Mirage models confront the LHC: Kähler-stabilized heterotic string theory

LBNL- UCB-PTH-13/02 arXiv:1303.6575v1 [hep-ph] March 2013 Mirage Models Confront the LHC: I. K¨ ahler-Stabilized Heterotic String Theory 1 Bryan L. Kaufman and Brent D. Nelson Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA Mary K. Gaillard Department of Physics, University of California and Theoretical Physics Group, Bldg. 50A5104, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, CA 94720 USA Abstract We begin the study of a class of string-motivated effective super- gravity theories in light of current data from the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The case of heterotic string theory, in which the dila- ton is stabilized via non-perturbative corrections to the K¨ahler metric, will be considered first. This model is highly constrained and therefore predictive. We find that much of the reasonable parameter space af- forded to the model – representing the strong dynamics of a presumed gaugino condensation in the hidden sector – is now observationally disfavored by the LHC results. Most of the theoretically-motivated parameter space that remains can be probed with data that has al- ready been collected, and most of the remainder √ will be definitively explored within the first year of operation at s = 13TeV. Expected signatures for a number of benchmark points are discussed. We find that the surviving space of the model makes a precise prediction as to the relation of many superpartner masses, as well as the manner in which the correct dark matter relic density is obtained. Implications for current and future dark matter search experiments are discussed. This work was supported in part by the Director, Office of Science, Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics, Division of High Energy Physics of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231, in part by the National Science Foundation under grants PHY-0757959 and PHY-0457315.