Connecting Cosmic Inflation to Particle Physics with LiteBIRD, CMB-S4, EUCLID, and SKA.

We show that next generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments will be capable of the first ever measurement of the inflaton coupling to other particles, opening a new window to probe the connection between cosmic inflation and particle physics. This sensitivity is based on the impact that the reheating phase after cosmic inflation has on the redshifting of cosmic perturbations. For our analysis we introduce a simple analytic method to estimate the sensitivity of future CMB observations to the reheating temperature and the inflaton coupling. Applying our method to LiteBIRD and CMB-S4 we find that, within a given model of inflation, these missions have the potential to impose both an upper and a lower bound on the inflaton coupling. Further improvement can be achieved if CMB data are combined with optical and 21 cm surveys. Our results demonstrate the potential of future observations to constrain microphysical parameters that can provide an important clue to understand how a given model of inflation may be embedded in a more fundamental theory of nature.

Mapping the Viable Parameter Space for Testable Leptogenesis.

We for the first time map the range of active-sterile neutrino mixing angles in which leptogenesis is possible in the type I seesaw model with three heavy neutrinos with Majorana masses between 50 MeV and 70 TeV, covering the entire experimentally accessible mass range. Our study includes both, the asymmetry generation during freeze-in (ARS mechanism) and freeze-out (resonant leptogenesis) of the heavy neutrinos. The range of mixings for which leptogenesis is feasible is considerably larger than in the minimal model with only two right-handed neutrinos and extends all the way up to the current experimental bounds. For such large mixing angles the HL-LHC could potentially observe a number of events that is large enough to compare different decay channels, a first step towards testing the hypothesis that these particles may be responsible for the origin of matter and neutrino masses.

Searching for New Long-Lived Particles in Heavy-Ion Collisions at the LHC.

We show that heavy-ion collisions at the LHC provide a promising environment to search for new long-lived particles in well-motivated new physics scenarios. One advantage lies in the possibility to operate the main detectors with looser triggers, which can increase the number of observable events by orders of magnitude if the long-lived particles are produced with low transverse momentum. In addition, the absence of pileup in heavy-ion collisions can avoid systematic nuisances that will be present in future proton runs, such as the problem of vertex misidentification. Finally, there are new production mechanisms that are absent or inefficient in proton collisions. We show that the looser triggers alone can make searches in heavy-ion data competitive with proton data for the specific example of heavy neutrinos in the neutrino minimal standard model, produced in the decay of B mesons. Our results suggest that collisions of ions lighter than lead, which are currently under discussion in the heavy-ion community, are well motivated from the viewpoint of searches for new physics.

Long-lived particles at the energy frontier: the MATHUSLA physics case.

We examine the theoretical motivations for long-lived particle (LLP) signals at the LHC in a comprehensive survey of standard model (SM) extensions. LLPs are a common prediction of a wide range of theories that address unsolved fundamental mysteries such as naturalness, dark matter, baryogenesis and neutrino masses, and represent a natural and generic possibility for physics beyond the SM (BSM). In most cases the LLP lifetime can be treated as a free parameter from the [Formula: see text]m scale up to the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limit of [Formula: see text] m. Neutral LLPs with lifetimes above [Formula: see text]100 m are particularly difficult to probe, as the sensitivity of the LHC main detectors is limited by challenging backgrounds, triggers, and small acceptances. MATHUSLA is a proposal for a minimally instrumented, large-volume surface detector near ATLAS or CMS. It would search for neutral LLPs produced in HL-LHC collisions by reconstructing displaced vertices (DVs) in a low-background environment, extending the sensitivity of the main detectors by orders of magnitude in the long-lifetime regime. We study the LLP physics opportunities afforded by a MATHUSLA-like detector at the HL-LHC, assuming backgrounds can be rejected as expected. We develop a model-independent approach to describe the sensitivity of MATHUSLA to BSM LLP signals, and compare it to DV and missing energy searches at ATLAS or CMS. We then explore the BSM motivations for LLPs in considerable detail, presenting a large number of new sensitivity studies. While our discussion is especially oriented towards the long-lifetime regime at MATHUSLA, this survey underlines the importance of a varied LLP search program at the LHC in general. By synthesizing these results into a general discussion of the top-down and bottom-up motivations for LLP searches, it is our aim to demonstrate the exceptional strength and breadth of the physics case for the construction of the MATHUSLA detector.

A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case.

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, [Formula: see text] and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals-scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.

Sterile neutrinos as the origin of dark and baryonic matter.

We demonstrate for the first time that three sterile neutrinos alone can simultaneously explain neutrino oscillations, the observed dark matter, and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe without new physics above the Fermi scale. The key new point of our analysis is leptogenesis after sphaleron freeze-out, which leads to resonant dark matter production, evading thus the constraints on sterile neutrino dark matter from structure formation and x-ray searches. We identify the range of sterile neutrino properties that is consistent with all known constraints. We find a domain of parameters where the new particles can be found with present day experimental techniques, using upgrades to existing experimental facilities.

Leptogenesis from quantum interference in a thermal bath.

Thermal leptogenesis explains the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe in terms of neutrino masses, consistent with neutrino oscillation experiments. We present a full quantum mechanical calculation of the generated lepton asymmetry based on Kadanoff-Baym equations. Origin of the asymmetry is the departure of the statistical propagator of the heavy Majorana neutrino from the equilibrium propagator, together with CP violating couplings. The lepton asymmetry is calculated directly in terms of Green's functions without referring to "number densities." A detailed comparison with Boltzmann equations shows that conventional leptogenesis calculations have an uncertainty of at least 1 order of magnitude. Particularly important is the inclusion of thermal damping rates in the full quantum mechanical calculation.