The Standard Model of Particle Physics predicts the double-$β$ decay of certain nuclei with the emission of two active neutrinos. In this letter, we argue that double-$β$ decay experiments could be used to probe models with light exotic fermions through the search for spectral distortions in the electron spectrum with respect to the Standard Model expectations. We consider two concrete examples: models with light sterile neutrinos, singly produced in the double-$β$ decay, and models with a light $Z_2$-odd fermion, pair produced due to a $Z_2$ symmetry. We estimate the discovery potential of a selection of double-$β$ decay experiments and find that future searches will test for the first time a new part of the parameter space of interest at the MeV-mass scale.
We discuss the contributions of higher order terms in weak Hamiltonian to the standard two-neutrino double beta decay. The formalism for the unique first forbidden transitions has been developed, and it is shown that they can alter the two-electron energy spectrum. Yet, their effect is too small to screen the detection of exotic neutrinoless double beta decays, which are candidates for testing the physics beyond the standard model.
We discuss the potential of neutrinoless double beta decay for testing Lorentz invariance and the weak equivalence principle as well as contributions from dilaton exchange gravity in the neutrino sector. While neutrino oscillation bounds constrain the region of large mixing of the weak and gravitational eigenstates, we obtain new constraints on violations of Lorentz invariance and the equivalence principle from neutrinoless double beta decay, applying even in the case of no mixing. Double beta decay thus probes a totally unconstrained region in the parameter space.
We study the production and signatures of heavy exotic fermion pairs in the framework of the vector singlet model (VSM), vector doublet model (VDM) and fermion-mirror-fermion (FMF) model. We show that the pair production cross sections are competitive with the ones for the single production of exotic fermions due to the exchange of a photon in the $s$ channel and to the vector component of the $Z$ - boson coupling to exotic fermions. We also exhibit some kinematical distributions.
A large experimental program is being mounted to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay over the next decade. Multiple experiments using different target isotopes are being prepared to explore the whole parameter space allowed for inverted-ordered light neutrinos, and have the potential to make discoveries in several other scenarios, including normal-ordered light neutrinos and other exotic mechanisms. We investigate to what extent long-range and exotic short-range contributions may be distinguished by combining measurements of the decay half-life across isotopes. We demonstrate how measure…
We exploit the recently developed software package LieART to show that SU(N) grand unified theories with chiral fermions in mixed tensor irreducible representations can lead to standard model chiral fermions without additional light exotic chiral fermions, i.e., only standard model fermions are light in these models. Results are tabulated which may be of use to model builders in the future. An SU(6) toy model is given and model searches are discussed.
Exotic fermions of half-integral charges at the TeV energy scale are predicted by the quartification model of Babu, Ma, and Willenbrock. We add to these one copy of their scalar analogs and discuss the ensuing phenomenological implications, i.e. radiative contributions to lepton masses and flavor-changing leptonic decays.
We investigate the status of models containing exotic fermions or extra Z-like neutral gauge bosons in the light of the recent data on anomalous magnetic moment of muon. We find that it is possible to extract interesting bounds on the parameters characterizing such models. The bounds are particularly strong if the new flavour-changing neutral currents are axial vectorlike.
The connection of neutrino physics with neutrinoless double beta decay is reviewed. After presenting the current status of the PMNS matrix and the theoretical background of neutrino mass and lepton mixing, we will summarize the various implications of neutrino physics for double beta decay. The influence of light sterile neutrinos and other exotic modifications of the three neutrino picture is also discussed.
We investigate the mixing of an extra ${Z^0}^\prime$ with the standard $Z^0$ and mixings of exotic fermions with their standard counterparts through some precisely measured electroweak observables. These observables are geared to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. We observe that although most of such mixings are severely constrained by the recent LEP data, some of the mixing angles could still be rather large, awaiting future tests.
Motivated by non-zero neutrino masses and the possibility of New Physics discovery, a number of experiments search for neutrinoless double beta decay. While hunting for this hypothetical nuclear process, a significant amount of two-neutrino double beta decay data has become available. Although these events are regarded and studied mostly as the background of neutrinoless double beta decay, they can be also used to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper we show how the presence of right-handed leptonic currents would affect the energy distribution and angular correlation of the …
Motivated by the capability of the KATRIN experiment to explore the existence of KeV neutrinos in the $[1-18.5]$ KeV mass range, we explore the viability of minimal extensions of the Standard Model involving sterile neutrinos (namely the 3 + $N$ frameworks) and study their possible impact in both the beta energy spectrum and the neutrinoless double beta decay effective mass, for the two possible ordering cases for the light neutrino spectrum. We also explore how both observables can discriminate between motivated low-scale seesaw realizations involving KeV sterile neutrinos. Our study concerns…
The short-range part of the neutrinoless double beta amplitude is generated via the exchange of exotic particles, such as charged scalars, leptoquarks and/or diquarks. In order to give a sizeable contribution to the total decay rate, the masses of these exotics should be of the order of (at most) a few TeV. Here, we argue that these exotics could be the "light" (i.e weak-scale) remnants of some $B-L$ violating variants of $SU(5)$. We show that unification of the standard model gauge couplings, consistent with proton decay limits, can be achieved in such a setup without the need to introduce su…
A way is suggested to understand why the average masses of $(d,s,b)$ quarks are smaller than those of $(u,c,t)$ quarks. In contrast to previously proposed mechanisms relying on different Higgs boson vacuum expectation values or different Yukawa couplings, the mass difference is explained as a consequence of mixing of $(d,s,b)$ with exotic quarks implied by the electroweak-strong unification group E$_{\rm 6}$.
We have examined Lorentz invariance and equivalence principle violations in the neutrino sector as manifested in neutrinoless double beta decay. We conclude that this rare decay cannot provide a useful view of these exotic processes.
In the context of the Grand Unified MSSM, we investigate the fermion mass matrices at GUT scale. We note that from the experimental mass pattern the determinants of the Yukawa matrices at this scale can be unified with good precision. Taking the unification o determinants as an hypothesis, it gives two model independent predictions that in the MSSM turns out to determine an appropriate value for the product m_d m_s and tan(beta)~7-10 in the favored range. We then review a predictive model of SU(3) flavour in the context of supersymmetric SO(10) that nicely implements this mechanism, while expl…
In this paper, the possibility to have new physics is considered at the scale of the electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) in a completely new framework. A new non-standard minimal chiral fermion extension of the Standard Model (SM) which renders the complete model free from anomalies is included. The new fermionic matter coupled with scalar leptoquaks (SLQ) developing new signals for exotic fermions that could be evaluated in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Analysis based on the cross-section final states shows that the channels $D_{-1/3}\overline{D}_{-1/3}\rightarrow jj+\notin$ and $D_{-1/3}…
We propose an extension to the standard model where three exotic fermion 5-plets and one scalar 6-plet are added to the particle content. By demanding that all interactions are renormalizable and standard model gauge invariant, we show that the lightest exotic particle in this model can be a dark matter candidate as long as the new 6-plet scalar does not develop a nonzero vacuum expectation value. Furthermore, light neutrino masses are generated radiatively at one-loop while the baryon asymmetry is produced by the CP-violating decays of the second lightest exotic particle. We have demonstrated…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical radioactive process which, if observed, would prove the neutrino to be a Majorana fermion: a particle that is its own antiparticle. In this lecture mini-series I discuss the physics of Majorana fermions and the connection between the nature of neutrino mass and neutrinoless double beta decay. We review Dirac and Majorana spinors, discuss methods of distinguishing between Majorana and Dirac fermions, and derive in outline the connection between neutrino mass and double beta decay rates. We conclude by briefly summarizing the experimental landscap…
Composite-fermion models predict excited quarks and leptons with mass scales which can potentially be observed at high-energy colliders like the LHC; the most recent exclusion limits from the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations corner excited-fermion masses and the compositeness scale to the multi-TeV range. At the same time, hypothetical composite Majorana neutrinos would lead to observable effects in neutrinoless double beta decay ($0νββ$) experiments. In this work, we show that the current composite-neutrino exclusion limit $M_N>4.6$ TeV, as extracted from direct searches at the LHC, can indeed be…
Beta-beams is a novel concept for the production of neutrino beams exploiting boosted radioactive ions which decay through beta-decay. Here we describe a project, currently under investigation, where such beams are used to address the issue of CP violation in the lepton sector. We also mention the interest of having low-energy beta-beams. The connection to projects for the production of very intense exotic ion beams, like EURISOL, is emphasized.
We investigate the production, signatures and backgrounds of a pair of heavy-exotic charged leptons and a heavy-exotic neutrino together with the exotic charged lepton in the framework of the vector singlet model, vector doublet model, and fermion-mirror-fermion model, at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We still show that the cross-sections for the case of the production of a pair of heavy exotic leptons are competitive with the ones for the single production of exotic leptons.
The couplings between the neutrinos and exotic fermion can be probed in both neutrino scattering experiments and dark matter direct detection experiments. We present a detailed analysis of the general neutrino interactions with an exotic fermion and electrons at neutrino-electron scattering experiments. We obtain the constraints on the coupling coefficients of the scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, axialvector, tensor and electromagnetic dipole interactions from the CHARM-II, TEXONO and Borexino experiments. For the flavor-universal interactions, we find that the Borexino experiment sets the strong…
We study the possibility of an ultraviolet (UV) zero in the $n$-loop beta function of U(1) and non-Abelian gauge theories with $N_f$ fermions for large $N_f$. The effect of scheme transformations on the coefficients of different powers of $N_f$ in the $n$-loop term in the beta function is calculated. A general scheme-independent criterion is given for determining whether or not the $n$-loop beta function has a UV zero for large $N_f$. We compare the results with exact integral representations of the leading terms in the beta functions for the respective Abelian and non-Abelian theories in the …
Majorana neutrino mass models with a scale of lepton number violation (LNV) of order TeV potentially lead to signals at the LHC. Here, we consider an extension of the standard model with a coloured octet fermion and a scalar leptoquark. This model generates neutrino masses at 2-loop order. We make a detailed MonteCarlo study of the LNV signal at the LHC in this model, including a simulation of standard model backgrounds. Our forecast predicts that the LHC with 300/fb should be able to probe this model up to colour octet fermion masses in the range of (2.6-2.7) TeV, depending on the lepton flav…
Fermion masses and mixing angles are studied in an SUSY $SO(10)\times Δ(48)\times U(1)$ model with small $\tanβ$. Thirteen parameters involving masses and mixing angles in the quark and charged lepton sector are successfully predicted by a single Yukawa coupling and three ratios of VEVs caused by necessary symmetry breaking. Ten relations among the low energy parameters have been found with four of them free from renormalization modifications. They could be tested directly by low energy experiments.
In the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), we discuss the introduction of exotic matter below the string scale $M_X$ in order to achieve gauge unification at $M_X$ (a constraint of a large class of string models). The possible types of exotic matter that can realise this are investigated and its effect on the top quark mass $m_t$ is presented. The implementation of a theory of fermion masses which utilises the exotic matter is briefly discussed.
We study the production and signatures of heavy exotic quarks pairs at LHC in the framework of the vector singlet model (VSM), vector doublet model (VDM) and fermion-mirror-fermion (FMF) model. The pair production cross sections for the electroweak and strong sector are computed.
There exist tree-level generalizations of the Type-I and Type-III seesaw mechanisms that realize neutrino mass via low-energy effective operators with d>5. However, these generalizations also give radiative masses that can dominate the seesaw masses in regions of parameter space --- i.e. they are not purely seesaw models, nor are they purely radiative models, but instead they are something in between. A recent work detailed the remaining minimal models of this type. Here we study the remaining model with d=9 and investigate the collider phenomenology of the exotic quadruplet fermions it predic…
We review the particle physics aspects of neutrino-less double beta decay. This process can be mediated by light massive Majorana neutrinos (standard interpretation) or by something else (non-standard interpretations). The physics potential of both interpretations is summarized and the consequences of future measurements or improved limits on the half-life of neutrino-less double beta decay are discussed. We try to cover all proposed alternative realizations of the decay, including light sterile neutrinos, supersymmetric or left-right symmetric theories, Majorons, and other exotic possibilitie…
Associated with two TeV-scale leptoquark scalars, a dark matter fermion which is the neutral component of an isotriplet can mediate a testable neutrinoless double beta decay at one-loop level. The dark matter fermion with determined mass and spin-independent scattering can be verified by the future dark matter direct detection experiments. We also discuss the implications on neutrino masses and baryon asymmetry.
Within the 3-3-1 model framework, we consider the production and decay of fermionic leptoquarks into a striking experimental signature at the LHC: a narrow resonance at the $b$ jet plus same-sign dileptons channel. The data already accumulated by the LHC collaborations may hide a large number of events associated to the production and decay of such exotic quarks, allowing one to investigate large portions of the parameters space of the model. The observation or not of such events would shed light on the construction of models presenting heavy exotic quarks.
One possible probe to physics beyond the standard model is to look for scalar bilinears, which couple to two fermions of the standard model. We point out that the scalar bilinears allow new diagrams contributing to the neutrinoless double beta decay. The upper bound on the neutrinoless double beta decay lifetime would then give new constraints on the ratio of the masses of these scalars to their couplings to the fermions.
Extensions of the MSSM often predict the existence of new fermions and their scalar superpartners which are vectorlike with respect to the standard model gauge group but may be chiral under additional gauge factors. In this paper we explore the production and decay of an important example, i.e., a heavy isosinglet charge -1/3 quark and its scalar partner, using the charge assignments of a 27-plet of E6 for illustration. We emphasize that, depending on the symmetries of the low energy theory, such exotic particles may decay by the mixing of the fermion with the d, s, or b quarks; may decay by l…
New $U(1)$ gauge theories involving Standard Model (SM) fermions typically require additional electroweak fermions for anomaly cancellation. We study the non-decoupling properties of these new fermions, called anomalons, in the $Z-Z'-γ$ vertex function, reviewing the connection between the full model and the effective Wess-Zumino operator. We calculate the exotic $Z \to Z' γ$ decay width in $U(1)_{B-L}$ and $U(1)_B$ models, where $B$ and $L$ denote the SM baryon and lepton number symmetries. For $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge symmetry, each generation of SM fermions is anomaly free and the exotic $Z \to Z…
We have carried out a Schrodinger functional (SF) calculation for the SU(3) lattice gauge theory with two flavors of Wilson fermions in the sextet representation of the gauge group. We find that the discrete beta function, which governs the change in the running coupling under a discrete change of spatial scale, changes sign when the SF renormalized coupling is in the neighborhood of g^2=2.0. The simplest explanation is that the theory has an infrared-attractive fixed point, but more complicated possibilities are allowed by the data. While we compare rescalings by factors of 2 and 4/3, we work…
A flavour gauge theory is observable only if the symmetry is broken at relatively low energies. The intrinsic parity-violation of the fermion representations in a flavour theory describing quark, lepton and higgsino masses and mixings generically requires anomaly cancellation by new fermions. Benchmark supersymmetric flavour models are built and studied to argue that: i) the flavour symmetry breaking should be about three orders of magnitude above the higgsino mass, enough also to efficiently suppress FCNC and CP violations coming from higher-dimensional operators; ii) new fermions with exotic…
In the inverse seesaw extension of the standard model, supersymmetric or non-supersymmetric, while the light left-handed neutrinos are Majorana, the heavy right-handed neutrinos are pseudo-Dirac fermions. We show how one of these latter category of particles can contribute quite significantly to neutrinoless double beta decay. The neutrino virtuality momentum is found to play a crucial role in the non-standard contributions leading to the prediction of the pseudo-Dirac fermion mass in the range of $120\, {MeV}-500\, {MeV}$. When the Dirac neutrino mass matrix in the inverse seesaw formula is s…
We consider a generic abelian hidden sector that couples to the Standard Model only through gauge-invariant renormalizable operators. This allows the exotic Higgs boson to mix with the Standard Model Higgs boson, and the exotic abelian gauge boson to mix with the Standard Model hypercharge gauge boson. One immediate consequence of spontaneous breaking of the hidden sector gauge group is the possible decay of the lightest Higgs boson into four fermions through intermediate exotic gauge bosons. We study the implications of this decay for Higgs boson phenomenology at the Fermilab Tevatron Collide…
The universal radiative corrections common to neutron and super-allowed nuclear beta decays (also known as ``inner'' corrections) are revisited in light of a recent dispersion relation study that found $+2.467(22)\%$, i.e.~about $2.4σ$ larger than the previous evaluation. For comparison, we consider several alternative computational methods. All employ an updated perturbative QCD four-loop Bjorken sum rule (BjSR) defined QCD coupling supplemented with a nucleon form factor based Born amplitude to estimate axial-vector induced hadronic contributions. In addition, we now include hadronic contrib…
We present a phenomenological study of neutral gauge bosons and fermions in an extended Standard model with SU(3)C x SU(4)L x U(1)X gauge symmetry.The model includes gauge bosons and fermions without exotic charges and is distinguished by the symmetry-breaking patern SU(4)L->SU(2)L x SU(2)H x U(1)AH. This introduces an extended electroweak symmetry group SU(2)L x SU(2)H at low energies.We recover the fermion spectra of an anomaly-free three-family 3-4-1 modelwithout exotic chargesfor U(1)X charge X = T3R+(B-L)/2.The interaction of physical neutral gauge bosons Zprime,Z double prime and exotic …
The Twin Higgs model is the preeminent example of a theory of neutral naturalness, where the new particles that alleviate the little hierarchy problem are Standard Model (SM) singlets. The most promising collider search strategy, based on rare Higgs decays, is nevertheless not effective in significant regions of the parameter space of the low energy theory. This underlines the importance of phenomenological studies on ultraviolet completions of the Twin Higgs model, which must lie at a scale lower than 5-10 TeV. We pursue this course in the context of non-supersymmetric completions, focusing o…
Threshold effects related to fermion masses are considered for an all-order beta-function based on a background field momentum subtraction scheme. Far away from all thresholds, the suggested beta-function reduces to the conjectured all-order form inspired by the Novikov-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov beta-function of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories with a fixed integer number of fermion flavours. At (formally) infinite masses the corresponding pure Yang--Mills beta-function is recovered. We discuss applications to the phase diagram of non-Abelian field theories.
Generating small sterile neutrino masses via the same seesaw mechanism that suppresses active neutrino masses requires a specific structure in the neutral fermion mass matrix. We present a model where this structure is enforced by a new U(1)' gauge symmetry, spontaneously broken at the TeV scale. In order not to spoil the neutrino structure, the additional fermions necessary for anomaly cancellations need to carry exotic charges, and turn out to form multicomponent cold dark matter. The active-sterile mixing then connects the new particles and the Standard Model---opening a new portal in addit…
The discovery of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers has renewed interest in primordial black holes forming a part of the dark matter density of our Universe. Various tests have been proposed to test this hypothesis. One of the cleanest tests is the lensing of fast radio bursts. In this situation, the presence of a compact object near the line of sight produces two images of the radio burst. If the images are sufficiently separated in time, this technique can constrain the presence of primordial black holes. One can also try to detect the lensed image of the mini-bursts within t…
We propose an all orders beta function for ordinary Yang-Mills theories with or without fermions inspired by the Novikov-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov beta function of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories. The beta function allows us to bound the conformal window. When restricting to one adjoint Weyl fermion we show how the proposed beta function matches the one of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The running of the pure Yang-Mills coupling is computed and the deviation from the two loop result is presented. We then compare the deviation with the one obtained from lattice data also with respect to…
Grand Unified Theories predict relationships between the GUT-scale quark and lepton masses. Using new data in the context of the MSSM, we update the values and uncertainties of the masses and mixing angles for the three generations at the GUT scale. We also update fits to hierarchical patterns in the GUT-scale Yukawa matrices. The new data shows not all the classic GUT-scale mass relationships remain in quantitative agreement at small to moderate tan beta. However, at large tan beta, these discrepancies can be eliminated by finite, tan beta-enhanced, radiative, threshold corrections if the glu…
We propose a minimal extension of Standard Model, generating a Majorana mass for neutron, connected with a mechanism of Post-Sphaleron Baryogenesis. We consider an `exotic vector-like pair' of color-triplet scalars, an extra Majorana fermion $ψ$, and a scalar field $ϕ$, giving mass to $ψ$. The vector-like pair is defined `exotic' because of a peculiar mass term of the color-triplet scalars, violating Baryon number as $ΔB=1$. A Post-Sphaleron Baryogenesis is realized through $ϕ$-decays into six quarks (antiquarks), or through $ψ$-decays into three quarks (antiquarks). This model suggests some i…
In the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM), fermion masses and Yukawa couplings receive radiative corrections at one loop from diagrams involving the supersymmetric particles. The corrections to the relation between down-type fermion masses and Yukawa couplings are enhanced by tan beta, which makes them potentially very significant at large tan beta. These corrections affect a wide range of processes in the MSSM, including neutral and charged Higgs phenomenology, rare B meson decays, and renormalization of the CKM matrix. We give a pedagogical review of the sources an…
The weak currents with respect to the diagonal neutral bosons $Z$,$Z^{\prime}$, and $Z^{\prime\prime}$ of a specific \textbf{$SU(4)_{L}\otimes U(1)_{Y}$} gauge model are computed in detail for all the fermion families involved therein. Our algebraical approach, which is based on the general method of solving gauge models with high symmetries proposed several years ago by Cotăescu, recovers in a non-trivial way all the Standard Model values for current couplings of the traditional leptons and quarks, and predicts plausible values for those of the exotic fermions in the model.
We have computed the five-loop corrections to the scale dependence of the renormalized coupling constant for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), its generalization to non-Abelian gauge theories with a simple compact Lie group, and for Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Our analytical result, obtained using the background field method, infrared rearrangement via a new diagram-by-diagram implementation of the R* operation and the Forcer program for massless four-loop propagators, confirms the QCD and QED results obtained by only one group before. The numerical size of the five-loop corrections is briefly …
We have studied a flavor symmetry-based extended left-right symmetric model(LRSM) with a dominant type-II seesaw mechanism and have explored the associated neutrino phenomenology. The particle content of the model includes usual quarks, and leptons along with additional sterile fermion per generation in the fermion sector while the scalar content contains Higgs doublets and scalar bidoublet. Realization of this extension of LRSM has been done by using $A_{4}\times Z_{4}$ discrete symmetries. In this work, we have also included the study of sterile neutrino dark matter(DM) phenomenology along w…
For the particular class of \textbf{$SU(4)_{L}\otimes U(1)_{Y}$} electro-weak models without exotic electric charges, some plausible phenomenological predictions - such as the boson mass spectrum and charges of all the fermions involved therein - are made by using the algebraical approach of the exactly solving method for gauge models with high symmetries. Along with the one-parameter resulting mass scale (to be confirmed at TeV scale in LHC, LEP, CDF and other high energy experiments) our approach predicts the exact expressions of the charges (both electric and neutral) in the fermion sector,…
We propose a predictive inert 2 Higgs doublet model, where the Standard Model (SM) symmetry is extended by $S_{3}\otimes Z_{2}\otimes Z_{12}$ and the field content is enlarged by extra scalar fields, charged exotic fermions and two heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos. The charged exotic fermions generate a nontrivial quark mixing and provide one-loop-level masses for the first- and second-generation charged fermions. The masses of the light active neutrinos are generated from a one loop-level radiative seesaw mechanism. Our model successfully explains the observed SM fermion mass and mixing …
We consider the dynamics of gauge-Yukawa theories in the presence of a large number of matter constituents. We first review the current status for the renormalization group equations of gauge-fermion theories featuring also semi-simple groups. In this regime these theories develop an interacting ultraviolet fixed point that for the semi-simple case leads to a rich phase diagram. The latter contains a complete asymptotically safe fixed point repulsive in all couplings. We then add two gauged Weyl fermions belonging to arbitrary representations of the gauge group and a complex, gauged scalar to …
