Center for Theoretical and Computational Physics

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Publications

Phase behavior of a binary mixture of patchy colloids: Effect of particle size and gravity

Publication . Braz Teixeira, Rodrigo; de las Heras, Daniel; Tavares, Jose; Gama, Margarida

We study theoretically the effect of size difference and that of gravity in the phase behavior of a binary mixture of patchy particles. The species, 2A and 3B, have two A and three B patches, respectively, and only bonds between patches A and B (AB bonds) are allowed. This model describes colloidal systems where the aggregation of particles (3B) is mediated and controlled by a second species, the linkers (2A) to which they bind strongly. Thermodynamic calculations are performed using Wertheim’s perturbation theory with a hard sphere reference term that accounts for the difference in the size of the two species. Percolation lines are determined employing a generalized Flory–Stockmayer theory, and the effects of gravity are included through a local density approximation. The bulk phase diagrams are calculated, and all the stacking sequences generated in the presence of gravity are determined and classified in a stacking diagram. The relative size of the particles can be used to control the phase behavior of the mixture. An increase in the size of particles 3B, relative to the size of the linkers 2A, is found to promote mixing while keeping the percolating structures and, in certain cases, leads to changes in the stacking sequence under gravity.

2021-07-26Journal article

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Vacuum structure of the Z(2) symmetric Georgi-Machacek model

Publication . Azevedo, Duarte; Ferreira, Pedro Miguel; Logan, Heather E.; Santos, Rui

We discuss the vacuum structure of a version of the Georgi-Machecek model with an exact Z(2) symmetry acting on the triplet fields. Besides the usual custodial-symmetric model, with rho = 1 at tree-level, a model with a dark matter candidate is also viable. The other phases of the model lead to electric charge breaking, a wrong pattern of electroweak symmetry breaking or to rho not equal 1 at tree-level. We derive conditions to have an absolute minimum in each of the two viable phases, the custodial and the dark matter phases.

2021-03-23Journal article

Open access

Dynamics of two-dimensional liquid bridges

Publication . Coelho, Rodrigo; Cordeiro, Luis A. R. G.; Gazola, Rodrigo B.; Teixeira, Paulo

We have simulated the motion of a single vertical, two-dimensional liquid bridge spanning the gap between two flat, horizontal solid substrates of given wettabilities, using a multicomponent pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann method. For this simple geometry, the Young-Laplace equation can be solved (quasi-)analytically to yield the equilibrium bridge shape under gravity, which provides a check on the validity of the numerical method. In steady-state conditions, we calculate the drag force exerted by the moving bridge on the confining substrates as a function of its velocity, for different contact angles and Bond numbers. We also study how the bridge deforms as it moves, as parametrized by the changes in the advancing and receding contact angles at the substrates relative to their equilibrium values. Finally, starting from a bridge within the range of contact angles and Bond numbers in which it can exist at equilibrium, we investigate how fast it must move in order to break up.

2022-05-18Journal article

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Benchmarking di-Higgs production in various extended Higgs sector models

Publication . Abouabid, Hamza; Arhrib, Abdesslam; Azevedo, Duarte; Falaki, Jaouad El; Ferreira, Pedro Miguel; Muhlleitner, Milada; Santos, Rui

We present a comprehensive study on Higgs pair production in various archetypical extended Higgs sectors such as the real and the complex 2-Higgs-Doublet Model, the 2-Higgs-Doublet Model augmented by a real singlet field and the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. We take into account all relevant theoretical and experimental constraints, in particular the experimental limits on non-resonant and resonant Higgs pair production. We present the allowed cross sections for Standard Model (SM)-like Higgs pair production and the ranges of the SM-like Yukawa and trilinear Higgs self-coupling that are still compatible with the applied constraints. Furthermore, we give results for the pair production of a SM-like with a non-SM-like Higgs boson and for the production of a pair of non-SM-like Higgs bosons. We find that di-Higgs production in the models under investigation can exceed the SM rate substantially, not only in the non-resonance region but also due to resonant enhancement. We give several benchmarks with interesting features such as large cross sections, the possibility to test CP violation, Higgs-to-Higgs cascade decays or di-Higgs production beating single Higgs production. In all of our benchmark points, the next-to-leading order QCD corrections are included in the large top-mass limit. For these points, we found that, depending on the model and the Higgs pair final state, the corrections increase the leading order cross section by a factor of 1.79 to 2.24. We also discuss the relation between the description of Higgs pair production in an effective field theory approach and in the specific models investigated here

2022-09-11Journal article

Open access

Direct detection of pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter in a two Higgs doublet plus singlet extension of the SM

Publication . Biekötter, Thomas; Gabriel, Pedro; Romacho, María Olalla Olea; Santos, Rui

We calculate the leading radiative corrections to the dark-matter-nucleon scattering in the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone dark matter model augmented with a second Higgs doublet (S2HDM). In this model, the cross sections for the scattering of the darkmatter on nuclei vanishes at tree-level in the limit of zero momentum-transfer due to a U(1) symmetry. However, this symmetry is softly broken in order to give a mass to the dark-matter particle. As a consequence, non-vanishing scattering cross sections arise at the loop level. We find that the current cross-section limits from dark-matter direct-detection experiments can hardly constrain the parameter space of the S2HDM. However, the loop-corrected predictions for the scattering cross sections can be well within the reach of future direct-detection experiments. As a consequence, future phenomenological analyses of the S2HDM should take into account cross-section predictions beyond tree-level and the experimental constraints from dark-matter direct-detection experiments.

2022-10Journal article

Open access