Calculation of epsilon'/epsilon

I shortly review the present status of the theoretical calculations of epsilon'/epsilon and the comparison with the present experimental results. I discuss the role of higher order chiral corrections and in general of non-factorizable contributions for the explanation of the Delta I = 1/2 selection rule and direct CP violation in kaon decays. Still lacking reliable lattice calculations, analytic methods and phenomenological approaches are helpful in understanding correlations among theoretical effects and the experimental data. Substantial progress from lattice QCD is expected in the coming years.Comment: 10 pages, Invited talk at the 9th Int. Symposium on Heavy Flavour Physics, Pasadena, CA, 10-13 September 2001 Comments added on Table

Present and Future K and B Meson Mixing Constraints on TeV Scale Left-Right Symmetry

We revisit the $\Delta F=2$ transitions in the $K$ and $B_{d,s}$ neutral meson systems in the context of the minimal Left-Right symmetric model. We take into account, in addition to up-to-date phenomenological data, the contributions related to the renormalization of the flavor-changing neutral Higgs tree-level amplitude. These contributions were neglected in recent discussions, albeit formally needed in order to obtain a gauge independent result. Their impact on the minimal LR model is crucial and twofold. First, the effects are relevant in $B$ meson oscillations, for both CP conserving and CP violating observables, so that for the first time these imply constraints on the LR scenario which compete with those of the $K$ sector (plagued by long-distance uncertainties). Second, they sizably contribute to the indirect kaon CP violation parameter $\varepsilon$. We discuss the bounds from $B$ and $K$ mesons in both cases of LR symmetry: generalized parity ($\mathcal P$) and charge conjugation ($\mathcal C$). In the case of $\mathcal P$, the interplay between the CP-violation parameters $\varepsilon$ and $\varepsilon'$ leads us to rule out the regime of very hierarchical bidoublet vacuum expectation values $v_2/v_1<m_b/m_t\simeq 0.02$. In general, by minimizing the scalar field contribution up to the limit of the perturbative regime and by definite values of the relevant CP phases in the charged right-handed currents, we find that a right-handed gauge boson $W_R$ as light as 3 TeV is allowed at the 95% CL. This is well within the reach of direct detection at the next LHC run. If not discovered, within a decade the upgraded LHCb and Super B factories may reach an indirect sensitivity to a Left-Right scale of 8 TeV.Comment: Refs added + comment

Theory of epsilon'/epsilon

I shortly review the present status of the theoretical estimates of eps'/eps. I consider a few aspects of the theoretical calculations which may be relevant in understanding the present experimental results. In particular, I discuss the role of final state interactions and in general of non-factorizable contributions for the explanation of the Delta I = 1/2 selection rule in kaon decays and eps'/eps. Lacking reliable ``first principle'' calculations, phenomenological approaches may help in understanding correlations among theoretical effects and the experimental data. The same dynamics which underlies the CP conserving selection rule drives eps'/eps in the range of the recent experimental measurements.Comment: 13 pages. Proceedings of the Bcp 99 Conference, Taipei, Taiwa

Seesaw Scale in the Minimal Renormalizable SO(10) Grand Unification

Simple SO(10) Higgs models with the adjoint representation triggering the grand-unified symmetry breaking, discarded a long ago due to inherent tree-level tachyonic instabilities in the physically interesting scenarios, have been recently brought back to life by quantum effects. In this work we focus on the variant with 45_H+126_H in the Higgs sector and show that there are several regions in the parameter space of this model that can support stable unifying configurations with the B-L breaking scale as high as 10^14 GeV, well above the previous generic estimates based on the minimal survival hypothesis. This admits for a renormalizable implementation of the canonical seesaw and makes the simplest potentially realistic scenario of this kind a good candidate for a minimal SO(10) grand unification. Last, but not least, this setting is likely to be extensively testable at future large-volume facilities such as Hyper-Kamiokande.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 5 table

Structure and prospects of the simplest SO(10) GUTs

We recapitulate the latest results on the class of the simplest SO(10) grand unified models in which the GUT-scale symmetry breaking is triggered by an adjoint Higgs representation. We argue that the minimal survival approximation traditionally used in the GUT- and seesaw-scale estimates tends to be blind to very interesting parts of the parameter space in which some of the intermediate-scale states necessary for non-supersymmetric unification of the SM gauge couplings can be as light as to leave their imprints in the TeV domain. The stringent minimal-survival-based estimates of the B-L scale are shown to be relaxed by as much as four orders of magnitude, thus admitting for a consistent implementation of the standard seesaw mechanism even without excessive fine-tuning implied by the previous studies. The prospects of the minimal renormalizable SO(10) GUT as a potential candidate for a well-calculable theory of proton decay are discussed in brief.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the CETUP'12 worksho