Author: Ralph Angelus Edezhath

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781339064420

The existence of dark matter and the hierarchy problem motivates the search for new physics. The formulation of new search strategies and models is crucial in the hunt for physics beyond the Standard Model, and in this work we present three studies of new physics relevant for current and upcoming experiments. First, we study models that contain a singlet dark matter particle with cubic renormalizable couplings between standard model particles and `partner' particles with the same gauge quantum numbers as the standard model quark. The dark matter has spin 0, 1/2, or 1, and may or may not be its own antiparticle. Each model has 3 parameters: the masses of the dark matter and standard model partners, and the cubic coupling. Requiring the correct relic abundance gives a 2-dimensional parameter space where collider and direct detection constraints can be directly compared. We find that collider and direct detection searches are remarkably complementary for these models. Direct detection limits for the cases where the dark matter is not its own antiparticle require dark matter masses to be in the multi-TeV range, where they are extremely difficult to probe in collider experiments. The models where dark matter is its own antiparticle are strongly constrained by collider searches for monojet and jets + MET signals. These models are constrained by direct detection mainly near the limit where the dark matter and partner masses are nearly degenerate, where collider searches become more difficult. Second, we study the case where the singlet dark matter has trilinear couplings to leptons and a new ``lepton partner'' particle. The most sensitive collider probe is the search for leptons + MET, while the most sensitive direct detection channel is scattering from nuclei arising from loop diagrams. Collider and direct detection searches are highly complementary: colliders give the only meaningful constraint when dark matter is its own antiparticle, while direct detection is generally more sensitive if the dark matter is not its own antiparticle. Third, we study the constraints on new physics from Higgs production through vector boson fusion in the context of an effective field theory that preserves Standard Model gauge symmetries. We find that constraints on dimension-6 operators are significantly improved over those from the VBF signal strength by studying the Higgs transverse momentum distribution. Focusing on the O[subscript]HW operator, we find that boosted VBF decaying to photons yields constraints competitive with boosted WW production in the fully leptonic final state, and calculate projected limits for both at the 14 TeV LHC. The PT cuts required to maximize the reach of VBF searches are substantially softer, making the use of the effective field theory more robust than in the case of WW production which requires very high PT cuts to obtain similar limits.