Charting New Physics with SMEFT and ALP EFT at Colliders
Date: 07 OCTOBER 2026 from 14:00 to 15:00
Event location: IR-1A
Charting New Physics with SMEFT and ALP EFT at Colliders
In the absence of direct evidence for new physics, rare and non-resonant collider processes can provide sensitive probes of interactions beyond the Standard Model. In this talk, I will discuss two effective field theory frameworks relevant to searches for heavy and light new physics.
In the first part, I will present three applications of SMEFT for indirect probes of heavy new physics. I will use Higgs-plus-photon production at the LHC as an example of a rare process that is suppressed in the SM but can receive significant contributions from dimension-six interactions. Bosonic and fermionic operators lead to distinct kinematic and energy-dependent effects that can be exploited using boosted observables and multivariate techniques. I will then discuss the one-loop matching of extended scalar sectors onto dimension-six and dimension-eight SMEFT operators, and the relevance of higher-dimensional contributions to precision observables. Finally, I will consider a complementary probe of Higgs self-interactions through vector-boson scattering at the FCC-hh.
In the second part, I will turn to effective theories containing an axion-like particle as an additional light degree of freedom. I will discuss both direct production and non-resonant signatures, highlighting the complementary information obtained from different collider processes and kinematic regimes. I will present prospects for probing ALP interactions at the LHC and future lepton colliders, with an emphasis on high-energy and flavour-sensitive observables.