Search Talks

New massive "dark" vector bosons are ubiquitous in BSM physics.  I'll discuss the effective theories, interactions, and applications of theories with a (single) massive vector boson with a Stückelberg mass, with the goal of providing a clear and self-consistent approach to the (sometimes confusing) subject.  The critical role of possible couplings of the longitudinal mode will be emphasized, demarcating when theories have amplitudes that grow with energy.  In such theories, I'll identify the cutoff scale, as well as show the potential of longitudinally-enhanced observables given specific couplings of the vector boson.  The Stückelbergian approach to massive vectors also provides insight into generalized dark vector boson theories; I'll demonstrate a specific application to an "electrophobic" vector field that can evade many terrestrial experiment constraints that would otherwise apply to a dark photon.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96937794653?pwd=cjIvM0hxQmo2ZEhuamhxeWx3cVdoZz09

Inflation can be viewed as a natural "cosmological particle detector" which can probe energies as high as its Hubble scale. In this talk, I study the imprints of heavy relativistic particles during inflation on primordial correlators in situations where the scalar fluctuations have a reduced speed of sound. Breaking dS boosts allows new types of footprints of massive fields to emerge. In particular, I show that heavy particles that are lighter than Hubble divided by the speed of sound leave smoking gun imprints in the three-point function of curvature perturbations (due to the exchange of those fields) in the form of resonances in the squeezed limit which are vividly distinct from the previously explored signatures of heavy fields in de Sitter correlators. Throughout I use and extend the cosmological bootstrap techniques derived from locality, unitarity, and analyticity in order to find fully analytical formulae for the desired boost breaking correlators.