Litcius/Paper detail

Das ist der HAMMER: consistent new physics interpretations of semileptonic decays

Florian U. Bernlochner, Stephan Duell, Zoltan Ligeti, Michele Papucci, Dean J. Robinson

2020The European Physical Journal C33 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Abstract Precise measurements of $$b\rightarrow c\tau \bar{\nu }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> <mml:mi>τ</mml:mi> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ν</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> decays require large resource-intensive Monte Carlo (MC) samples, which incorporate detailed simulations of detector responses and physics backgrounds. Extracted parameters may be highly sensitive to the underlying theoretical models used in the MC generation. Because new physics (NP) can alter decay distributions and acceptances, the standard practice of fitting NP Wilson coefficients to SM-based measurements of the $$R(D^{(*)})$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>D</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mo>∗</mml:mo> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ratios can be biased. The newly developed software tool enables efficient reweighting of MC samples to arbitrary NP scenarios or to any hadronic matrix elements. We demonstrate how allows avoidance of biases through self-consistent fits directly to the NP Wilson coefficients. We also present example analyses that demonstrate the sizeable biases that can otherwise occur from naive NP interpretations of SM-based measurements. The library is presently interfaced with several existing experimental analysis frameworks and we provide an overview of its structure.

Topics & Concepts

PhysicsPhysics beyond the Standard ModelParticle physicsMonte Carlo methodDetectorStatistical physicsStandard Model (mathematical formulation)HadronSoftwareMatrix (chemical analysis)Nuclear physicsExperimental dataTheoretical physicsAlgorithmComputer scienceSemileptonic decayProbability and statisticsParticle physics theoretical and experimental studiesNeutrino Physics ResearchRadioactive Decay and Measurement Techniques