Towards a precision calculation of $N_{\rm eff}$ in the Standard Model II: Neutrino decoupling in the presence of flavour oscillations and finite-temperature QED
Jack J. Bennett, Gilles Buldgen, Pablo F. de Salas, Marco Drewes, Stefano Gariazzo, Sergio Pastor, Yvonne Y. Y. Wong
备注：
31 pages, 7 figures. Version accepted for publication in JCAP
We present in this work a new calculation of the standard-model benchmark value for the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{\rm eff}^{\rm SM}$, that quantifies the cosmological neutrino-to-photon energy densities. The calculation takes into account neutrino flavour oscillations, finite-temperature effects in the quantum electrodynamics plasma to ${\cal O}(e^3)$, where $e$ is the elementary electric charge, and a full evaluation of the neutrino--neutrino collision integral. We provide furthermore a detailed assessment of the uncertainties in the benchmark $N_{\rm eff}^{\rm SM}$ value, through testing the value's dependence on (i)~optional approximate modelling of the weak collision integrals, (ii)~measurement errors in the physical parameters of the weak sector, and (iii)~numerical convergence, particularly in relation to momentum discretisation. Our new, recommended standard-model benchmark is $N_{\rm eff}^{\rm SM} = 3.0440 \pm 0.0002$, where the nominal uncertainty is attributed predominantly to errors incurred in the numerical solution procedure ($|δN_{\rm eff}| \sim10^{-4}$), augmented by measurement errors in the solar mixing angle $\sin^2θ_{12}$ ($|δN_{\rm eff}| \sim10^{-4}$).
We present a lattice analysis of the light pseudoscalar mesons with consideration for the mixing between the flavour-neutral states $π^0$, $η$ and $η^\prime$. We extract the masses and flavour compositions of the pseudoscalar meson nonet in $n_f=1+1+1$ lattice QCD+QED around an SU(3)-flavour symmetric point, and observe flavour-symmetry features of the extracted data, along with preliminary extrapolation results for the flavour compositions at the physical point. A key result of this work is the observed mass splitting between the $π^0$ and $η$ on our ensembles, which is found to exhibit behav…
We demonstrate that in unquenched quantum electrodynamics (QED), chiral symmetry breaking ceases to exist above a critical number of fermion flavours $N_f$. This is a necessary and sufficient consequence of the fact that there exists a critical value of electromagnetic coupling $α$ beyond which dynamical mass generation gets triggered. We employ a multiplicatively renormalizable photon propagator involving leading logarithms to all orders in $α$ to illustrate this. We study the flavour and coupling dependence of the dynamically generated mass analytically as well as numerically. We also derive…
We study the systematic inclusion of QED corrections in the evolution of parton distributions. O(alpha) corrections modify the evolution equation for parton distributions. They introduce additional parton distributions, like the photon distribution in the nucleon, and lead to additional mixing effects. We discuss the modifications for a realistic model of N_f,up up-type flavours and N_f,down down-type flavours. We have implemented these corrections into a numerical program and we quantify the size of these effects in a toy model. The corrections reach the order of 1%.
We perform a lattice study, in the quenched approximation, of dynamical mass generation in a system of relativistic (Dirac) fermions, coupled to an Abelian gauge field in (2+1)-dimensions, in the presence of an external (constant) magnetic field, perpendicular to the spatial planes. It is shown that a strong magnetic field catalyzes chiral symmetry breaking, in agreement with results in the continuum. The rôle of the higher-Landau poles in inducing a critical temperature above which the phenomenon disappears is pointed out. We also discuss the implications of this model on the opening of a gap…
Decoupling of a heavy flavour in QCD is discussed in a pedagogical way. First we consider a simpler case: decoupling of muons in QED. All calculations are done up to 2 loops.
This is the first part of lectures about effective field theories. Decoupling of heavy-particle loops is considered (heavy leptons in QED, heavy quarks in QCD).
We present a high-precision QED calculation, with 0.1% theoretical accuracy, of two photon production in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation, as required by more and more accurate luminosity monitoring at flavour factories. The accuracy of the approach, which is based on the matching of exact next-to-leading order corrections with a QED Parton Shower algorithm, is demonstrated through a detailed analysis of the impact of the various sources of radiative corrections to the experimentally relevant observables. The calculation is implemented in the latest version of the event generator BabaYaga, available for…
We report on the physical-point RBC/UKQCD calculation of the leading isospin-breaking corrections to light-meson leptonic decays. This is highly relevant for future precision tests in the flavour physics sector, in particular the first-row unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix containing the elements $V_{us}$ and $V_{ud}$. The simulations were performed using Domain-Wall fermions for $2+1$ flavours, and with isospin-breaking effects included perturbatively in the path integral through order $α$ and $(m_u - m_d)/Λ_{\mathrm{QCD}}$. We use QED$_{\mathrm{L}}$ for the inclusion of elect…
Dynamical mass generation in a three-dimensional version of finite-temperature QED is studied with the help of Schwinger-Dyson equations in the real-time formalism. We go beyond the bare-vertex approximation and include wave-function renormalization effects. This introduces a system of two integral equations which are solved numerically. In order to increase the reliability of the results, fermion and photon self-energies varying independently with energy and momentum are used. The method applied enables a detailed study of the behaviour of the theory with increasing temperature and number of …
A complete analysis of dynamical scale symmetry breaking in 2+1-dimensional QED at both zero and finite temperature is presented by looking at solutions to the Schwinger-Dyson equation. In different kinetic energy regimes we use various numerical and analytic techniques (including an expansion in large flavour number). It is confirmed that, contrary to the case of 3+1 dimensions, there is no dynamical scale symmetry breaking at zero temperature, despite the fact that chiral symmetry breaking can occur dynamically. At finite temperature, such breaking of scale symmetry may take place.
The gap equation for fermions in a version of thermal QED in three dimensions is studied numerically in the Schwinger-Dyson formalism. The interest in this theory has been recently revived since it has been proposed as a model of high-temperature superconductors. We include wave-function renormalization in our equations and use a non-bare vertex. We then have to solve a system of two integral equations by a relaxation algorithm. Fermion and photon self-energies varying independently with energy and momentum are used, which should produce more accurate results than in the previous literature. T…
We revisit the decoupling of neutrinos in the early universe with flavour oscillations. We rederive the quantum kinetic equations which determine the neutrino evolution based on a BBGKY-like hierarchy, and include for the first time the full collision term, with both on- and off-diagonal terms for all relevant reactions. We focus on the case of zero chemical potential and solve these equations numerically. We also develop an approximate scheme based on the adiabatic evolution in the matter basis. In fact, the large difference between the oscillations and cosmological time scales allows to cons…
Several experiments search for μ- e flavour change, for instance in μ->e conversion, μ-> e γ, and μ-> 3e. This paper studies how to translate these experimental constraints from low energy to a New Physics scale M >> mW. A basis of QCD and QED-invariant operators (as appropriate below mW) is constructed, then run to mW with one-loop RGEs of QCD and QED. At mW, these operators are matched onto SU(2)-invariant dimension-six operators, which can continue to run up with electroweak RGEs. As an example, the μ-> e γbound is translated to the scale M, where it constrains two sums of operators. The co…
The program BABAYAGA is an event generator for QED processes at flavour factories, mainly intended for luminosity measurement of e+ e- colliders in the center of mass range 1-10 GeV. Recently, the pi+ pi- channel has been added as well. The relevant (photonic) radiative corrections are simulated by means of a Parton Shower in QED. The theoretical precision of the approach is estimated and some phenomenological results are discussed.
We investigate the impact of finite volume effects on the critical number of flavours, N_f^c, for chiral symmetry restoration in QED3. To this end we solve a set of coupled Dyson-Schwinger equations on a torus. For order parameters such as the anomalous dimension of the fermion wave function or the chiral condensate we find substantial evidence for a large dependence on the volume. We observe a shift in N_f^c from values in the range of 3.61 \le N_f^c \le 3.84 in the infinite volume/continuum limit down to values below N_f \le 1.5 at finite volumes in agreement with earlier results of Gusynin …
To quantify the theory error on $R_K$, essentially means to quantify the uncertainty due to QED corrections since the latter breaks lepton flavour universality through the lepton masses. Since experiment uses photon shower programs, e.g. \texttt{PHOTOS}, to capture QED effects, assessing the uncertainty involves investigating effects not captured by the specific use of these tools. This includes structure-dependent corrections, potentially large non-logarithmic terms and charmonium resonances entering the lower bin by migration of radiation. We are able to close in on these loopholes. For exam…
Isospin is an almost exact symmetry of strong interactions and the corrections to the isosymmetric limit are, in general, at the percent level. For several hadronic quantities relevant for flavour physics phenomenology, such as pseudoscalar meson masses or the kaon leptonic and semileptonic decay rates, these effects are of the same order of magnitude of the uncertainties quoted in current large-scale QCD simulations on the lattice and cannot be neglected anymore. In this contribution I discuss some recent results for the leptonic decay rates of light pseudoscalar mesons obtained by the Soton-…
The luminosity determination of electron-positron colliders operating in the region of low-lying hadronic resonances (E_cm ~ 1-10 GeV), such as BEPC/BES, DAPHNE, KEKB, PEP-II and VEPP-2M, requires the precision calculation of the Bhabha process at large scattering angles. In order to achieve a theoretical accuracy at a few 0.1% level, the inclusion of radiative corrections is mandatory. The phenomenologically relevant effect of QED corrections is taken into account in the framework of the Parton Shower (PS) method, which is employed both for cross section calculation and event generation. To t…
Università di Pavia（帕维亚大学）；INFN, Sezione di Pavia（意大利国家核物理研究所帕维亚分部）；Università di Pisa（比萨大学）；INFN, Sezione di Pisa（意大利国家核物理研究所比萨分部）；Università di Ferrara（费拉拉大学）；INFN, Sezione di Ferrara（意大利国家核物理研究所费拉拉分部）；INFN, Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics（意大利国家核物理研究所伽利略·伽利莱理论物理研究所）
We show how the fully resummed thermal pressure is rendered ultraviolet finite by standard zero-temperature renormalisation. The analysis is developed in a 6-dimensional scalar model that mimics QED and has $N$ flavours. The $N\to\infty$ limit of the model can be calculated completely. At a critical temperature, one of the degrees of freedom has vanishing screening mass like the transverse gauge bosons in four-dimensional finite-temperature perturbation theory. The renormalised nonperturbative interaction pressure of this model is evaluated numerically.
When lepton flavour effects in thermal leptogenesis are active, they introduce important differences with respect to the case in which they are neglected, the so-called one-flavour approximation. We investigate analytically and numerically the transition from the one-flavour to the two-flavour case when the $τ$-lepton flavour becomes distinguishable from the other two flavours. We study the impact of the oscillations of the asymmetries in lepton flavour space on the final lepton asymmetries, for the hierarchical right-handed neutrino mass spectrum. Flavour oscillations project the lepton state…
We discuss the role of flavour physics in building effective theories at the TeV scale. Particular attention is devoted to the Minimal Flavour Violation hypothesis, both in the quark and in the lepton sector. Alternative flavour-protection mechanisms, such as the hierarchical fermion profiles of models with a warped fifth dimension, are also briefly discussed.
We present a flavour-covariant formalism for scalar triplet leptogenesis, which takes into account the effects of the different lepton flavours in a consistent way. Our main finding is that flavour effects can never be neglected in scalar triplet leptogenesis, even in the temperature regime where all charged lepton Yukawa interactions are out of equilibrium. This is at variance with the standard leptogenesis scenario with heavy Majorana neutrinos. In particular, the so-called single flavour approximation leads to predictions for the baryon asymmetry of the universe that can differ by a large a…
We study the effect of non-vanishing masses and mixings among neutrino flavours on the detection of neutrinos from stellar collapse by a water Cerenkov detector. We consider a frame-work in which there are four neutrino flavours, including a sterile neutrino, whose mass squared differences and mixings are constrained by the present understanding of solar, atmospheric and laboratory neutrino detection. We also include the effects of high density matter within the supernova core. Unlike in the three flavour scenario, we find that the number of events due to the dominant process involving electro…
We review some recent results about the computation of mixed QCD-QED corrections beyond the leading order in perturbation theory. We start by considering the effects induced in the Altarelli-Parisi equations and the partonic distributions. In particular, we describe the computation of one-loop mixed QCD-QED and two-loop QED terms in the splitting kernels, which are relevant to account for the presence of photon distributions. In the last part, we briefly talk about the implementation of these corrections in the context of the $q_T$-subtraction/resummation formalism.
We revisit flavour effects in soft leptogenesis relaxing the assumption of universality for the soft supersymmetry breaking terms. We find that with respect to the case in which the heavy sneutrinos decay with equal rates and equal CP asymmetries for all lepton flavours, hierarchical flavour configurations can enhance the efficiency by more than two orders of magnitude. This translates in more than three order of magnitude with respect to the one-flavour approximation. We verify that lepton flavour equilibration effects related to off-diagonal soft slepton masses are ineffective for damping th…
In this thesis, we study the role of flavours in leptogenesis. In a first time, we review the so-called one flavour picture, where only the lightest right-handed neutrino is taken into account, and where lepton flavours are neglected. After having showed why and how lepton flavours should be included in the computation of the lepton asymmetry, we study their effect in the type I seesaw model, as well as in the type I+II seesaw model, in a specific SO(10) unification realisation. In this model, besides flavours effects, we show that the inclusion of the second lightest right-handed neutrino, to…
Flavour effects play an important role in the statistical evolution of particle number densities in several particle physics phenomena. We present a fully flavour-covariant formalism for transport phenomena, in order to consistently capture all flavour effects in the system. We explicitly study the scenario of Resonant Leptogenesis (RL), and show that flavour covariance requires one to consider generically off-diagonal number densities, rank-4 rate tensors in flavour space, and non-trivial generalization of the discrete symmetries C, P and T. The flavour-covariant transport equations, obtained…
This note reviews recent theoretical developments in the study of charged lepton flavour violation. The first part illustrates the status of precise next-to-leading order quantum electrodynamics calculations for the background of charged lepton flavour-violating processes, with a focus on the muonic "rare" and "radiative" decays. Phenomenological implications of these computations and their impact on present and future experiments will be discussed. The second part describes the recent progress in the effective field theory interpretation of charged lepton-flavour violating observables in conn…
On account of its application to the present and future analysis of the virtual photon correction to the hadronic properties by means of lattice QCD simulation, we initiate the study of the finite size scaling effect on the QED correction using low energy effective theory of QCD with QED. For this purpose, we begin with formulating a new QED on the space with finite volume. By adapting this formalism to the partially quenched QCD with electromagnetism, we explore the qualitative features of the finite size scaling effect on the electromagnetic correction to the masses of pseudo-Goldstone boson…
The one-loop finite temperature effective potential of QED in an external electromagnetic field is obtained using the worldline method. The general structure of the temperature dependent part of the effective action in an arbitrary external inhomogeneous magnetic field is established. The two-derivative effective action of spinor and scalar QED in a static magnetic background at $T\neq 0$ is derived.
