It has been shown that tribimaximal mixing can be obtained by some particular breaking pattern of the $A_4$ symmetry, wherein the extra $A_4$ triplet Higgs scalars pick up certain fixed vacuum expectation value (VEV) alignments. We have performed a detailed analysis of the different possible neutrino mass matrices within the framework of the $A_4$ model. We take into account all possible singlet and triplet Higgs scalars which leave the Lagrangian invariant under $A_4$. We break $A_4$ spontaneously, allowing the Higgs to take any VEV in general. We show that the neutrino mixing matrix deviates from tribimaximal, both due to the presence of the extra Higgs singlets, as well as from the deviation of the triplet Higgs VEV from its desired alignment, taken previously. We solve the eigenvalue problem for a variety of these illustrative cases and identify the ones where one obtains exact tribimaximal mixing. All such cases require fine-tuning. We show which neutrino mass matrices would be strongly disfavored by the current neutrino data. Finally, we study in detail the phenomenology of the remaining viable mass matrices and establish the deviation of the neutrino mixing from tribimaximal, both analytically as well as numerically.
A phenomenological ansatz for the flavor-asymmetry of the light sea distributions of the nucleon, based on the Pauli exclusion principle, is proposed. This ansatz is compatible with the measured flavor-asymmetry of the unpolarized sea distributions, $\bar{d}>\bar{u}$, of the nucleon. A prediction for the corresponding polarized flavor-asymmetry is presented and shown to agree with predictions of (chiral quark--soliton) models which successfully reproduced the flavor-asymmetry of the unpolarized sea.
I present EOS, an open-source software dedicated to a variety of tasks in the processing of flavor physics observables. EOS is written in C++ and offers both a C++ and a Python interface. It is developed for three main tasks, the production of theoretical predictions for flavor physics observables; the inference of theoretical parameters from an extensible database of likelihoods; and the production of Monte Carlo samples of flavor processes for sensitivity studies.
This dissertation investigates the flavor mixing effects in supersymmetric models on electroweak precision observables, Higgs boson mass predictions, B-physics observables, quark flavor violating Higgs decays, lepton flavor violating charged lepton decays and lepton flavor violating Higgs decays. The flavor mixing effects are studied in model independent way i.e. by putting off-diagonal entries in the sfermion mass matrix by hand as well as in the minimal flavor violating constrained MSSM, where mixing can originate from CKM matrix in the case of squarks and from PMNS matrix in the case of sle…
The phenomenology of absolute neutrino masses is reviewed, focusing on tritium beta decay, cosmological measurements and neutrinoless double-beta decay.
We make a general analysis of neutrino phenomenology for the case neutrino masses are generated by the see-saw mechanism with just two right handed neutrinos. We find general constraints on leptogenesis and lepton flavour violating processes. We also analyse the predictions following from a nontrivial texture zero structure.
We analyze phenomenological aspects of the quantum field theoretical formulation of meson mixing and obtain the exact oscillation formula in the presence of the decay. This formula is different from quantum mechanical formula by additional high-frequency oscillation terms. In the infinite volume limit, the space of the flavor quantum states is unitarily inequivalent to the space of energy eigenstates.
Neutrino oscillation phenomenology is briefly reviewed, and impact of the late Professor Masatoshi Koshiba on research on neutrino oscillation is discussed from the viewpoint of phenomenology.
We explain the physics of neutrino oscillation in vacuum and in matter. We attempt to clarify several features of oscillation that can be puzzling when neutrinos are their own antiparticles.
The phenomenology of solar, atmospheric, supernova and laboratory neutrino oscillations is described. Analytical formulae for matter effects are reviewed. The results from oscillations are confronted with neutrinoless double beta decay.
The 331 model offers an explanation of flavor by anomaly cancellation between three families. It predicts three exotic quarks, $Q=D$, $S$, $T$, and five extra gauge bosons comprising an additional neutral $Z_2$ and four charged dileptonic gauge bosons $(Y^{--},Y^-)$, $(Y^{++},Y^+)$. Production of $Q\overline{Q}$, $QY$, $YY$ and $Z_2$ at the SSC is calculated, and signatures are discussed.
The most general two-Higgs doublet model (2HDM) includes potentially large sources of flavor changing neutral currents (FCNCs) that must be suppressed in order to achieve a phenomenologically viable model. The flavor alignment ansatz postulates that all Yukawa coupling matrices are diagonal when expressed in the basis of mass-eigenstate fermion fields, in which case tree-level Higgs mediated FCNCs are eliminated. In this work, we explore models with the flavor alignment condition imposed at a very high energy scale, which results in the generation of Higgs-mediated FCNCs via renormalization gr…
A simple method of the calculation of neutrino transition probabilities in vacuum in the general case of $n$ massive neutrinos is presented. The method proposed fully utilizes the unitarity of the mixing matrix. Three-neutrino case for both neutrino mass hierarchies is considered in some details. Transitions in the case of the sterile neutrinos are also discussed.
We study several phenomenologies of an E_6 inspired extra U(1) model with S_4 flavor symmetry. With the assignment of left-handed quarks and leptons to S_4-doublet, SUSY flavor problem is softened. As the extra Higgs bosons are neutrinophilic, baryon number asymmetry in the universe is realized by leptogenesis without causing gravitino overproduction. We find that the allowed region for the lightest chargino mass is given by 100-140 GeV, if the dark matter is a singlino dominated neutralino whose mass is about 36 GeV.
The field of lepton flavor violation will live an era of unprecedented developments in the near future, with dedicated experiments in different fronts. The observation of a flavor violating process involving charged leptons would be a clear evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model, thus motivating the great effort in this direction. Furthermore, in case a positive signal is found, a proper theoretical understanding of the lepton flavor anatomy of a given model would become necessary. Here I briefly review the current situation, emphasizing the most relevant theoretical and phenomenologica…
A priori mixings of eigenstates in physical states are quantum mechanical effects well known in several realms of physics. The possibility that such effects are also present in particle physics, in the form of mixings that break flavor and parity symmetries, is studied. Applications to non-leptonic and weak radiative decays of hyperons are discussed. The results are very encouraging but should be improved by eventually including the W and Z contributions, assumed small (non-enhanced) in this work.
Various issues in neutrino phenomenology are reviewed, including: the possibility of large mixing angles in various models for neutrino masses, difficulties for degenerate neutrinos as candidates for hot dark matter, strategies for discriminating between different oscillation interpretations of the atmospheric and solar neutrino anomalies, the programme of work for long-baseline neutrino experiments, and the possible future option of a muon storage ring as a neutrino factory.
We present an overview of the phenomenology of prompt neutrinos produced in the atmosphere by the decay of charmed particles. In face of the great activity involving operational and proposed large scale neutrino telescopes, we discuss the implications of different scenarios in calculating the prompt flux, upon the detectable signals in these experiments.
In this talk, I give an overview on recent theoretical and phenomenological studies of massive neutrinos. First of all, the present status of neutrino mixing parameters is summarized. The phenomenology of neutrino oscillations is then discussed, and current understanding of lepton flavor mixing is presented. Finally, I consider the seesaw models of neutrino masses and briefly mention the direct searches at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
It is shown in the three flavor framework that neutrino factories enable us to measure some of the oscillation parameters, such as the sign of $Δm_{32}^2$, $θ_{13}$, $δ$. Some efforts are made to determine the parameters (the muon energy and the neutrino path length) of a neutrino factory to optimize the signals.
We review theoretical ideas, problems and implications of neutrino masses and mixing angles. We give a general discussion of schemes with three light neutrinos. Several specific examples are analyzed in some detail, particularly those that can be embedded into grand unified theories.
We discuss phenomenology in a new TeV scale model which would explain neutrino oscillation, dark matter, and baryon asymmetry of the Universe simultaneously by the dynamics of the extended Higgs sector and TeV-scale right-handed neutrinos. Tiny neutrino masses are generated at the three-loop level due to the exact $Z_2$ symmetry, by which the stability of the dark matter candidate is guaranteed. The model provides various discriminative predictions in Higgs phenomenology, which can be tested at the Large Hadron Collider and the International Linear Collider.
Some recent experimental results obtained in collisions of heavy nuclei ($\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV) at BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) are discussed. The probes of dense matter created in heavy-ion collision by quarkonia, $D$ and $B$ mesons containing heavy charm and beauty quarks are considered. The centrality, rapidity and transverse momentum dependences of the nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow coefficient are presented and their possible theoretical interpretation is provided.
Zero temperature properties of an (axial-) vector meson extended linear sigma model are discussed, concerning on the possible different realizations of the axial anomaly term. The different anomaly terms are compared with each other on the basis of a chi^2 minimalization process. It is found that there is no essential difference among the different realizations. This means that any of them can be equally used from phenomenological point of view.
We study the temperature dependence of the adjoint Polyakov loop and its implication for the momentum spectrum of gluons in the mean-field approximation. This allows us to calculate the contribution of the thermal (transverse) gluons to the thermodynamic pressure. As an application, we evaluate the rates for the strange quark pair-production processes $q\bar{q} \to s\bar{s}$ and $gg \to s\bar{s}$ as functions of temperature including thermal effects on quark deconfinement and chiral symmetry breaking.
We review some fundamental aspects of the theory of neutrino masses and mixing. The results of neutrino oscillation experiments are interpreted as evidence of three-neutrino mixing. Implications for the mixing parameters and the neutrino masses are discussed, with emphasis on the connection with the measurements of the absolute values of neutrino masses in beta decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments and cosmological observations.
We propose a new type of radiative seesaw model in which observed neutrino masses are generated through a three-loop level diagram in combination with tree-level type-II seesaw mechanism in a renormalizable theory. We introduce a Non-abelian flavor symmetry $T_7$ in order to constrain the form of Yukawa interactions and Higgs potential. Although several models based on a Non-abelian flavor symmetry predict the universal coupling constants among the standard model like Higgs boson and charged leptons, which is disfavored by the current LHC data, our model can avoid such a situation. We show a b…
We review the problem of heavy-quark diffusion in the Quark-Gluon Plasma and its ramifications for heavy-quark spectra in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. In particular, we attempt to reconcile underlying mechanisms of several seemingly different approaches that have been put forward to explain the large suppression and elliptic flow of non-photonic electron spectra. We also emphasize the importance of a quantitative description of the bulk medium evolution to extract reliable values for the heavy-quark diffusion coefficient.
High precision electroweak tests, such as deviations from the Standard Model expectations of the Lepton Flavor Universality breaking in K->lnu (with l= e or mu), represent a powerful tool to test the Standard Model and, hence, to constrain or obtain indirect hints of New Physics beyond it. We explore such a possibility within Supersymmetric theories. Interestingly enough, a process that in itself does not need lepton flavor violation to occur, i.e. the violation of mu-e non-universality in K_l2, proves to be quite effective in constraining not only relevant regions of SUSY models where lepton …
The aim of these proceedings is to present the main predictions of the Randall-Sundrum model with custodial protection for particle-antiparticle mixing and rare decays of K and B_(s,d) mesons, putting particular attention on the testability of the resulting NP effects at future experiments. Before giving numerical results, we discuss theoretical expectations, residing in the flavor structure of the model. The high energy scale M_KK is chosen in such a way that direct searches of new particles at the LHC are possible, still being consistent with electroweak precision observables.
We consider models of maximal flavor violation (MxFV), in which a new scalar mediates large q_3 <-> q_1 or q_3 <-> q_2 flavor changing transitions (q_i is an i'th generation quark), while q_3 <-> q_3 transitions are suppressed, e.g., ξ_{31}, ξ_{13} ~ V_{tb} and ξ_{33} ~ V_{td}, where ξ_{ij} are the new scalar couplings to quarks and V is the CKM matrix. We show that, contrary to the conventional viewpoint, such models are not ruled out by the existing low energy data on K^0, B^0 and D^0 oscillations and rare K and B-decays. We also show that these models of MxFV can have surprising new signatu…
We study the phenomenology of d=7 1-loop neutrino mass models. All models in this particular class require the existence of several new $SU(2)_L$ multiplets, both scalar and fermionic, and thus predict a rich phenomenology at the LHC. The observed neutrino masses and mixings can easily be fitted in these models. Interestingly, despite the smallness of the observed neutrino masses, some particular lepton number violating (LNV) final states can arise with observable branching ratios. These LNV final states consists of leptons and gauge bosons with high multiplicities, such as 4l+4W, 6l+2W, etc. …
Anatomy and Phenomenology of Minimal Flavor Deconstruction in the Lepton Sector
Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)（意大利国家核物理研究所）；Institut de Física Corpuscular (CSIC-Universitat de València)（瓦伦西亚大学与西班牙国家科研中心联合粒子物理研究所）；Universität Zürich（苏黎世大学）
Neutrino oscillation is the new physics beyond standard model. In this paper we have revisited the issue of neutrino oscillation in simple and delicate manner. Starting from the fundamental quantum mechanical treatment for the neutrinos, we calculated the probabilities for the neutrino oscillating within three flavors. Normal and inverted hierarchy have been taken into account for the solar and atmospheric cases, in vacuum and matter. The probabilities have been plotted for all the cases and discussed.
The Little Flavor model is a close cousin of the Little Higgs theory which aims to generate flavor structure around TeV scale. While the original Little Flavor only included the quark sector, here we build the lepton part of the Little Flavor model and explore its phenomenology. The model produces the neutrino mixing matrix and Majorana masses of the Standard Model neutrinos through coupling to heavy lepton partners and Little Higgses. We combine the usual right-handed seesaw mechanism with global symmetry protection to suppress the Standard Model neutrino masses, and identify the TeV partners…
We reanalyze the recent data from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) experiment, that might indicate anti-nu_mu<--->anti-nu_e mixing. This indication is not completely excluded by the negative results of established accelerator and reactor neutrino oscillation searches. We quantify the region of compatibility by means of a thorough statistical analysis of all the available data, assuming both two-flavor and three-flavor neutrino oscillations. The implications for various theoretical scenarios and for future oscillation searches are studied. The relaxation of the LSND constraints …
We review the status of several phenomenological topics of current interest in neutrino oscillations: (i) Solar neutrino oscillations after the first Sudbury Neutrino Observatory measurements, including both model-independent and model-dependent results; (ii) Dominant nu_mu-->nu_tau oscillations of atmospheric and K2K neutrinos, and possible subdominant oscillations induced by either extra states or extra interactions; and (iii) Four-neutrino scenarios embedding the controversial LSND evidence for oscillations.
The generic predictions of two-texture zero neutrino mass matrices in the flavor basis have been examined especially in relation to the degeneracies between mass matrices within a class and interesting constraints on the neutrino parameters have been obtained. It is shown that the knowledge of the octant of $θ_{23}$, the sign of $\cosδ$ and neutrino mass hierarchy can be used to lift these degeneracies.
We extend the effective theory of Minimal Lepton Flavor Violation (MLFV) by including four-lepton operators. We compute the rates for mu -> 3 e and tau -> 3 ell decays and point out several new ways to test the hypothesis of MLFV. We also investigate to what extent it will be possible from (future) experimental information to pin down the contributions of different effective operators. In particular we look for experimental handles on quark-lepton operators of the type $\bar{ell}_i Γ\ell_j \times \bar q Γq$ by working out their contribution to hadronic processes such as tau -> mu pi^0, pi^0 ->…
(abridged) The physical mechanisms that make a neutrino with standard-model (SM) weak interactions a "lepton-number conservation (LNC) violating" neutrino such as the Majorana neutrino are analysed in a basis of two Majorana states that have opposite charge-parity ("charge-parity basis"). A small Majorana mass that is larger than any Dirac mass makes the neutrino not a Majorana but a "pseudo-Majorana" particle that has no definite chirality and therefore has a different phenomenology than the physical neutrino. A combination of a large Majorana and Dirac mass of nearly equal value makes the ne…
We formulate general conditions on $3\times 3$ neutrino mass matrices under which a degenerate pair of neutrinos at a high scale would split at low scale by radiative corrections involving only the standard model fields. This generalizes the original observations of Wolfenstein on pseudo Dirac neutrinos to three generations. A specific model involving partially broken discrete symmetry and solving the solar and atmospheric anomalies is proposed. The symmetry pattern of the model naturally generates two large angles one of which can account for the large angle MSW solution to the solar neutrino…
The Zee model for Dirac neutrinos is one of the simplest models featuring one-loop Dirac neutrino masses. The interactions between the new scalars (two singly-charged fields) and neutrinos induce general neutrino interactions (GNI) which, as a generalisation of the non standard neutrino interactions, constitute an additional tool to probe models beyond the SM like this. In this work, we consider a $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge symmetry as the responsible for the Diracness of the neutrinos and the radiative character of the neutrino masses. We determine the viable parameter space consistent with neutrino …
In this thesis we investigate several topics in neutrino physics, with an em- phasis on the phenomenology of the sterile neutrinos. We study the existence of a light sterile neutrino within the so called 3+1 scenario using the data of the medium baseline reactor experiments. We will also probe the parameters of the Large Extra Dimension model with the high energy atmospheric data of the IceCube experiment, and will find an equivalence between the Kaluza Klein modes and the sterile neutrinos. We will study the secret interaction of the ster- ile neutrinos which is proposed to solve the tension …
The relevance of the data concerning upward--going muons for the solution of the atmospheric neutrino problem is stressed. In particular, their inclusion in the analysis confirms the goodness of the neutrino oscillation hypothesis and allows to exclude some alternative, exotic explanations such as neutrino decay, flavour changing neutral currents, violations of the equivalence principle (at least in their simplest forms), and also to discriminate, in principle, between different neutrino oscillation models (nu_mu <-> nu_tau versus nu_mu <-> nu_s), because of the difference in the matter effect…
The scotogenic model is well known for accommodating small neutrino mass and dark matter. Here, we have realized the scotogenic model with the help of discrete flavor symmetry $A_{4}\otimes Z_{4}$. We have obtained three one zero textures of Yukawa coupling matrices from the model and have studied its impact on neutrino phenomenology and related aspects of cosmology. On the basis of $μ-τ$ symmetry, we have further discarded two structures of one zero texture Yukawa coupling matrix. We further analyze if the effective mass of active neutrinos obtained by the virtue of the Yukawa coupling matrix…
In this paper, we present several possible anomaly-free implementations of the Branco-Grimus-Lavoura (BGL) model with two Higgs doublets and one singlet scalar. The model also includes three generations of massive neutrinos that get their mass via a type-I seesaw mechanism. A particular anomaly-free realization, which we dub $ν$BGL-1 scenario, is subjected to an extensive phenomenological analysis, from the perspective of flavour physics and collider phenomenology.
We consider supersymmetric extension of standard electroweak model with Dirac neutrino masses. In such model for significant region of the parameters right-handed tau sneutrino is the lightest superparticle and right-handed charged tau slepton is the next to lightest superparticle. Due to the smallness of the neutrino masses the right-handed tau slepton is long-lived particle that changes the standard signatures used in the search for supersymmetry at supercolliders. The most striking signatures of such scenario is the existence of highly ionizing tracks and excess of multilepton events that i…
Neutrinoless double beta decay violates lepton number by two units, a positive observation therefore necessarily implies physics beyond the standard model. Here, three possible contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay are briefly reviewed: (a) The mass mechanism and its connection to neutrino oscillations; (b) Left-right symmetric models and the lower limit on the right-handed W boson mass; and (c) R-parity violating supersymmetry. In addition, the recently published ``extended black box'' theorem is briefly discussed. Combined with data from oscillation experiments this theorem provide…
A sterile neutrino in addition to the three known neutrinos seems unavoidable if one wants a simultaneous understanding of the results of the LSND experiment indicating $ν_μ-ν_e$ oscillation together with other evidences for neutrino oscillations such as those from solar and atmospheric neutrino deficits. A major theoretical challenge then is to understand why the sterile neutrino is so light. A simple solution appears to be to assume that it is the lightest neutrino of a mirror sector of the universe which has identical matter and gauge content as the standard model. After a brief review of t…
A comprehensive phenomenological analysis of a two Higgs doublet model, with flavor changing scalar currents at the tree level, called model III, is presented. Constraints from existing experimental information especially on (Delta F)=2 processes are systematically incorporated. Constraints emerging from rare B-decays, Z-->b\bar b, and the ρparameter are also examined. Experimental implications for e^+e^- (μ^+μ^-)-->t\bar c+\bar t c, t-->cγ(Z,g), D^0-\bar D^0, and B^0_s-\bar B^0_s oscillations, and for e^+e^-(Z)-->b\bar s+s\bar b are investigated and experimental effort towards these is stress…
We present an effective model, which is an extension of the usual linear sigma model, that contains a low energy multiplet for every hadronic particle type. These multiplets are a scalar nonet, a pseudoscalar nonet, a vector nonet, an axialvector nonet, a baryon octet and a baryon decuplet. Tree level baryon masses and possible two body decuplet decays are calculated. The baryon masses are generated through spontaneous symmetry breaking. The calculated quantities are used to determine the model parameters through a multiparametric minimalization process, which compares the calculated physical …
We show that neutrino telescopes, optimized for detecting neutrinos of TeV to PeV energy, can reveal threshold effects associated with TeV-scale gravity. The signature is an increase with energy of the cross section beyond what is predicted by the Standard Model. The advantage of the method is that the neutrino cross section is measured in an energy region where i) the models are characteristically distinguishable and ii) the Standard Model neutrino cross section can be reliably calculated so that any deviation can be conclusively identified.
Anarchic warped extra dimensional models provide a solution to the hierarchy problem. They can also account for the observed flavor hierarchies, but only at the expense of little hierarchy and CP problems, which naturally require a Kaluza-Klein (KK) scale beyond the LHC reach. We have recently shown that when flavor issues are decoupled, and assumed to be solved by UV physics, the framework's parameter space greatly opens. Given the possibility of a lower KK scale and composite light quarks, this class of flavor triviality models enjoys a rather exceptional phenomenology, which is the focus of…
Two recent experimental developments, when combined, may have far reaching implications. $S_{ϕK_S} < 0$, if confirmed, would imply large $s$-$b$ mixing, a new CP phase, and right-handed dynamics. Large $Δm_{B_s}$ would be likely, making the $B_s$ program at hadron machines difficult. Reconstruction of $B$ vertex from $K_S$ at B factories, as shown by BaBar's first measurement of $S_{K_Sπ^0}$, makes $S_{K_Sπ^0γ}$ in $\bar B\to \bar K^{*0}γ$ accessible. This would be a boon for B factory upgrades. Supersymmetric Abelian flavor symmetry, independently motivated, can realize all of this with a lig…
