Self-interacting neutrinos that begin to free-stream at close to matter-radiation equality can reduce the physical size of photon sound horizon at last scattering surface. This mechanism can be the reason why standard $Λ$CDM cosmology sees a lower value of the Hubble constant than local measurements from distance ladder. We propose a new realization of self-interacting Dirac neutrinos (SID$ν$) with light-dark-photon mediator for a viable interaction mechanism. Our model is UV completed by a Dirac seesaw with anomaly-free dark $U(1)_X^{}$ gauge group which charges the right-handed neutrinos. This model naturally generates small masses for Dirac neutrinos and induces self-scattering of right-handed neutrinos. The scattering with left-handed neutrinos is suppressed by a chirality-flip mass insertion when the neutrino energy is much larger than its mass. The resultant neutrino self-scattering is not operative for $E_ν\gtrsim O(\text{keV})$, which avoids the cosmological and laboratory constraints. By evolving Boltzmann equations for left- and right-handed neutrino number densities, we show that about $2/3$ of the left-handed neutrinos are converted into right-handed neutrinos in a short epoch between the Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and the recombination, and interact with each other efficiently afterwards. The resultant neutrino non-free-streaming is the crucial ingredient to shrink down the comoving sound horizon at drag epoch, which can reconcile the Hubble tension between early and late time measurements.
We consider the inverse Seesaw scenario for neutrino masses with the approximate Lepton number symmetry broken dynamically by a scalar with Lepton number two. We show that the Majoron associated to the spontaneous symmetry breaking can alleviate the Hubble tension through its contribution to $ΔN_\text{eff}$ and late decays to neutrinos. Among the additional fermionic states required for realizing the inverse Seesaw mechanism, sterile neutrinos at the keV-MeV scale can account for all the dark matter component of the Universe if produced via freeze-in from the decays of heavier degrees of freed…
We investigate a scenario inspired by natural supersymmetry, where neutrino data is explained within a low-scale seesaw scenario. For this the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is extended by adding light right-handed neutrinos and their superpartners, the R-sneutrinos. Moreover, we consider the lightest electroweakinos to be higgsino-like. We demonstrate that a prospective international $e^+ e^-$ linear collider with a center of mass energy of 1 TeV will be able to discover sleptons in scenarios which can be difficult for current colliders. Moreover, we also show that a measurement of the…
We explore the possibility of resolving simultaneously the $W$-boson mass shift reported by the CDF collaboration and the apparent deviation from unitarity in the first row of the CKM mixing matrix in a class of left-right symmetric models. The fermion masses are generated in these models through a universal seesaw mechanism, utilizing vector-like partners of the usual fermions. We find a unique solution to the two anomalies where the mixing of the down quark with a vector-like quark (VLQ) resolves the CKM unitarity puzzle, and the mixing of the top quark with a VLQ partner explains the $W$ bo…
We investigate a scenario inspired by natural supersymmetry, where neutrino data is explained within a low-scale seesaw scenario. For this the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is extended by adding light right-handed neutrinos and their superpartners, the R-sneutrinos. Moreover, we consider the lightest neutralinos to be Higgsino-like. We first update a previous analysis and assess to which extent does existing LHC data constrain the allowed slepton masses. Here we find scenarios where sleptons with masses as low as 175 GeV are consistent with existing data. However, we also show that the…
We revisit D-term inflation with the bounds of the cosmic string tension from gravitational wave observations and consider the possible deviation of the spectral index compared with the $Λ$CDM model in light of prerecombination resolutions of the Hubble tension. D-term inflation requires very small coupling constants under these constraints. We show that natural coupling constants ($g=λ=0.1$) can be achieved in the case of D-term inflation on the brane.
The recent BICEP2 measurement of primordial gravity waves (r = 0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}) appears to be in tension with the upper limit from WMAP (r<0.13 at 95% CL) and Planck (r<0.11 at 95% CL). We carefully quantify the level of tension and show that it is very significant (around 0.1% unlikely) when the observed deficit of large-scale temperature power is taken into account. We show that measurements of TE and EE power spectra in the near future will discriminate between the hypotheses that this tension is either a statistical fluke, or a sign of new physics. We also discuss extensions of the sta…
Resolving the Planck-DESI tension by nonminimally coupled quintessence
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)（中国科学院大学）；Institute of Fundamental Physics and Quantum Technology, Ningbo University（宁波大学基础物理与量子技术学院）；School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学杭州高等研究院基础物理与数学科学学院）；Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP)（亚太理论物理中心）
Resolving the Hubble Tension in the Early Dark Energy Framework with JWST and DESI Data
College of Sciences, Northeastern University（东北大学理学院）；Department of Physics, Shanghai University（上海大学物理系）；School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（中国科学院大学杭州高等研究院基础物理与数学科学学院）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）
In this paper, we explore possibilities of resolving the Hubble tension and $(g-2)_μ$ anomaly simultaneously in a U(1)$_{L_μ- L_τ}$ model with Majoron. We only focus on a case where the Majoron $ϕ$ does not exist at the beginning of the universe and is created by neutrino inverse decay $νν\to ϕ$ after electron-positron annihilation. In this case, contributions of the new gauge boson $Z'$ and Majoron $ϕ$ to the effective number of neutrino species $N_{\rm eff}$ can be calculated in separate periods. These contribution are labelled $N'_{\rm eff}$ for the U(1)$_{L_μ- L_τ}$ gauge boson and $ΔN_{\r…
The PQ mechanism resolving the strong CP problem and the seesaw mechanism explaining the smallness of neutrino masses may be related in a way that the PQ symmetry breaking scale and the seesaw scale arise from a common origin. Depending on how the PQ symmetry and the seesaw mechanism are realized, one has different predictions on the color and electromagnetic anomalies which could be tested in the future axion dark matter search experiments. Motivated by this, we construct various PQ seesaw models which are minimally extended from the (non-) supersymmetric Standard Model and thus set up differ…
New Early Dark Energy (NEDE) is a component of vacuum energy at the electron volt scale, which decays in a first-order phase transition shortly before recombination [arXiv:1910.10739]. The NEDE component has the potential to resolve the tension between recent local measurements of the expansion rate of the Universe using supernovae (SN) data and the expansion rate inferred from the early Universe through measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) when assuming $Λ$CDM. We discuss in depth the two-scalar field model of the NEDE phase transition including the process of bubble percolat…
The current data of the two long-baseline accelerator experiments NO$ν$A and T2K, shows a tension at more than 90$\%$ C.L. for 2 degrees of freedom, in the determination of the standard CP-phase $δ_{\mathrm {CP}}$ in case of neutrino normal ordering (NO). NO$ν$A measures the value close to $δ_{\mathrm {CP}} \sim 0.8 π$, while T2K prefers the value of $δ_{\mathrm {CP}} \sim 1.4 π$. We show that such a tension can be resolved if one hypothesizes the existence of neutral-current non-standard interactions (NSI) of neutrinos involving the flavor changing type $e-μ$ or the $e-τ$ sectors with couplin…
Self-interaction among the neutrinos in the early Universe has been proposed as a solution to the Hubble tension, a discrepancy between the measured values of the Hubble constant from CMB and low-redshift data. However, flavor-universal neutrino self-interaction is highly constrained by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and other laboratory experiments such as, tau and K-meson decay, double-neutrino beta decay etc. We study the cosmology when only one or two neutrino states are self-interacting. Such flavor-specific interactions are less constrained by the laboratory experiments. Lastly, we address the…
The Littlest Seesaw (LS) model involves two right-handed neutrinos and a very constrained Dirac neutrino mass matrix, involving one texture zero and two independent Dirac masses, leading to a highly predictive scheme in which all neutrino masses and the entire PMNS matrix is successfully predicted in terms of just two real parameters. We calculate the renormalisation group (RG) corrections to the LS predictions, with and without supersymmetry, including also the threshold effects induced by the decoupling of heavy Majorana neutrinos both analytically and numerically. We find that the predictio…
Local measurements of the Hubble constant currently disagree with the high-precision value that is inferred from the CMB under the assumption of a $Λ$CDM cosmology. The significance of this tension clearly motivates studying extensions of the standard cosmological model capable of addressing this outstanding issue. Broadly speaking, models that have been successful in reducing the the tension between the CMB and local measurements (without introducing additional tension in other datasets) require an additional component of the energy density in the Universe at a time close to recombination. In…
We propose a radiative seesaw model with a hidden $U(1)$ gauge symmetry. In order to have anomaly cancellations, we need to introduce several new fermions that contribute to muon anomalous magnetic dipole moment $(g-2)_μ$ as well as explain the neutrino oscillation data. We also consider a fermionic dark matter candidate that correlates with $(g-2)_μ$ and neutrino mass matrix at the same time. We show allowed regions in our input parameters satisfying several constraints. Finally, we also briefly discuss the possibility of the resolution of the Hubble tension via neutrino self-interactions med…
The discovery of gravitational waves opens new opportunities to test BSM physics. In particular, the production of a stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves could provide a signature of the generation of the right-right Majorana neutrino mass term necessary, within type-I seesaw mechanism, to explain lightness of neutrinos and their mixing parameters. I will discuss the possibility that such a generation occurs during a strong first order phase transition within Majoron models [1]. As well known, this can indeed produce a stochastic background of gravitational waves. The scale …
The recent recomputation of the neutrino fluxes from nuclear reactors relaxes the tension between the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies and disappearance data when interpreted in terms of sterile neutrino oscillations. The simplest extension of the Standard Model with such fermion singlets is the addition of right-handed sterile neutrinos with small Majorana masses. Even when introducing three right-handed neutrinos, this scenario has less free parameters than the 3+2 scenarios studied in the literature. This begs the question whether the best fit regions obtained can be reproduced by this simplest…
A predictive framework for fermion masses and mixing is given by the supersymmetric SO(10) model with one 10, one bar126, one 126 and one 210 Higgs representations, and type II seesaw dominating the neutrino mass matrix. We investigate the origin of the tension between this model and lepton mixing data and refine previous numerical analyses. We discuss an extension of the minimal model that includes one 120 Higgs chiral superfield representation. This exhausts the possible renormalizable contributions to the Yukawa sector. In spite of the increase in the number of parameters the predictivity o…
We explore the complementarity between terrestrial neutrino oscillation experiments and astrophysical/cosmological measurements in probing the existence of sterile neutrinos. We find that upcoming accelerator neutrino experiments will not improve on constraints by the time they are operational, but that reactor experiments can already probe parameter space beyond the reach of Planck. We emphasize the tension between cosmological experiments and reactor antineutrino experiments and enumerate several possibilities for resolving this tension.
We propose an extra $U(1)_X$ model with an alternative charge assignment for right-handed right-handed neutrinos. The type-II seesaw mechanism by a triplet Higgs field is promising for neutrino mass generation because of the alternative charge assignment. The small vacuum expectation value (VEV) of an additional Higgs doublet naturally leads to a very small VEV of the triplet Higgs field, and as a result, the smallness of neutrino mass can be understood. With the minimal Higgs field for $U(1)_X$ with the charge $1$, right-handed neutrinos are candidates for Dirac dark matter (DM) and dark radi…
Hot new early dark energy describes a supercooled, first-order phase transition that takes place at sub-eV temperatures in the dark sector. It lowers the sound horizon, which provides a possible solution to the Hubble tension, and, at the same time, it can explain the neutrino masses through the inverse seesaw mechanism by making a set of sterile Majorana fermions massive. First, we argue that this scenario strengthens existing cosmological bounds on the heaviest neutrino mass. This, in turn, constrains the dark sector temperature, which provides us in total with two falsifiable predictions. I…
In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) with extra heavy neutrino superfields, neutrino may acquire its mass via a seesaw mechanism and sneutrino may act as a viable dark matter (DM) candidate. Given the strong tension between the naturalness for $Z$ boson mass and the DM direct detection experiments for customary neutralino DM candidate, we augment the NMSSM with Type-I seesaw mechanism, which is the simplest extension of the theory to predict neutrino mass, and study the scenarios of sneutrino DM. We construct likelihood function with LHC Higgs data, B-physics measuremen…
The majoron, a pseudo-Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of global lepton number, is a generic feature of many models intended to explain the origin of the small neutrino masses. In this work, we investigate potential imprints in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) arising from massive majorons, should they thermalize with neutrinos after Big Bang Nucleosynthesis via inverse neutrino decays. We show that Planck2018 measurements of the CMB are currently sensitive to neutrino-majoron couplings as small as $λ\sim 10^{-13}$, which if interpreted in the context of the type-I se…
Non-Thermal Leptogenesis in the BLSM with Inverse Seesaw Mechanism
Division de Ciencias e Ingenierías, Universidad de Guanajuato（瓜纳华托大学科学与工程分院）；Centre for Theoretical Physics, Zewail City of Science and Technology（泽维尔科学与技术城理论物理中心）
Technische Universität München（慕尼黑工业大学）；Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University（诺迪塔，皇家理工学院和斯德哥尔摩大学）；University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学）
Taking advantage of Gaussian process (GP), we obtain an improved estimate of the Hubble constant, $H_0=70.41\pm1.58$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, using Hubble parameter [$H(z)$] from cosmic chronometers (CCH) and expansion rate function [$E(z)$], extracted from type Ia supernovae, data. We also use CCH data, including the ones with full covariance matrix, and $E(z)$ data to obtain a determination of $H_0=72.34_{-1.92}^{+1.90}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, which implies that the involvement of full covariance matrix results in higher values and uncertainties of $H_0$. These results are higher than those …
A mechanism has been suggested recently to generate the neutrino mass out of a dimension-seven operator. This is expected to relieve the tension between the occurrence of a tiny neutrino mass and the observability of other physics effects beyond it. Such a mechanism would inevitably entail lepton flavor violating effects. We study in this work the radiative and purely leptonic transitions of the light charged leptons. In so doing we make a systematic analysis of the flavor structure by providing a convenient parametrization of the mass matrices in terms of independent physical parameters and d…
Within the standard LCDM model of cosmology, the recent Planck measurements have shown discrepancies with other observations, e.g., measurements of the current expansion rate H_0, the galaxy shear power spectrum and counts of galaxy clusters. We show that if LCDM is extended by a hot dark matter component, which could be interpreted as a sterile neutrino, the data sets can be combined consistently. A combination of Planck data, WMAP-9 polarisation data, measurements of the BAO scale, the HST measurement of H_0, Planck galaxy cluster counts and galaxy shear data from the CFHTLens survey yields …
We present a detailed investigation of a sub-dominant oscillating scalar field ('early dark energy', EDE) in the context of resolving the Hubble tension. Consistent with earlier work, but without relying on fluid approximations, we find that a scalar field frozen due to Hubble friction until ${\rm log}_{10}(z_c)\sim3.5$, reaching $ρ_{\rm EDE}(z_c)/ρ_{\rm tot}\sim10$%, and diluting faster than matter afterwards can bring cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryonic acoustic oscillations, supernovae luminosity distances, and the late-time estimate of the Hubble constant from the SH0ES collaborati…
It has recently been shown that a subdominant hidden sector of atomic dark matter in the early universe provides a novel avenue towards resolving the Hubble ($H_0$) tension while maintaining good agreement with Cosmic Microwave Background era observables. However, such a mechanism requires a hidden sector whose energy density ratios are the same as in our sector and whose recombination also takes place at redshift $z \approx 1100$, which presents an apparent fine tuning. We introduce a realistic model of this scenario that dynamically enforces these coincidences without fine tuning. In our set…
The mirror twin Higgs model (MTH) is a solution to the Higgs hierarchy problem that provides well-predicted cosmological signatures with only three extra parameters: the temperature of the twin sector, the abundance of twin baryons, and the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of twin electroweak symmetry breaking. These parameters specify the behavior of twin radiation and the acoustic oscillations of twin baryons, which lead to testable effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS). While collider searches can only probe the twin VEV, through a fit to cosmologica…
We propose a novel way of probing high scale Dirac leptogenesis, a viable alternative to canonical leptogenesis scenario where the total lepton number is conserved, keeping light standard model (SM) neutrinos purely Dirac. The simplest possible seesaw mechanism for generating light Dirac neutrinos involve heavy singlet Dirac fermions and a singlet scalar. In addition to unbroken global lepton number, a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry is imposed to forbid direct coupling between right and left chiral parts of light Dirac neutrino. Generating light Dirac neutrino mass requires the singlet scalar to acqu…
Motivated by the tensions in the Hubble constant $H_0$ and the structure growth $σ_8$ between $Planck$ results and other low redshift measurements, we discuss some cosmological effects of a dark sector model in which dark matter (DM) interacts with fermionic dark radiation (DR) through a light gauge boson (dark photon). Such kind of models are very generic in particle physics with a dark sector with dark gauge symmetries. The effective number of neutrinos is increased by $δN_{eff} \sim 0.5$ due to light dark photon and fermionic DR, thereby resolving the conflicts in $H_0$. The elastic scatter…
Measurement of the distances to nearby galaxies have improved rapidly in recent decades. The ever-present challenge is to reduce systematic effects, especially as greater distances are probed, and the uncertainties become larger. In this paper, we combine several recent calibrations of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) method. These calibrations are internally self-consistent at the 1% level. New Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) data provide an additional consistency check, at a (lower) 5% level of accuracy, a result of the well-documented Gaia angular covariance bias. The updated TRGB ca…
We have studied the correlations among the three absolute neutrino mass observables - the effective Majorana mass ($m_{ee}$) which can be obtained from neutrinoless double beta decay, the electron neutrino mass ($m_β$) which is measured in single beta decay experiments and the sum of the light neutrino masses ($Σ$) which is constrained from cosmological observations, in the context of minimal left-right symmetric model. Two phenomenologically interesting cases of type-I seesaw dominance as well as type-II seesaw dominance have been considered. We have taken into account the independent constra…
Impostor Among $ν$s: Dark Radiation Masquerading as Self-Interacting Neutrinos
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics（萨哈核物理研究所）；Homi Bhabha National Institute（霍米·巴巴国立学院）；Washington University（华盛顿大学）；Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz（美因茨约翰内斯古腾堡大学）；Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）
A gauged U(1)_B-L symmetry predicts three right handed handed neutrinos and its spontaneous breaking automatically yields the seesaw mechanism. In a supersymmetric setting this breaking can be nicely linked with inflation to yield deltaT/ T proportional to (M_B-L / M_P)^2, where M_B-L (M_P) denote the B-L breaking (Planck) scale. Thus M_B-L is estimated to be of order 10^16 GeV, and the heaviest right handed neutrino mass is less than or of order 10^14 GeV. A second right handed neutrino turns out to have a mass of order 10-10^2 T_r, where T_r (<~10^9 GeV) denotes the reheat temperature. A U(1…
