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We give a general formulation of semi-direct gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking where the messengers interact with the hidden sector only through a weakly gauged group. Using this general formulation, we provide an explicit proof that the MSSM gaugino masses are vanishing to leading order in the gauge couplings. On the other hand, the MSSM sfermion masses have, generically, a non-vanishing leading contribution. We discuss how such a mechanism can successfully be combined with other mediation schemes which give tachyonic sfermions, such as sequestered anomaly mediation and some direct gauge mediation models.

Weak-scale supersymmetry is a well-motivated, if speculative, theory beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. It solves the thorny issue of the Higgs mass, namely: how can it be stable to quantum corrections, when they are expected to be 1015 times bigger than its mass? The experimental signal of the theory is the production and measurement of supersymmetric particles in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments. No such particles have been seen to date, but hopes are high for the impending run in 2015. Searches for supersymmetric particles can be difficult to interpret. Here, we shall discuss the fact that, even given a well-defined model of supersymmetry breaking with few parameters, there can be multiple solutions. These multiple solutions are physically different and could potentially mean that points in parameter space have been ruled out by interpretations of LHC data when they should not have been. We shall review the multiple solutions and illustrate their existence in a universal model of supersymmetry breaking.

A bstract The Fermilab Muon g − 2 experiment recently reported its first measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment a μ FNAL , which is in full agreement with the previous BNL measurement and pushes the world average deviation ∆ a μ 2021 from the Standard Model to a significance of 4 . 2 σ . Here we provide an extensive survey of its impact on beyond the Standard Model physics. We use state-of-the-art calculations and a sophisticated set of tools to make predictions for a μ , dark matter and LHC searches in a wide range of simple models with up to three new fields, that represent some of the few ways that large ∆ a μ can be explained. In addition for the particularly well motivated Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, we exhaustively cover the scenarios where large ∆ a μ can be explained while simultaneously satisfying all relevant data from other experiments. Generally, the a μ result can only be explained by rather small masses and/or large couplings and enhanced chirality flips, which can lead to conflicts with limits from LHC and dark matter experiments. Our results show that the new measurement excludes a large number of models and provides crucial constraints on others. Two-Higgs doublet and leptoquark models provide viable explanations of a μ only in specific versions and in specific parameter ranges. Among all models with up to three fields, only models with chirality enhancements can accommodate a μ and dark matter simultaneously. The MSSM can simultaneously explain a μ and dark matter for Bino-like LSP in several coannihilation regions. Allowing under abundance of the dark matter relic density, the Higgsino- and particularly Wino-like LSP scenarios become promising explanations of the a μ result.

A bstract We discuss fermion mass hierarchies within modular invariant flavour models. We analyse the neighbourhood of the self-dual point τ = i , where modular invariant theories possess a residual Z 4 invariance. In this region the breaking of Z 4 can be fully described by the spurion ϵ ≈ τ − i , that flips its sign under Z 4 . Degeneracies or vanishing eigenvalues of fermion mass matrices, forced by the Z 4 symmetry at τ = i , are removed by slightly deviating from the self-dual point. Relevant mass ratios are controlled by powers of |ϵ| . We present examples where this mechanism is a key ingredient to successfully implement an hierarchical spectrum in the lepton sector, even in the presence of a non-minimal Kähler potential.

Abstract We propose a model that explains the fermion mass hierarchy by the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism with a discrete ℤ N F$$ {\\mathrm{\\mathbb{Z}}}_N^F $$symmetry. As a concrete model, we study a super-symmetric model with a single flavon coupled to the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. Flavon develops a TeV scale vacuum expectation value for realizing flavor hierarchy, an appropriate μ-term and the electroweak scale, hence the model has a low cutoff scale. We demonstrate how the flavon is successfully stabilized together with the Higgs bosons in the model. The discrete flavor symmetry ℤ N F$$ {\\mathrm{\\mathbb{Z}}}_N^F $$controls not only the Standard Model fermion masses, but also the Higgs potential and a mass of the Higgsino which is a good candidate for dark matter. The hierarchy in the Higgs-flavon sector is determined in order to make the model anomaly-free and realize a stable electroweak vacuum. We show that this model can explain the fermion mass hierarchy, realistic Higgs-flavon potential and thermally produced dark matter at the same time. We discuss flavor violating processes induced by the light flavon which would be detected in future experiments.

A bstract We study the capabilities of a muon collider experiment to detect disappearing tracks originating when a heavy and electrically charged long-lived particle decays via X + → Y + Z 0 , where X + and Z 0 are two almost mass degenerate new states and Y + is a charged Standard Model particle. The backgrounds induced by the in-flight decays of the muon beams (BIB) can create detector hit combinations that mimic long-lived particle signatures, making the search a daunting task. We design a simple strategy to tame the BIB, based on a detector-hit-level selection exploiting timing information and hit-to-hit correlations, followed by simple requirements on the quality of reconstructed tracks. Our strategy allows us to reduce the number of tracks from BIB to an average of 0.08 per event, hence being able to design a cut-and-count analysis that shows that it is possible to cover weak doublets and triplets with masses close to s / 2 in the 0.1–10 ns range. In particular, this implies that a 10 TeV muon collider is able to probe thermal MSSM higgsinos and thermal MSSM winos, thus rivaling the FCC-hh in that respect, and further enlarging the physics program of the muon collider into the territory of WIMP dark matter and long-lived signatures. We also provide parton-to-reconstructed level efficiency maps, allowing an estimation of the coverage of disappearing tracks at muon colliders for arbitrary models.

A bstract An axion rotating in field space can produce dark photons in the early universe via tachyonic instability. This explosive particle production creates a background of stochastic gravitational waves that may be visible at pulsar timing arrays or other gravitational wave detectors. This scenario provides a novel history for dark photon dark matter. The dark photons may be warm at a level detectable in future 21-cm line surveys. For a consistent cosmology, the radial direction of the complex field containing the axion must be thermalized. We explore a concrete thermalization mechanism in detail and also demonstrate how this setup can be responsible for the generation of the observed baryon asymmetry.

A bstract Long-lived light particles (LLLPs) appear in many extensions of the standard model. LLLPs are usually motivated by the observed small neutrino masses, by dark matter or both. Typical examples for fermionic LLLPs (a.k.a. heavy neutral fermions, HNFs) are sterile neutrinos or the lightest neutralino in R-parity violating supersymmetry. The high luminosity LHC is expected to deliver up to 3/ab of data. Searches for LLLPs in dedicated experiments at the LHC could then probe the parameter space of LLLP models with unprecedented sensitivity. Here, we compare the prospects of several recent experimental proposals, FASER, CODEX-b and MATHUSLA, to search for HNFs and discuss their relative merits.s

A bstract The lack of evidence for new physics beyond the standard model at the LHC points to a paucity of new particles near the weak scale. This suggests that the weak scale is tuned and that supersymmetry, if present at all, is realized at higher energies. The measured Higgs mass constrains the scalar sparticles to be below 10 5 TeV, while gauge coupling unification favors Higgsinos below 100 TeV. Nevertheless, in many models gaugino masses are suppressed and remain within reach of the LHC. Tuning the weak scale and the renormalization group evolution of the scalar masses constrain Split model building. Due to the small gaugino masses, either the squarks or the up-higgs often run tachyonic; in the latter case, successful electroweak breaking requires heavy higgsinos near the scalar sparticles. We discuss the consequences of tuning the weak scale and the phenomenology of several models of Split supersymmetry including anomaly mediation, U(1) B−L mediation, and Split gauge mediation.

A bstract The QCD axion serves as a well-motivated dark matter candidate and the misalignment mechanism is known to reproduce the observed abundance with a decay constant f a ≃ O (10 12 ) GeV for a misalignment angle θ mis ≃ O (1). While f a ≪ 10 12 GeV is of great experimental interest, the misalignment mechanism requires the axion to be very close to the hilltop, i.e. θ mis ≃ π . This particular choice of θ mis has been understood as fine-tuning the initial condition. We offer a dynamical explanation for θ mis ≃ π in a class of models. The axion dynamically relaxes to the minimum of the potential by virtue of an enhanced mass in the early universe. This minimum is subsequently converted to a hilltop because the CP phase of the theory shifts by π when one contribution becomes subdominant to another with an opposite sign. We demonstrate explicit and viable examples in supersymmetric models where the higher dimensional Higgs coupling with the inflaton naturally achieves both criteria. Associated phenomenology includes a strikingly sharp prediction of 3 × 10 9 GeV ≲ f a ≲ 10 10 GeV and the absence of isocurvature perturbation.