Probing Physics in the Standard Model and Beyond with Electroweak Baryogenesis and Effective Theories of the Strong Interactions

Abstract

This thesis explores two different avenues aimed at improving our ability to calculate reliably in the Standard Model of particle physics and probing possible new particles which may exist beyond it. In the first part, we explore whether baryogenesis at the electroweak phase transition could successfully account for the observed density of baryons in the Universe, using the closed-time-path (CTP) formalism of quantum field theory to calculate the buildup and relaxation of particle densities during the phase transition. Adopting the MSSM for its new sources of CP violation, we look for regions of parameter space which could give rise to sufficiently large baryon asymmetry without violating constraints on these parameters from existing experiments, especially searches for electric dipole moments of elementary particles. In the second part, we explore how to get around our ignorance of the dynamics of strongly interacting particles in the nonperturbative regime of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) by the use of effective field theories. Two applications are explored: the production of hadronic jets in Z decay or e+e- annihilation using soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), and the radiative decays of quarkonia to light hadrons using SCET and non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD). These tools facilitate the proof of factorization of decay rates into perturbatively-calculable and nonperturbative parts. Universality of the latter among different observables provides predictive power even in our ignorance of the details of the nonperturbative physics.

Ph.D. thesis; 182 pages; uses new_cit_thesis.cls (included) and FeynMF

References in corpus (48)

• Rigorous QCD Analysis of Inclusive Annihilation and Production of Heavy Quarkonium
• A Supersymmetry Primer
• Hard Scattering Factorization from Effective Field Theory
• The origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis for the New Cosmology: Determining Uncertainties and Examining Concordance
• The HQET/NRQCD Lagrangian to order alpha/m^3
• Electroweak Baryogenesis in Supersymmetric Models
• Factorization of heavy-to-light form factors in soft-collinear effective theory
• Deep inelastic scattering as x -> 1 using soft-collinear effective theory
• Electroweak baryogenesis and low energy supersymmetry
• Supersymmetric CP-violating Currents and Electroweak Baryogenesis
• Non-factorizable Contributions to $B\to \pi \pi$ Decays
• Power Corrections to Event Shape Distributions
• Transport equations for chiral fermions to order \hbar and electroweak baryogenesis: Part II
• Electric Dipole Moments in the MSSM at Large tan(beta)
• Jet Shapes in Hadron Collisions: Higher Orders, Resummation and Hadronization
• Theta Vacua, QCD Sum Rules, and the Neutron Electric Dipole Moment
• Sphaleron rate in the symmetric electroweak phase
• Run II Jet Physics: Proceedings of the Run II QCD and Weak Boson Physics Workshop
• Resummed $C$-Parameter Distribution in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ Annihilation
• The Supersymmetric Origin of Matter
• A Complete Basis for Power Suppressed Collinear-Ultrasoft Operators
• Hadronic EDMs induced by the strangeness and constraints on supersymmetric CP phases
• Helicity Decomposition for Inclusive $J/\psi$ Production
• TASI Lectures on Effective Field Theories
• Factorization and the Soft Overlap Contribution to Heavy-to-Light Form Factors
• The More Relaxed Supersymmetric Electroweak Baryogenesis
• Proof of principle for a high sensitivity search for the electric dipole moment of the electron using the metastable a(1)[^3Σ^+] state of PbO
• Collective fermionic excitations in systems with a large chemical potential
• Predictions for nonleptonic Lambda_b and Theta_b decays
• Nonleptonic B decays into two light mesons in soft-collinear effective theory
• Spontaneous Breaking of Lorentz Invariance
• Factorization of B decays into two light mesons in soft-collinear effective theory
• Structure of the Quark Propagator at High Temperature
• Scaling Rule for Nonperturbative Radiation in a Class of Event Shapes
• Anthropic Distribution for Cosmological Constant and Primordial Density Perturbations
• Resumming the color-octet contribution to radiative Upsilon decay
• Rare radiative exclusive B decays in soft-collinear effective theory
• The Octet Structure Function and Radiative Quarkonia Decay
• The Long Range Gravitational Potential Energy Between Strings
• Fluctuating annihilation cross sections and the generation of density perturbations
• The QCD Coupling Constant
• Negative-Parity Heavy Pentaquark States in 1/N_c
• Jet observables and energy-momentum tensor
• Introduction to the NRQCD Factorization Approach to Heavy Quarkonium
• One-particle and collective electron spectra in hot and dense QED and their gauge dependence
• Fermi spectra and their gauge invariance in hot and dense Abelian and non-Abelian theories
• Composite Mediators and Lorentz Violation