Journal Club

Seminar Room

Monday 25th of March, 2019

Hour: 10:00

Title: Linking lepton number violation with B anomalies

Presented by: Gerardo Hernández-Tomé

Ref: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.01799v1

Abstract:

Hints of violation of lepton flavor universality in semileptonic B decays have prompted a renewed interest in leptoquarks at the low TeV scale. Among the different scenarios suggested, some happen to violate also lepton number, yet not much attention has been paid to the expected size of the associated lepton number violating processes. In this note we examine this issue. We find that there is a single leptoquark scenario compatible with the current size of the anomalies which also violates lepton number. In this scenario (Majorana) neutrino masses are radiatively generated. With the leptoquark parameters extracted from fitting the flavor anomalies, one actually gets the right order of magnitude for neutrino masses. We examine the associated effective field theories both at the electroweak scale and at the hadronic scale and estimate the size of the most relevant lepton number violating processes.

Hour: 10:00

Title: Positivity bounds on vector boson scattering at the LHC

Presented by: Pawel Kozow

Ref: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.00010v2

Abstract:

Weak vector boson scattering (VBS) is a sensitive probe of new physics effects in the electroweak symmetry breaking. Currently, experimental results at the LHC are interpreted in the effective field theory approach, where possible deviations from the Standard Model in the quartic-gauge-boson couplings are often described by 18 dimension-8 operators. By assuming that a UV completion exists, we derive a new set of theoretical constraints on the coefficients of these operators, i.e. certain combinations of coefficients must be positive. These constraints imply that the current effective approach to VBS has a large redundancy: only about 2% of the full parameter space leads to a UV completion. By excluding the remaining unphysical region of the parameter space, these constraints provide guidance for future VBS studies and measurements.

Hour: 10:00

Title: Which EFT

Presented by: Juan Carlos Criado Álamo

Ref: https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.05936v1

Abstract:

We classify effective field theory (EFT) deformations of the Standard Model (SM) according to the analyticity property of the Lagrangian as a function of the Higgs doublet H. Our distinction in analytic and non-analytic corresponds to the more familiar one between linearly and non-linearly realized electroweak symmetry, but offers deeper physical insight. From the UV perspective, non-analyticity occurs when the new states acquire mass from electroweak symmetry breaking, and thus cannot be decoupled to arbitrarily high scales. This is reflected in the IR by the anomalous growth of the interaction strength for processes involving many Higgs bosons and longitudinally polarized massive vectors, with a breakdown of the EFT description below a scale O(4πv). Conversely, analyticity occurs when new physics can be pushed parametrically above the electroweak scale. We illustrate the physical distinction between these two EFT families by discussing Higgs boson self-interactions. In the analytic case, at the price of some unnaturalness in the Higgs potential, there exists space for O(1) deviations of the cubic coupling, compatible with single Higgs and electroweak precision measurements, and with new particles out of the direct LHC reach. Larger deviations are possible, but subject to less robust assumptions about higher-dimensional operators in the Higgs potential. On the other hand, when the cubic coupling is produced by a non-analytic deformation of the SM, we show by an explicit calculation that the theory reaches strong coupling at O(4πv), quite independently of the magnitude of the cubic enhancement