188 research outputs found
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
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
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
The Low-Scale Approach to Neutrino Masses
In this short review we revisit the broad landscape of low-scale SU(3)(C) circle times SU(2)(L) circle times U(1)(Y) models of neutrino mass generation, with view on their phenomenological potential. This includes signatures associated to direct neutrino mass messenger production at the LHC, as well as messenger-induced lepton flavor violation processes. We also briefly comment on the presence of WIMP cold dark matter candidates
Radiative neutrino mass in 3-3-1 scheme
We propose a new radiative mechanism for neutrino mass generation based on the SU(3)(c) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) electroweak gauge group. Lepton number is a symmetry of the Yukawa sector which is spontaneously broken in the gauge sector. As a result light Majorana masses arise from neutral gauge boson exchanges at the one-loop level. In addition to the isosinglet neutrinos that may be produced at the LHC through the extended gauge boson portals, the model contains new quarks which can also lie at the TeV scale, and which can provide a plethora of accessible collider phenomena
Predictive Discrete Dark Matter Model
Dark Matter stability can be achieved through a partial breaking of a flavor
symmetry. In this framework we propose a type-II seesaw model where left-handed
matter transforms nontrivially under the flavor group Delta(54), providing
correlations between neutrino oscillation parameters, consistent with the
recent Daya-Bay and RENO reactor angle measurements, as well as lower bounds
for neutrinoless double beta decay. The dark matter phenomenology is provided
by a Higgs-portal.Comment: v1: 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: The discussion is extended to the NH
case, 1 additional figur
Accidental stability of dark matter
We propose that dark matter is stable as a consequence of an accidental Z2
that results from a flavour-symmetry group which is the double-cover group of
the symmetry group of one of the regular geometric solids. Although
model-dependent, the phenomenology resembles that of a generic Higgs portal
dark matter scheme.Comment: 12 pages, final version, published in JHE
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
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