AbstractsPhysics

Supergravity unification, dark matter and LHC signatures post Higgs boson discovery

by David Francescone




Institution: Northeastern University
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: dark matter; Higgs boson; LHC; phenomenology; supergravity unfication; Supergravity; Supersymmetry; Grand unified theories (Nuclear physics); Higgs bosons; Particles (Nuclear physics); Dark matter (Astronomy); Large Hadron Collider (France and Switzerland)
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2134636
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20194496


Abstract

In this work, we analyze the landscape of sparticle mass hierarchies generated from supergravity unified models consistent with the Higgs boson mass measurement, flavor constraints and cosmological data. Both universal and nonuniversal supergravity models are analyzed, including the mSUGRA model with universal boundary conditions, and nuSUGRA models with nonuniversalities in the gaugino mass sector, the Higgs boson mass sector, and the third generation sfermion mass sector. The relation of hierarchical models to simplified models is discussed, which opens the way to connect simplified models to a UV-complete theory. Supergravity model signatures are explored and favorable benchmark models are analyzed for discovery at the LHC Run-II. Further, implications of hierarchical models for the direct detection of dark matter are discussed through spin-independent neutralino-proton cross sections and LSP neutralino mass. The analysis establishes a complementarity between LHC data and dark matter detectors in the identification of the nature of symmetry breaking in high scale models. Consequently, this work serves as a tool to help delineate the nature of high scale boundary conditions for the underlying supergravity grand unification model.