Browsing by Author "Zerwekh, Alfonso"

In this work, we explore a three-dimensional formulation of the polynomial affine model of gravity, which is a model that extends general relativity by relaxing the equivalence principle through the exclusion of the metric from the set of fundamental fields. In particular, in an attempt to gain insight of the role of the torsion and nonmetricity in the gravitational models, we consider homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models, for which their solutions are classified in a decisions tree. We also show a few of these explicit solutions that allow the definition of (alternative/emergent) metrics derived from the connection.

In scenarios of strongly coupled electroweak symmetry breaking, heavy composite particles of different spin and parity may arise and cause observable effects on signals that appear at loop levels. The recently observed process of Higgs to $\gamma \gamma$ at the LHC is one of such signals. We study the new constraints that are imposed on composite models from $H\to \gamma\gamma$, together with the existing constraints from the high precision electroweak tests. We use an effective chiral Lagrangian to describe the effective theory that contains the Standard Model spectrum and the extra composites below the electroweak scale. Considering the effective theory cutoff at $\Lambda = 4\pi v \sim 3 $ TeV, consistency with the $T$ and $S$ parameters and the newly observed $H\to \gamma \gamma$ can be found for a rather restricted range of masses of vector and axial-vector composites from $1.5$ TeV to $1.7$ TeV and $1.8$ TeV to $1.9$ TeV, respectively, and only provided a non-standard kinetic mixing between the $W^{3}$ and $B^{0}$ fields is included.