Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory Commons^™

Search For Physics Beyond The Standard Model In Top Quark Production With Additional Leptons In The Context Of Effective Field Theory, Furong Yan

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The dissertation presents a search for new physics impacting top quark productions within the framework of effective field theory (EFT). Potential new physics effects are parameterized in terms of 26 dimension-six EFT operators into the event yields of six distinct top production processes in the detector level. The analysis targets multilepton final states consisting of two leptons of the same charge, three leptons and four leptons. The events are further categorized and binned in terms of kinematic distributions in order to gain sensitivity to the new physics effects. A likelihood function is formulated based on the predicted distribution in each …

Strong First Order Electroweak Phase Transitions In The Standard Model With A Real Scalar Singlet Extension, Anthony James Hooper

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The large matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe and whether the electroweak sector has always been broken are currently unanswered by the standard model (SM). One solution that addresses both these concerns is to impose a strong first order electroweak phase transition (SFOEWPT) and ensure electroweak baryogenesis occurs. Models that undergo a SFOEWPT in the early universe create bubbles of the true vacuum that expand until the universe reaches the vacuum expectation value measured today. If the phase transition is strong enough, then these bubbles may generate a detectable stochastic gravitational wave (GW).

However, the SM by itself can only perform …

A Search For Decays Of The Higgs Boson To Invisible Particles In Events With A Top-Antitop Quark Pair Or A Vector Boson In Proton-Proton Collisions At √S = 13 Tev, Armen R. Tumasyan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The first search for nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs (HH) with one H decaying into four leptons and the other into a pair of b quarks is presented, using proton-proton collisions recorded at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment. The analyzed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹. A 95% confidence level upper limit of 32.4 is set on the signal strength modifier μ, defined as the ratio of the observed HH production rate in the HH → ZZ*bb → 4ℓbb decay channel to the standard model …

Search For Nonresonant Higgs Boson Pair Production In The Four Leptons Plus Twob Jets Final State In Proton-Proton Collisions At √S = 13 Tev, Armen R. Tumasyan, Cma Collaboration

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The first search for nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs (HH) with one H decaying into four leptons and the other into a pair of b quarks is presented, using proton-proton collisions recorded at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment. The analyzed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹. A 95% confidence level upper limit of 32.4 is set on the signal strength modifier μ, defined as the ratio of the observed HH production rate in the HH ⟶ ZZ*bb[bar] ⟶ 4ℓb[bar] decay channel to the standard model (SM) …

Search For A W' Boson Decaying To A Vector-Like Quark And A Top Or Bottom Quark In The All-Jets Final State At √S = 13 Tev, The Cms Collaboration

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

A search is presented for a heavy W0 boson resonance decaying to a B or T vector-like quark and a t or a b quark, respectively. The analysis is performed using protonproton collisions collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb⁻¹ at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeV. Both decay channels result in a signature with a t quark, a Higgs or Z boson, and a b quark, each produced with a significant Lorentz boost. The all-hadronic decays of the Higgs or Z boson and of the t quark are …

Fermion-Induced Electroweak Symmetry Non-Restoration Via Temperature-Dependent Masses, Yu Hang Ng

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Standard Model (SM) and many extensions of SM predict that the electroweak (EW) symmetry was restored in the early universe when the temperature was around 160 GeV. However, recent studies showed that the interactions between some new scalars and SU(2)_L Higgs doublet(s) can cause the EW symmetry to remain broken at temperatures well above the EW scale in certain renormalizable extensions of SM. In this study, we found that new fermions from renormalizable models can also induce this EW symmetry non-restoration effect, provided that they have the appropriate temperature-dependent masses. These masses can arise naturally from the interactions between the …

Temporal Coherent Control Of Resonant Two-Photon Double Ionization Of The Hydrogen Molecule Via Doubly Excited States, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We use time-delayed, counter-rotating, circularly polarized few-cycle attosecond nonoverlapping pulses to study the temporal coherent control of the resonant process of two-photon double ionization (TPDI) of hydrogen molecule via doubly excited states for pulse propagation direction along ˆk either parallel or perpendicular to the molecular axis ˆR. For ˆk ‖ ˆR and a pulse carrier frequency of 36 eV resonantly populating the Q₂ 1∏ ⁺ _u (1) doubly excited state as well as other 1∏ ⁺ _u doubly excited states, we find that the indirect ionization pathway through these doubly excited states changes the character of the kinematical vortex-shaped …

Minimizing The Duration Of Isolated Attosecond Pulses, Dian Peng, Anthony F. Starace, Hua-Chieh Shao, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We investigate theoretically how the duration of an isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) can be minimized by carefully selecting frequencies of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectra produced by ultrashort driving laser pulses. Based on numerical calculations of HHG by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a single H atom, we provide three strategies for generating shorter IAPs. First, when the high-frequency region of an HHG plateau is selected one should use frequencies below the cutoff. Second, for a wide HHG plateau the low-frequency region can produce shorter IAPs than the high-frequency region. Third, we propose a method of producing IAPs with …

Origin Of The Multiphoton-Regime Harmonic-Generation Plateau Structure, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

A physical interpretation is provided for the formation of the multiphoton-regime plateau feature in the spectra of nonlinear and correlated process of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of two-active-electron atoms interacting with an intense linearly polarized laser field [Phys. Rev. A 88, 053412 (2013) for beryllium]. While in the strong-field tunneling regime the plateau feature is well known to be due to rescattering effects of the freed electron, its counterpart in the multiphoton regime is due to atomic resonance effects involving both singly excited states and doubly excited states. Here, we propose a strategy to uncover which kind of these states …

Attosecond-Pulse Metrology Based On High-Order Harmonic Generation, T. S. Sarantseva, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Silaev, A. A. Romanov, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An all-optical method to retrieve the temporal intensity profile of an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) attosecond pulse is proposed based on XUV-assisted high-order harmonic generation (HHG) by an intense infrared (IR) pulse. For a harmonic located on the XUV-induced high-energy plateau (beyond the IR HHG plateau), the measured harmonic yield as a function of the time delay between the XUV and IR pulses is shown to accurately map the temporal intensity profile of the XUV pulse. Single-color and two-color orthogonal, linearly polarized IR pulses are used to demonstrate the method.

Measurement Of Single-Diffractive Dijet Production In Proton–Proton Collisions At √S = 8 Tev With The Cms And Totem Experiments, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, Daniel Claes, Caleb Fangmeier, Frank Golf, Rebeca Gonzalez Suarez, Rami Kamalieddin, Ilya Kravchenko Dr., Jose Monroy, J. Siado, Gregory Snow, B. Stieger

Kenneth Bloom Publications

Measurements are presented of the single-diffractive dijet cross section and the diffractive cross section as a function of the proton fractional momentum loss ξ and the four-momentum transfer squared t. Both processes pp → pX and pp → Xp, i.e. with the proton scattering to either side of the interaction point, are measured, where X includes at least two jets; the results of the two processes are averaged. The analyses are based on data collected simultaneously with the CMS and TOTEM detectors at the LHC in proton–proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV during a dedicated run with …

Measurement Of The Production Cross Section Of Four Top Quarks In Proton–Proton Collisions At 13 Tev, Caleb Fangmeier

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The field of particle physics involves not only searches for new particles and measurements of their interactions, but also the design and construction of advanced particle detectors. This thesis presents the measurement of the production cross section of four top quarks in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV using 137 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This analysis considers events in the final state of a same-sign pair of leptons, notable for being a final state with relatively few Standard Model background events. A boosted decision tree is utilized to discriminate …

Obituary: Anthony Starace (1945-2019)

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Anthony Starace, George Holmes University Professor of physics, died Sept. 5 from complications related to pancreatitis. He was 74.

Starace was born July 24, 1945, in the Queens borough of New York City. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1966 before moving west to the University of Chicago, where he earned his doctorate under adviser Ugo Fano in 1971. It was in Chicago that he met Katherine Fritz of Beatrice, Nebraska, his wife of 51 years.

Following a postdoctoral appointment at Imperial College London, Starace moved to Lincoln as an assistant …

Search For Resonant Double Higgs Production With Bbzz Decays In The Bbℓℓνν Final State In Pp Collisions At √S = 13 Tev, Rami Kamalieddin

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, most of the quantum mechanical properties that describe the long-awaited Higgs boson have been measured. Due to the outstanding work of the LHC, over a hundred of fb⁻¹ of proton collisions data have been delivered to both experiments. Finally, it became sensible for analyses teams to start working with a very low cross section processes involving the Higgs boson, e.g., a recent success in observing ttH and VHbb processes. One of the main remaining untouched topics is a double Higgs boson production. However, an …

Performance Of Plastic Electron Optics Components Fabricated Using A 3d Printer, Phillip Wiebe, Peter Beierle, Hua-Chieh Shao, Bret Gergely, Anthony F. Starace, Herman Batelaan

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We show images produced by an electron beam deflector, a quadrupole lens and a einzel lens fabricated from conducting and non-conducting plastic using a 3D printer. Despite the difficulties associated with the use of plastics in vacuum, such as outgassing, poor conductivity, and print defects, the devices were used successfully in vacuum to steer, stretch and focus electron beams to millimeter diameters. Simulations indicate that much smaller focus spot sizes might be possible for such 3D-printed plastic electron lenses taking into account some possible surface defects. This work was motivated by our need to place electron optical components in difficult-to-access …

Analytic Generalized Description Of A Perturbative Nonparaxial Elegant Laguerre-Gaussian Phasor For Ultrashort Pulses In The Time Domain, Andrew Vikartofsky, Ethan C. Jahns, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytic expression for a polychromatic phasor representing an arbitrarily short elegant Laguerre-Gauss (eLG) laser pulse of any spot size and LG mode is presented in the time domain as a nonrecursive, closed-form perturbative expansion valid to any order of perturbative correction. This phasor enables the calculation of the complex electromagnetic fields for such beams without requiring the evaluation of any Fourier integrals. It is thus straightforward to implement in analytical or numerical applications involving eLG pulses.

Analytic Description Of High-Order Harmonic Generation In The Adiabatic Limit With Application To An Initial S State In An Intense Bicircular Laser Pulse, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Minina, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, M. Yu. Ivanov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytic description of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) is proposed in the adiabatic (low-frequency) limit for an initial s state and a laser field having an arbitrary wave form. The approach is based on the two-state time-dependent effective range theory and is extended to the case of neutral atoms and positively charged ions by introducing ad hoc the Coulomb corrections for HHG. The resulting closed analytical form for the HHG amplitude is discussed in terms of real classical trajectories. The accuracy of the results of our analytic model is demonstrated by comparison with numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation …

Violation Of Centrosymmetry In Time-Resolved Coherent X-Ray Diffraction From Rovibrational States Of Diatomic Molecules, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Owing to increasing applications of time-resolved coherent x-ray scattering for the investigation of molecular reaction dynamics, we develop a theoretical model for time-dependent x-ray diffraction from molecular and/or electronic motion in molecules. Our model shows that the violation of centrosymmetry (VOC) is a general phenomenon in time-resolved diffraction patterns. We employ our theoretical model to illustrate the VOC in time-resolved coherent x-ray diffraction from two oriented diatomic molecules undergoing rovibrational motion: lithium hydride (LiD) and hydrogen (HD). Our simulations show asymmetric x-ray diffraction images that reflect the directions of the molecular motions.

Molecular Symmetry-Mixed Dichroism In Double Photoionization Of H2, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Alexei V. Meremianin, N. L. Manakov, L. B. Madsen, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Dichroism in double photoionization of H₂ molecules by elliptically polarized extreme ultraviolet pulses is formulated analytically as a sum of atomiclike dichroism (AD) and molecular symmetry-mixed dichroism (MSMD) terms. The MSMD originates from an interplay of ¹Σ⁺_u and ¹Π⁺_u continuum molecular ionization amplitudes. For detection geometries in which the AD vanishes, numerical results for the sixfold differential probabilities for opposite pulse helicities show that the MSMD is significant in the electron momentum and angular distributions and is controllable by the ellipticity.

Dynamical Electron Vortices In Attosecond Double Photoionization Of H2, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, A. V. Meremianin, N. L. Manakov, L. B. Madsen, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We study electron momentum vortices in single-photon double ionization of H2 by time-delayed, counterrotating, elliptically polarized attosecond pulses propagating along kˆ either parallel or perpendicular to the molecular axis R. For kˆ | R, kinematical vortices occur similar to those found for He. For kˆ ⊥ R, we find dynamical vortex structures originating from an ellipticity-dependent interplay of ¹∑⁺_u and ¹∏⁺_u continuum amplitudes. We propose a complete experiment to determine the magnitudes and relative phase of these amplitudes by varying pulse ellipticities and time delays.

Perturbative Representation Of Ultrashort Nonparaxial Elegant Laguerre-Gaussian Fields, Andrew Vikartofsky, Anthony F. Starace, Liang-Wen Pi

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytical method for calculating the electromagnetic fields of a nonparaxial elegant Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) vortex beam is presented for arbitrary pulse duration, spot size, and LG mode. This perturbative approach provides a numerically tractable model for the calculation of arbitrarily high radial and azimuthal LG modes in the nonparaxial regime, without requiring integral representations of the fields. A key feature of this perturbative model is its use of a Poisson-like frequency spectrum, which allows for the proper description of pulses of arbitrarily short duration. This model is thus appropriate for simulating laser-matter interactions, including those involving short laser pulses.

Search For Production Of A Higgs Boson And A Single Top Quark In Multilepton Final States In Pp Collisions At √S = 13 Tev, Jose Andres Monroy Montanez

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The exciting work in high energy physics includes not only the analysis of the data taken by the experiment but also the development of detection systems. In this thesis, the results of a search for the production of a Higgs boson in association with a single top quark (tH) are presented. This process is of particular interest due to its sensitivity to the relative sign of the top-Higgs coupling and the vector bosons-Higgs coupling. The focus is on leptonic signatures provided by the H → W W , H → τ τ , and H → ZZ decay modes.

The …

Control Of Harmonic Generation By The Time Delay Between Two-Color, Bicircular Few-Cycle Mid-Ir Laser Pulses, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Minina, N. V. Vvedenskii, A. A. Silaev, M. Yu. Ivanov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We study control of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) driven by time-delayed, few-cycle ω and 2ω counterrotating mid-IR pulses. Our numerical and analytical study shows that the time delay between the two-color pulses allows control of the harmonic positions, both those allowed by angular momentum conservation and those seemingly forbidden by it. Moreover, the helicity of any particular harmonic is tunable from left to right circular without changing the driving pulse helicity. The highest HHG yield occurs for a time delay comparable to the fundamental period T = 2π/ω.

Enhancing High-Order Harmonic Generation By Sculpting Waveforms With Chirp, Dian Peng, M. V. Frolov, Liang-Wen Pi, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We present a theoretical analysis showing how chirp can be used to sculpt two-color driving laser field waveforms in order to enhance high-order harmonic generation (HHG) and/or extend HHG cutoff energies. Specifically, we consider driving laser field waveforms composed of two ultrashort pulses having different carrier frequencies in each of which a linear chirp is introduced. Two pairs of carrier frequencies of the component pulses are considered: (ω, 2ω) and (ω, 3ω). Our results show how changing the signs of the chirps in each of the two component pulses leads to drastic changes in the HHG spectra. Our theoretical analysis …

Time-Resolved Electron (E,2E) Momentum Spectroscopy: Application To Laser-Driven Electron Population Transfer In Atoms, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Owing to its ability to provide unique information on electron dynamics, time-resolved electron momentum spectroscopy (EMS) is used to study theoretically a laser-driven electronic motion in atoms. Specifically, a chirped laser pulse is used to adiabatically transfer the populations of lithium atoms from the ground state to the first excited state. During this process, impact ionization near the Bethe ridge by time-delayed ultrashort, high-energy electron pulses is used to image the instantaneous momentum density of this electronic population transfer. Simulations with 100 fs and 1 fs pulse durations demonstrate the capability of EMS to image the time-varying momentum density, including …

Xuv-Assisted High-Order-Harmonic-Generation Spectroscopy, T. S. Sarantseva, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Using the analytic time-dependent effective range theory, we study two-color high-order harmonic generation (HHG) involving a weak extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse and an intense infrared laser field. Our analysis shows that XUV-assisted HHG spectra contain multiple additional plateau structures originating from absorption of one or more XUV photons at the photorecombination step of HHG. We show also that the HHG rate corresponding to the nth plateau can be presented in a factorized form involving the XUV-assisted (multiphoton) photorecombination cross section (PRCS) corresponding to absorption of n XUV photons of energy Ω and emission of a harmonic of energy Ω_{h …}

A Measurement Of The Wy Cross Section At √S = 8 Tev In Pp Collisions With The Cms Detector, Ekaterina Avdeeva

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A measurement of cross section of the Wγ → lνγ production in proton-proton collisions using 19.6 fb − 1 of LHC data collected by CMS detector at the center- √ of-mass collision energy of s = 8 TeV is reported. The W bosons are identified in their electron and muon decay modes. The process of Wγ production in the Standard Model (SM) involves a pure gauge boson coupling, a WWγ vertex, which allows one to test the electroweak sector of the SM in a unique way not achievable by studies of other processes. In addition to the total cross section, …

Doubly-Excited State Effects On Two-Photon Double Ionization Of Helium By Time-Delayed, Oppositely Circularly-Polarized Attosecond Pulses, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We study two-photon double ionization (TPDI) of helium by a pair of time-delayed (non-overlapping), oppositely circularly-polarized attosecond pulses whose carrier frequencies are resonant with ¹P^o doubly-excited states. All of our TPDI results are obtained by numerical solution of the two-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the six-dimensional case of circularly-polarized attosecond pulses, and they are analyzed using perturbation theory (PT). As compared with the corresponding nonresonant TPDI process, we find that the doubly-excited states change the character of vortex patterns in the two-electron momentum distributions for the case of back-to-back detection of the two ionized electrons in the polarization …

Imaging Electronic Motions By Ultrafast Electron Diffraction, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Recently ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy have reached unprecedented temporal resolution, and transient structures with atomic precision have been observed in various reactions. It is anticipated that these extraordinary advances will soon allow direct observation of electronic motions during chemical reactions. We therefore performed a series of theoretical investigations and simulations to investigate the imaging of electronic motions in atoms and molecules by ultrafast electron diffraction. Three prototypical electronic motions were considered for hydrogen atoms. For the case of a breathing mode, the electron density expands and contracts periodically, and we show that the time-resolved scattering intensities reflect such changes …

Energy-Resolved Coherent Diffraction From Laser-Driven Electronic Motion In Atoms, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We investigate theoretically the use of energy-resolved ultrafast electron diffraction to image laser-driven electronic motion in atoms. A chirped laser pulse is used to transfer the valence electron of the lithium atom from the ground state to the first excited state. During this process, the electronic motion is imaged by 100-fs and 1-fs electron pulses in energy-resolved diffraction measurements. Simulations show that the angle-resolved spectra reveal the time evolution of the energy content and symmetry of the electronic state. The time-dependent diffraction patterns are further interpreted in terms of the momentum transfer. For the case of incident 1-fs electron pulses, …