Particle Physics

We explore a new scenario explaining mass origin of standard model (SM) particles without a Higgs boson. In this framework SM W, Z gauge bosons and fermions are composites getting masses from confinement of substructure at IR (conformal symmetry breaking). Therefore here SM electroweak gauge symmetry and its breaking are IR emergent phenomena. Using AdS/CFT we build a calculable warped 5D model. Realistic mass spectrum and good fit to electroweak precision data (S, T parameters) can be obtained. Furthermore the composite nature of W,Z may offer novel solution for WW scattering unitarization and predicts deviation from SM which can lead to distinctive signatures at the LHC.

We derive constraints on the sign of couplings in an effective Higgs Lagrangian using prime principles such as the naturalness principle, global symmetries, and unitarity. Specifically, we study four dimension-six operators, O_H, O_y, O_g, and O_gamma, which contribute to the production and decay of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), among other things. Assuming the Higgs is a fundamental scalar, we find: 1) the coefficient of O_H is positive except when there are triplet scalars, resulting in a reduction in the Higgs on-shell coupling from their standard model (SM) expectations if no other operators contribute, 2) the linear combination of O_H and O_y controlling the overall Higgs coupling to fermion is always reduced, 3) the sign of O_g induced by a new colored fermion is such that it interferes destructively with the SM top contribution in the gluon fusion production of the Higgs, if the new fermion cancels the top quadratic divergence in the Higgs mass, and 4) the correlation between naturalness and the sign of O_gamma is similar to that of O_g, when there is a new set of heavy electroweak gauge bosons. Next considering a composite scalar for the Higgs, we find the reduction in the on-shell Higgs couplings persists. If further assuming a collective breaking mechanism as in little Higgs theories, the coefficient of O_H remains positive even in the presence of triplet scalars. In the end, we conclude that the gluon fusion production of the Higgs boson is reduced from the SM rate in all composite Higgs models. Our study suggests a wealth of information could be revealed by precise measurements of the Higgs couplings, providing strong motivations for both improving on measurements at the LHC and building a precision machine such as the linear collider.

In generalized models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, a standard model-like Higgs boson can decay to pairs of neutralino superpartners. If the energy scale of supersymmetry breaking is very low, each of these neutralinos will subsequently decay promptly to a photon and a gravitino. This process gives rise to a collider signal consisting of a pair of photons and missing energy. In this talk I will describe scenarios of supersymmetry breaking that can give rise this signature and other non-standard Higgs decay modes, and discuss how it might be discovered with upcoming data from the Tevatron and the LHC.