Inelastic photon-neutrino interactions using an effective Lagrangian

We justify the feasibility of substituting a photon leg by a neutrino current in the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian to obtain an effective Lagrangian for the process $\gamma\nu\to\gamma\gamma \nu$ and its crossed reactions. We establish the link between these processes and the four-photon scattering in both the Standard Model and the effective theory. As an application, we compute the processes $\gamma\nu\to\gamma\gamma\nu$ and $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma{\nu}\bar\nu$, give their polarized cross sections, and show how to use the $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$ results as a check. We settle the question about the disagreement between two computations in the literature concerning the reaction $\gamma\gamma\to \gamma \nu\bar\nu$.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, axodraw, 3 figures, comment adde

Five-leg photon-neutrino interactions

In a first part, we justify the feasibility of substituting a photon leg by a neutrino current in the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian to obtain an effective Lagrangian for the process $\gamma\nu\to\gamma\gamma \nu$ and its crossed reactions. We establish the link between these processes and the four-photon scattering in both the Standard Model and the effective theory. As an application, we compute in this effective theory the processes $\gamma\nu\to\gamma\gamma\nu$ and $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma{\nu}\bar\nu$ and show how to use the $\gamma\gamma\to\gamma\gamma$ results as a check. We settle the question of the disagreement between two computations in the literature concerning the reaction $\gamma\gamma\to \gamma \nu\bar\nu$. In the second part, we present results of the direct computation of the photon-neutrino five-leg processes in the Standard Model, discuss possible astrophysical implications of our results, and provide simple fits to the exact expressions.Comment: 6 pages, axodraw, ltwol2e, 5 figures, contributed paper to the 29th International Conference on High Energy Physics (Vancouver

Leptogenesis with Friedberg-Lee Symmetry

We consider the $\mu-\tau$ symmetric Friedberg-Lee (FL) symmetry for the neutrino sector and show that a specific FL translation leads to the tribimaximal mixing pattern of the Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (MNS) matrix. We also apply the symmetry to the type-I seesaw framework and address the baryon asymmetry of the universe through the leptogenesis mechanism. We try to establish a relation between the net baryon asymmetry and CP phases included in the MNS matrix.Comment: Talk given at International Workshop on Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 20-21 Nov. 2009, to be published in Modern Physics Letters A, reference adde

Phenomenology of LFV at low-energies and at the LHC: strategies to probe the SUSY seesaw

We study the impact of a type-I SUSY seesaw concerning lepton flavour violation (LFV) at low-energies and at the LHC. At the LHC, $\chi_2^0\to \tilde \ell \,\ell \to \ell \,\ell\,\chi_1^0$ decays, in combination with other observables, render feasible the reconstruction of the masses of the intermediate sleptons, and hence the study of $\ell_i - \ell_j$ mass differences. If interpreted as being due to the violation of lepton flavour, high-energy observables, such as large slepton mass splittings and flavour violating neutralino and slepton decays, are expected to be accompanied by low-energy manifestations of LFV such as radiative and three-body lepton decays. We discuss how to devise strategies based in the interplay of slepton mass splittings as might be observed at the LHC and low-energy LFV observables to derive important information on the underlying mechanism of LFV.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics (TAU2010), Manchester, UK, 13-17 September 201

Neutrinos in the simplest little Higgs scenario and TeV leptogenesis

The little Higgs scenario may provide an interesting framework to accommodate TeV scale leptogenesis because a TeV Majorana mass of the right-handed neutrino that we employ for the latter may find a natural place near the ultraviolet cutoff of the former. In this work we study how a light neutrino spectrum, generated radiatively, and TeV scale leptogenesis can be embedded in the simplest little Higgs framework. Alternatively, we highlight how the neutrino Yukawa textures of the latter are constrained.Comment: 10 pages, latex, v2: refs and comments added, to appear in PR

Lepton flavour violation: physics potential of a Linear Collider

We revisit the potential of a Linear Collider concerning the study of lepton flavour violation, in view of new LHC bounds and of the (very) recent developments in lepton physics. Working in the framework of a type I supersymmetric seesaw, we evaluate the prospects of observing seesaw-induced lepton flavour violating final states of the type e \mu + missing energy, arising from e+ e- and e- e- collisions. In both cases we address the potential background from standard model and supersymmetric charged currents. We also explore the possibility of electron and positron beam polarisation. The statistical significance of the signal, even in the absence of kinematical and/or detector cuts, renders the observation of such flavour violating events feasible over large regions of the parameter space. We further consider the \mu-\mu- + E^T_miss final state in the e- e- beam option finding that, due to a very suppressed background, this process turns out to be a truly clear probe of a supersymmetric seesaw, assuming the latter to be the unique source of lepton flavour violation.Comment: 30 pages, 48 figure

Lattice Monte Carlo Data versus Perturbation Theory

Differences between lattice Monte Carlo data and perturbation theory (for example the lack of asymptotic scaling) are usually associated with the `bad' behaviour of the bare lattice coupling g_0 due to the effects of large (and unknown) higher order terms in g_0. In this philosophy a new, renormalised coupling g' is defined with the aim of making the higher order coefficients of the perturbative series in g' as small as possible. In this paper an alternative scenario is discussed where lattice artifacts are proposed as the cause of the disagreement between Monte Carlo data and the g_0-perturbative series. We find that with the addition of a lattice artifact term, the usual asymptotic scaling expression in g_0 is in excellent agreement with Monte Carlo data. Lattice data studied includes the string tension, the hadronic scale r_0, the discrete beta function, M_rho, f_pi and the 1P-1S splitting in charmonium.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX. Uses espcrc2.sty and fleqn.sty (included) Talk presented at LATTICE96(improvement

Potential of a Linear Collider for Lepton Flavour Violation studies in the SUSY seesaw

We study the potential of an e+- e- Linear Collider for charged lepton flavour violation studies in a supersymmetric framework where neutrino masses and mixings are explained by a type-I seesaw. Focusing on e-mu flavour transitions, we evaluate the background from standard model and supersymmetric charged currents to the e mu + missing E_T signal. We study the energy dependence of both signal and background, and the effect of beam polarisation in increasing the signal over background significance. Finally, we consider the mu- mu- + missing E_T final state in e- e- collisions that, despite being signal suppressed by requiring two e-mu flavour transitions, is found to be a clear signature of charged lepton flavour violation due to a very reduced standard model background.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "DISCRETE 2012 - 3rd Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of Discrete Symmetries", Lisbon, Portugal, 3-7 December 201

Low-energy neutrino-photon inelastic interactions

The computation of the polarized amplitudes and cross section of the processes $\gamma\nu\to\gamma\gamma \nu$, $\gamma\gamma \to \gamma\nu\bar\nu$ and $\nu\bar\nu \to \gamma\gamma\gamma$ is described. We used an effective lagrangian approach for energies below the threshold for $e^+e^-$ pair production and the complete computation at higher energies for application in supernova dynamics. Leading contributions of physics beyond the SM are also commented.The computation of the polarized amplitudes and cross section of the processes $\gamma\nu\to\gamma\gamma \nu$, $\gamma\gamma \to \gamma\nu\bar\nu$ and $\nu\bar\nu \to \gamma\gamma\gamma$ is described. We used an effective lagrangian approach for energies below the threshold for $e^+e^-$ pair production and the complete computation at higher energies for application in supernova dynamics. Leading contributions of physics beyond the SM are also commented

A Two-Singlet Model for Light Cold Dark Matter

We extend the Standard Model by adding two gauge-singlet $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$% -symmetric scalar fields that interact with visible matter only through the Higgs particle. One is a stable dark matter WIMP, and the other one undergoes a spontaneous breaking of the symmetry that opens new channels for the dark matter annihilation, hence lowering the mass of the WIMP. We study the effects of the observed dark matter relic abundance on the annihilation cross section and find that in most regions of the parameters space, light dark matter is viable. We also compare the elastic scattering cross-section of our dark matter candidate off nucleus with existing (CDMSII and XENON100) and projected (SuperCDMS and XENON1T) experimental exclusion bounds. We find that most of the allowed mass range for light dark matter will be probed by the projected sensitivity of XENON1T experiment.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figure