Spontaneous breakdown of CP in left right symmetric models

We show that it is possible to obtain spontaneous CP violation in the minimal SU(2)L×SU(2)R×U(1)B−L, i.e. in a left right symmetric model containing a bidoublet and two triplets in the scalar sector. For this to be a natural scenario, the non-diagonal quartic couplings between the two scalar triplets and the bidoublet play a fundamental role. We analyze the corresponding Higgs spectrum, the suppression of FCNC's and the manifestation of the spontaneous CP phase in the electric dipole moment of the electron

Electroweak baryogenesis window in non standard cosmologies

In this work we show that the new bounds on the Higgs mass are more than difficult to reconcile with the strong constraints on the physical parameters of the Standard Model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model imposed by the preservation of the baryon asymmetry. This bound can be weakened by assuming a nonstandard cosmology at the time of the electroweak phase transition, reverting back to standard cosmology by BBN time. Two explicit examples are an early period of matter dominated expansion due to a heavy right handed neutrino (see-saw scale), or a nonstandard braneworld expansion

Structure Formation during an early period of matter domination

In this work we show that modifying the thermal history of the Universe by including an early period of matter domination can lead to the formation of astronomical objects. However, the survival of these objects can only be possible if the dominating matter decays to a daughter particle which is not only almost degenerate with the parent particle but also has an open coannihilation channel. This requirement translates in an upper bound for the coupling of such a channel and makes the early structure formation viable

(Standard model) universe dominated by the right matter

We analyze the phenomenology of a prolonged early epoch of matter domination by an unstable but very long-lived massive particle. This new matter domination era can help to relax some of the requirements on the primordial inflation. Its main effect is the huge entropy production produced by the decays of such a particle that can dilute any possible unwanted relic, as the gravitino in supersymmetric models, and thus relax the constraints on the inflationary reheating temperature. A natural candidate for such a heavy, long-lived particle already present in the standard model of the electroweak interactions would be a heavy right-handed neutrino. In this case, we show that its decays can also generate the observed baryon asymmetry with right-handed neutrino masses well above the bound from gravitino overproduction

Non-decoupling of heavy neutrinos and lepton flavor violation

We consider a class of models predicting new heavy neutral fermionic states, whose mixing with the light neutrinos can be naturally significant and produce observable effects below the threshold for their production. We update the indirect limits on the flavour non-diagonal mixing parameters that can be derived from unitarity, and show that significant rates are in general expected for one-loop-induced rare processes due to the exchange of virtual heavy neutrinos, involving the violation of the muon and electron lepton numbers. In particular, the amplitudes for μ--e conversion in nuclei and for μ→ee+e− show a non-decoupling quadratic dependence on the heavy neutrino mass M, while μ→eγ is almost independent of the heavy scale above the electroweak scale. These three processes are then used to set stringent constraints on the flavour-violating mixing angles. In all the cases considered, we point out explicitly that the non-decoupling behaviour is strictly related to the spontaneous breaking of the SU(2) symmetry

Eviction of a 125 GeV 'heavy'-Higgs from the MSSM

We prove that the present experimental constraints are already enough to rule out the possibility of the ~125 GeV Higgs found at LHC being the second lightest Higgs in a general MSSM context, even with explicit CP violation in the Higgs potential. Contrary to previous studies, we are able to eliminate this possibility analytically, using simple expressions for a relatively small number of observables. We show that the present LHC constraints on the diphoton signal strength, tau-tau production through Higgs and BR(B -> X_s gamma) are enough to preclude the possibility of H_2 being the observed Higgs with m_H~125 GeV within an MSSM context, without leaving room for finely tuned cancellations. As a by-product, we also comment on the difficulties of an MSSM interpretation of the excess in the gamma-gamma production cross section recently found at CMS that could correspond to a second Higgs resonance at m_H~136 GeV

Improved tau-lepton tools for Higgs boson hunting

In this work, we use the results from Higgs searches in the γγ and ττ decay channels at LHC and indirect bounds as BR(B→Xsγ) to constrain the parameter space of a generic MSSM Higgs sector. In particular, we include the latest CMS results that look for additional Higgs states with masses up to 1 TeV. We show that the ττ channel is the best and most accurate weapon in the hunt for new Higgs states beyond the Standard Model. We obtain that present experimental results rule out additional neutral Higgs bosons in a generic MSSM below 300 GeV for any value of tanβ and, for instance, values of tanβ above 30 are only possible for Higgs masses above 600 GeV. ATLAS stored data has the potential to render this bound obsolete in the near future