics. Its 722,000 channels spread over 7 m 2 of silicon micro-strip sensors allow precision tracking and vertexing. The CDF silicon detector played a critical role in the discovery of B s mixing and is used extensively for the current Higgs Boson searches. Over the last 7 years, the detector efficiency has remained stable at 95% after the Run II commissioning period. The infrastructure (cooling, power supplies) problems dealt with are discussed.

title: Search for anomalous production of multiple leptons in association with $W$ and $Z$ bosons at CDF
abstract: This paper presents a search for anomalous production of multiple low-energy leptons in association with a W or Z boson using events collected at the CDF experiment corresponding to 5.1 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. This search is sensitive to a wide range of topologies with low-momentum leptons, including those with the leptons near one another. The observed rates of production of additional electrons and muons are compared with the standard model predictions. No indications of phenomena beyond the standard model are found. A 95% confidence level limit is presented on the production cross section for a benchmark model of supersymmetric hidden-valley Higgs production. Particle identification efficiencies are also provided to enable the calculation of limits on additional models.

title: Improved determination of the sample composition of dimuon events produced in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV
abstract: We use a new method to estimate with 5% accuracy the contribution of pion and kaon in-flight-decays to the dimuon data set acquired with the CDF detector. Based on this improved estimate, we show that the total number and the properties of the collected dimuon events are not yet accounted for by ordinary sources of dimuons which also include the contributions, as measured in the data, of heavy flavor, ϒ, and Drell–Yan production in addition to muons mimicked by hadronic punchthrough. The number of unaccounted events corresponds to (12.8±3.2)% of the $b\bar{b}$ production. We find that (23±6)% of the unaccounted events contain additional muon candidates. For comparison, this fraction is (6.9±0.4)% for events due to $b\bar{b}$ production.

title: Search for standard model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson at CDF
abstract: We present a search for standard model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in proton-antiproton collisions (p{bar p} {yields} W{sup {+-}}H {yields} {ell}{nu}b{bar b}) at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The search employs data collected with the CDF II detector which correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 1 fb{sup -1}. We select events consistent with a signature of a single lepton (e{sup {+-}}/{mu}{sup {+-}}), missing transverse energy, and two jets. Jets corresponding to bottom quarks are identified with a secondary vertex tagging method and a neural network filter technique. The observed number of events and the dijet mass distributions are consistent with the standard model background expectations, and we set 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio ranging from 3.9 to 1.3 pb for Higgs boson masses from 110 to 150 GeV/c{sup 2}, respectively.