Non-relativistic high-energy physics: top production and dark matter annihilation

TL;DR

This review explores non-relativistic effects in high-energy physics, focusing on top-quark production corrections, soft gluon resummation, and dark matter annihilation enhancements near the TeV scale.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of non-relativistic dynamics in high-energy processes, including advanced calculations and resummation techniques for top-quark and dark matter interactions.

Findings

Third-order corrections significantly impact top-quark pair production near threshold.

Resummation of non-relativistic and soft gluon effects improves prediction accuracy.

Electroweak Yukawa forces can cause large Sommerfeld enhancements in dark matter annihilation.

Abstract

Non-relativistic physics is often associated with atomic physics and low-energy phenomena of the strong interactions between nuclei and quarks. In this review we cover three topics in contemporary high-energy physics at or close to the TeV scale, where non-relativistic dynamics plays an important if not defining role. We first discuss in detail the third-order corrections to top-quark pair production in electron-positron collisions in the threshold region, which plays a major role at a future high-energy e+ e- collider. Threshold effects are also relevant in the production of heavy particles in hadronic collisions, where in addition to the Coulomb force soft gluon radiation contributes to enhanced quantum corrections. We review the joint resummation of non-relativistic and soft gluon effects for pair production of top quarks and supersymmetric particles to next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The third topic deals with pair annihilation of dark matter particles within the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Here the electroweak Yukawa force generated by the exchange of gauge and Higgs bosons can cause large "Sommerfeld" enhancements of the annihilation cross section in some parameter regions.