Relativistic and spectator effects in leptogenesis with heavy sterile neutrinos

For leptogenesis with heavy sterile neutrinos above the electroweak scale, asymmetries produced at early times (in the relativistic regime) are relevant, if they are protected from washout. This can occur for weak washout or when the asymmetry is partly protected by being transferred to spectator fields. We thus study the relevance of relativistic effects for leptogenesis in a minimal seesaw model with two sterile neutrinos in the strongly hierarchical limit. Starting from first principles, we derive a set of momentum-averaged fluid equations to calculate the final $B-L$ asymmetry as a function of the washout strength and for different initial conditions at order one accuracy. For this, we take the leading fluid approximation for the relativistic $CP$-even and odd rates. Assuming that spectator fields remain in chemical equilibrium, we find that for weak washout, relativistic corrections lead to a sign flip and an enhancement of the asymmetry for a vanishing initial abundance of sterile neutrinos. As an example for the effect of partially equilibrated spectators, we consider bottom-Yukawa and weak-sphaleron interactions in leptogenesis driven by sterile neutrinos with masses $\gtrsim 5\times10^{12}$ GeV. For a vanishing initial abundance of sterile neutrinos, this can give rise to another flip and an absolute enhancement of the final asymmetry in the strong washout regime by up to two orders of magnitude relative to the cases either without spectators or with fully equilibrated ones. These effects are less pronounced for thermal initial conditions for the sterile neutrinos. The $CP$-violating source in the relativistic regime at early times is important as it is proportional to the product of lepton-number violating and lepton-number conserving rates, and therefore less suppressed than an extrapolation of the nonrelativistic approximations may suggest.Comment: 47 pages, 11 figure

Primordial gravitational waves in a minimal model of particle physics and cosmology

In this paper we analyze the spectrum of the primordial gravitational waves (GWs) predicted in the Standard Model*Axion*Seesaw*Higgs portal inflation (SMASH) model, which was proposed as a minimal extension of the Standard Model that addresses five fundamental problems of particle physics and cosmology (inflation, baryon asymmetry, neutrino masses, strong CP problem, and dark matter) in one stroke. The SMASH model has a unique prediction for the critical temperature of the second order Peccei-Quinn (PQ) phase transition $T_c \sim 10^8\,\mathrm{GeV}$ up to the uncertainty in the calculation of the axion dark matter abundance, implying that there is a drastic change in the equation of state of the universe at that temperature. Such an event is imprinted on the spectrum of GWs originating from the primordial tensor fluctuations during inflation and entering the horizon at $T \sim T_c$, which corresponds to $f \sim 1\,\mathrm{Hz}$, pointing to a best frequency range covered by future space-borne GW interferometers. We give a precise estimation of the effective relativistic degrees of freedom across the PQ phase transition and use it to evaluate the spectrum of GWs observed today. It is shown that the future high sensitivity GW experiment -- ultimate DECIGO -- can probe the nontrivial feature resulting from the PQ phase transition in this model.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures; revised version of the manuscript, accepted for publication in JCA

Axion Predictions in SO(10)×U(1)PQSO(10)\times U(1)_{\rm PQ} Models

Non-supersymmetric Grand Unified $SO(10)\times U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ models have all the ingredients to solve several fundamental problems of particle physics and cosmology -- neutrino masses and mixing, baryogenesis, the non-observation of strong CP violation, dark matter, inflation -- in one stroke. The axion - the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of the $U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ Peccei-Quinn symmetry - is the prime dark matter candidate in this setup. We determine the axion mass and the low energy couplings of the axion to the Standard Model particles, in terms of the relevant gauge symmetry breaking scales. We work out the constraints imposed on the latter by gauge coupling unification. We discuss the cosmological and phenomenological implications.Comment: 73 pages, 12 figures. V2. Published versio

Fabrication of tunable chirped mPOF Bragg gratings using a uniform phase mask

"© 2018 Optical Society of America. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modifications of the content of this paper are prohibited"[EN] We demonstrate chirped Bragg gratings fabrication in doped microstructured tapered polymer fibers by using a uniform phase mask. The use of high photosensitive benzyl dimethyl ketal (BDK) doped core fiber allows to obtain chirped Bragg gratings by means of a single krypton fluoride laser pulse. The stability of the gratings has been confirmed and the strain and temperature sensitivity measurements demonstrate their tunable properties. Finally, different tapered profiles have been implemented in order to show the potentiality of this fabrication technique in polymer optical fibers. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)/MEC through national funds and when applicable co-funded by FEDER PT2020 partnership agreement under the project UID/EEA/50008/2013. C. A. F. Marques also acknowledges the financial support from FCT through the fellowship SFRH/BPD/109458/2015. The authors also acknowledge the Research Excellence Award Programme GVA PROMETEO 2017/103 FUTURE MICROWAVE PHOTONIC TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS and Fundamental Research Funds for the Heilongjiang Provincial Universities (KJCXZD201703).Min, R.; Ortega Tamarit, B.; Marques, C. (2018). Fabrication of tunable chirped mPOF Bragg gratings using a uniform phase mask. Optics Express. 26(4):4411-4420. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.26.004411S44114420264Hill, K. O., Takiguchi, K., Bilodeau, F., Malo, B., Kitagawa, T., Thériault, S., … Albert, J. (1994). 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