Use and reuse of SMEFT

TL;DR

This paper explores the effectiveness of SMEFT in describing deviations from the Standard Model, extracting insights about BSM physics, and establishing a framework for reporting and comparing SMEFT fit results across various observables.

Contribution

It advocates for widespread use of SMEFT as both a fitting tool and a bookkeeping framework for extended scalar sector BSM models.

Findings

SMEFT can describe observed deviations from the Standard Model.

A systematic approach to report and archive SMEFT fit results is proposed.

Compatibility of individual SMEFT results with BSM models can be assessed.

Abstract

In this work we address three questions: can we successfully describe (observed) deviations from the standard model in the SMEFT language? Can we learn something about the underlying, beyond the standard model, physics using the SMEFT language? If no deviation is observed, how to proceed? Given the myriad of viable BSM options with extended scalar sectors, we suggest a widespread use of SMEFT not just as a global fitting tool (that could miss out on deviations from extended scalar sectors) but also as a bookkeeping framework in which the results from SMEFT fits to individual observables are provided, reported, and archived in a consistent way. The compatibility of such individual results can then be assessed in the light of BSM models with extended scalar sectors.