Electroweak interaction

About: Electroweak interaction is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 16333 publications have been published within this topic receiving 468927 citations. The topic is also known as: electroweak force.

Why should we care about the top quark Yukawa coupling

Abstract: In the cosmological context, for the Standard Model to be valid up to the scale of inflation, the top quark Yukawa coupling $y_t$ should not exceed the critical value $y_t^{crit}$, coinciding with good precision (about 0.02%) with the requirement of the stability of the electroweak vacuum. So, the exact measurements of $y_t$ may give an insight on the possible existence and the energy scale of new physics above 100 GeV, which is extremely sensitive to $y_t$. We overview the most recent theoretical computations of $y_t^{crit}$ and the experimental measurements of $y_t$. Within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties in $y_t$ the required scale of new physics varies from $10^7$ GeV to the Planck scale, urging for precise determination of the top quark Yukawa coupling.

Dark matter, light top squarks, and electroweak baryogenesis

Abstract: We examine the neutralino relic density in the presence of a light top squark, such as the one required for the realization of the electroweak baryogenesis mechanism, within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We show that there are three clearly distinguishable regions of parameter space, where the relic density is consistent with WMAP and other cosmological data. These regions are characterized by annihilation cross sections mediated by either light Higgs bosons, Z bosons, or by the co-annihilation with the lightest top squark. Tevatron collider experiments can test the presence of the light top squark in most of the parameter space. In the co-annihilation region, however, the mass difference between the light top squark and the lightest neutralino varies between 15 and 30 GeV, presenting an interesting challenge for top squark searches at hadron colliders. We present the prospects for direct detection of dark matter, which provides a complementary way of testing this scenario. We also derive the required structure of the high energy soft supersymmetry breaking mass parameters where the neutralino is a dark matter candidate and the top squark spectrum is consistent with electroweak baryogenesis and the present bounds on the lightest Higgs boson mass.

Loop corrections to radiative breaking of electroweak symmetry in supersymmetry.

Abstract: One-loop corrections to the radiative breaking of electroweak symmetry in supergravity unified models are analyzed. It is shown that in a physically interesting domain of parameter space there is a large cancellation among the contributions of the first two generations of squarks and the three generations of sleptons to the vacuum expectation value (VEV) equations. Partial cancellations in other sectors are also found. These cancellations reduce the effect of the one-loop contributions to the VEV equations.

Leading QCD corrections to scalar quark contributions to electroweak precision observables

Abstract: In the supersymmetric extension of the standard model we derive the two-loop QCD corrections to the scalar quark contributions to the electroweak precision observables entering via the $\ensuremath{\rho}$ parameter. A very compact expression is derived for the gluon-exchange contribution. The complete analytic result for the gluino-exchange contribution is very lengthy; we give expressions for several limiting cases that were derived from the general result. The two-loop corrections, generally of the order of 10%--30% of the one-loop contributions, can be very significant. Contrary to the standard model case, where the QCD corrections are negative and screen the one-loop value, the corresponding corrections in the supersymmetric case are in general positive, therefore increasing the sensitivity in the search for scalar quarks through their virtual effects in high-precision electroweak observables.