Particle Physics

The Higgs boson is the only scalar particle in the Standard Model. Precision electroweak analyses suggest that it should be light -- less than 200 GeV. These facts combined with the speculative nature of all electroweak symmetry breaking discussions imply significant uncertainty in discovering a Higgs boson. I discuss the unique aspects of a Higgs sector, highlight the New Physics origins of uncertainty for its phenomenology, and suggest a broader framework with which to approach Higgs boson phenomenology at the LHC.

We formulate non-anticommutative supersymmetry in two dimensions using differential operators acting on the component fields. We then use these operators to give a compact expression for the one-loop divergences in the non-anticommutative Kahler sigma model.

The smaller Dark Matter structures predicted in the CDM scenario have a mass in the range [10e-12;10e-4] Msun, depending on the underlying particle physics. It is however not clear what is the inner DM structure of such halos, nor which is the real survival probability during mergers. We show how these open questions result in a large uncertainty in the prediction of the observability of such halos with indirect detection tecniques. We show predictions for the observability of the dwarf galaxies using dark matter density profiles derived from the available data on velocity dispersion curves.

If the spontaneous breaking of Peccei-Quinn symmetry comes from soft supersymmetry breaking, the fermionic partners of the symmetry-breaking fields have mass of order the gravitino mass, and are called flatinos. The lightest flatino, called here the flaxino, is a CDM candidate if it is the lightest supersymmetric particle. We here explore flaxino dark matter assuming that the lightest ordinary supersymmetric particle is the stau, with gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking. The decay of the stau to the flaxino is fast enough not to spoil the standard predictions of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, and its track and decay can be seen in future colliders.

\'Thermal history of the universe after big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is well understood both theoretically and observationally, and recent cosmological observations also begin to reveal the inflationary dynamics. However, the epoch between inflation and BBN is scarcely known. In this work we show that the detection of the stochastic gravitational wave background around 1Hz provides useful information about thermal history well before BBN. In particular, the reheating temperature of the universe may be determined by future space-based laser interferometer experiments such as DECIGO and/or BBO if it is around $10^{6-9}$ GeV, depending on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and dilution factor $F$.\'

It is an important task to embed inflation in a fundamental microphysical theory such as string theory. Since string theory possesses a vast landscape of 4-dimensional theories, we would like to know which portions contain inflation and which do not. I prove a no-go theorem that inflation and de Sitter vacua are forbidden in an exponentially large number of infinite families of simple and well understood compactifications of type IIA string theory. I also mention more complicated and less well understood compactifications, which may have the ingredients for our cosmology.

A class of non-canonical inflationary models is identified, where the leading-order contribution to the non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbation is determined by the sound speed of the fluctuations in the inflaton field. Included in this class of models is the effective action for multiple coincident branes in the finite n limit. The action for this configuration is determined using a powerful iterative technique, based upon the fundamental representation of SU(2). In principle the upper bounds on the tensor-scalar ratio that arise in the standard, single-brane DBI inflationary scenario can be relaxed in such multi-brane configurations if a large and detectable non-Gaussianity is generated. Moreover models with a small number of coincident branes could generate a gravitational wave background that will be observable to future experiments.

Considering gravitino dark matter scenarios, cosmological constraints on the sparticle masses and on the reheating temperature of inflation will be discussed. These constraints are relevant for prospects of phenomenology at the LHC and for our understanding of inflation and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe.

Directional detection of dark matter can provide unambiguous observation of dark matter (DM) interactions even in the presence of insidious backgrounds. The DM-TPC collaboration is developing a detector with the goal of measuring the direction and sense (\'\'head-tail\'\') of nuclear recoils produced in spin-dependent DM interactions. The detector consists of a low pressure TPC with optical readout filled with CF4 gas at low pressure. A collision between a WIMP with a gas molecule results in a nucleus recoil of 1-2 mm. The measurement of the energy loss along the recoil allows us to determine the sense and the direction of the recoil. Results from a prototype detector operated in a low-energy neutron beam clearly demonstrate the suitability of this approach to measure directionality. In particular, the first observation of the \'\'head-tail\'\' effect for low-energy neutrons had been recently published by our Collaboration. A full-scale (1m^3) module is now being designed. This detector, which will be operated underground in 2009, will allow us to set limits on spin-dependent Dark Matter interactions using a directional detector. The sensitivity of this experiment will be discussed in this talk.

We consider the most general treatment of primordial non-Gaussianities, arising from modifying the initial state. Besides considering non-Gaussian effects due to subhorizon particle production, we parameterize the initial non-Gaussian features in terms of a Boundary Effective Field Theory (BEFT). Both effects contribute to the final result for the bispectrum, and we use this to put constraints on the initial state.