Particle theory

Abstract:

The superpotential in four-dimensional heterotic effective theories contains terms arising from holomorphic Chern-Simons invariants associated to the gauge and tangent bundles of the compactification geometry. These effects are crucial for a number of key features of the theory, including vacuum stability and moduli stabilization. Despite their importance, few tools exist in the literature to compute such effects in a given heterotic vacuum. In this work we present new techniques to explicitly determine holomorphic Chern-Simons invariants in heterotic string compactifications. The key technical ingredient in our computations are real bundle morphisms between the gauge and tangent bundles. We find that there are large classes of examples, beyond the standard embedding, where the Chern-Simons superpotential vanishes. We also provide explicit examples for non-flat bundles where it is non-vanishing and non-integer quantized, generalizing previous results for Wilson lines.

Abstract:

We compute mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the fully-differential production of an on-shell W boson. Decays of W bosons to lepton pairs are included in the leading order approximation. The required two-loop virtual corrections are computed analytically for arbitrary values of the electroweak gauge boson masses. Analytic results for integrated subtraction terms are obtained within a soft-collinear subtraction scheme optimized to accommodate the structural simplicity of infra-red singularities of mixed QCD-electroweak contributions. Numerical results for mixed corrections to the fiducial cross section of pp→W+→l+ν and selected kinematic distributions in this process are presented.

Abstract:

The aim of these lectures is to provide students with an introduction to some of the core concepts and methods of QCD that are relevant in an LHC context.Â