Planck-scale effects on WIMP dark matter

There exists a widely known conjecture that gravitational effects violate global symmetries. We study the effect of global-symmetry violating higher-dimension operators induced by Planck-scale physics on the properties of WIMP dark matter. Using an effective description, we show that the lifetime of the WIMP dark matter candidate can satisfy cosmological bounds under reasonable assumptions regarding the strength of the dimension-five operators. On the other hand, the indirect WIMP dark matter detection signal is significantly enhanced due to new decay channels.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Version accepted for publication in Frontier

Bi-large neutrino mixing and the Cabibbo angle

Recent measurements of the neutrino mixing angles cast doubt on the validity of the so-far popular tri-bimaximal mixing ansatz. We propose a parametrization for the neutrino mixing matrix where the reactor angle seeds the large solar and atmospheric mixing angles, equal to each other in first approximation. We suggest such bi-large mixing pattern as a model building standard, realized when the leading order value of the reactor angle equals the Cabibbo angle.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figs. v2: matches version appearing in Phys.Rev.D, rapid communication

A Classification and Analysis of Higgs-flavor Models

A classification is given of Higgs-flavor models. In these models, there are several Higgs doublets in an irreducible multiplet R_{Phi} of a non-abelian symmetry G_{Phi}, under which the quarks and leptons do not transform (thus giving minimal flavor-changing for the fermions). It is found that different G_{Phi} and R_{Phi} lead to very distinctive spectra of the extra Higgs doublets, including different numbers of "sequential Higgs" and of "inert Higgs" that could play the role of dark matter, different mass relations, and different patterns of SU(2)_L-breaking splittings within the Higgs doublets.Comment: 35 page

Structure of nanoparticles embedded in micellar polycrystals

We investigate by scattering techniques the structure of water-based soft composite materials comprising a crystal made of Pluronic block-copolymer micelles arranged in a face-centered cubic lattice and a small amount (at most 2% by volume) of silica nanoparticles, of size comparable to that of the micelles. The copolymer is thermosensitive: it is hydrophilic and fully dissolved in water at low temperature (T ~ 0{\deg}C), and self-assembles into micelles at room temperature, where the block-copolymer is amphiphilic. We use contrast matching small-angle neuron scattering experiments to probe independently the structure of the nanoparticles and that of the polymer. We find that the nanoparticles do not perturb the crystalline order. In addition, a structure peak is measured for the silica nanoparticles dispersed in the polycrystalline samples. This implies that the samples are spatially heterogeneous and comprise, without macroscopic phase separation, silica-poor and silica-rich regions. We show that the nanoparticle concentration in the silica-rich regions is about tenfold the average concentration. These regions are grain boundaries between crystallites, where nanoparticles concentrate, as shown by static light scattering and by light microscopy imaging of the samples. We show that the temperature rate at which the sample is prepared strongly influence the segregation of the nanoparticles in the grain-boundaries.Comment: accepted for publication in Langmui

Leptogenesis with a dynamical seesaw scale

In the simplest type-I seesaw leptogenesis scenario right-handed neutrino annihilation processes are absent. However, in the presence of new interactions these processes are possible and can affect the resulting B ¿ L asymmetry in an important way. A prominent example is provided by models with spontaneous lepton number violation, where the existence of new dynamical degrees of freedom can play a crucial role. In this context, we provide a model-independent discussion of the effects of right-handed neutrino annihilations. We show that in the weak washout regime, as long as the scattering processes remain slow compared with the Hubble expansion rate throughout the relevant temperature range, the efficiency can be largely enhanced, reaching in some cases maximal values. Moreover, the B ¿ L asymmetry yield turns out to be independent upon initial conditions, in contrast to the ¿standard¿ case. On the other hand, when the annihilation processes are fast, the right-handed neutrino distribution tends to a thermal one down to low temperatures, implying a drastic suppression of the efficiency which in some cases can render the B ¿ L generation mechanism inoperative