LEP Indications for Two Light Higgs Bosons and U(1)' Model

Reanalyses of LEP data have shown preference to two light CP-even Higgs bosons. We discuss implications of such a Higgs boson spectrum for the minimal supersymmetric model extended by a Standard Model singlet chiral superfield and an additional Abelian gauge invariance (the U(1)' model). We, in particular, determine parameter regions that lead to two light CP-even Higgs bosons while satisfying existing bounds on the mass and mixings of the extra vector boson. In these parameter regions, the pseudoscalar Higgs is found to be nearly degenerate in mass with either the lightest or next-to-lightest Higgs boson. Certain parameters of the U(1)' model such as the effective mu parameter are found to be significantly bounded by the LEP two-light-Higgs signal.Comment: 20 pp, 7 figs, 2 table

Dirac Neutrino Masses from Generalized Supersymmetry Breaking

We demonstrate that Dirac neutrino masses in the experimentally preferred range are generated within supersymmetric gauge extensions of the Standard Model with a generalized supersymmetry breaking sector. If the usual superpotential Yukawa couplings are forbidden by the additional gauge symmetry (such as a U(1)'), effective Dirac mass terms involving the "wrong Higgs" field can arise either at tree level due to hard supersymmetry breaking fermion Yukawa couplings, or at one-loop due to nonanalytic or "nonholomorphic" soft supersymmetry breaking trilinear scalar couplings. As both of these operators are naturally suppressed in generic models of supersymmetry breaking, the resulting neutrino masses are naturally in the sub-eV range. The neutrino magnetic and electric dipole moments resulting from the radiative mechanism also vanish at one-loop order.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, references added, note added on effective superpotential mass terms generated upon U(1)' breakin

Sneutrino Dark Matter: Symmetry Protection and Cosmic Ray Anomalies

We present an R-parity conserving model of sneutrino dark matter within a Higgs-philic U(1)' extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. In this theory, the mu parameter and light Dirac neutrino masses are generated naturally upon the breaking of the U(1)' gauge symmetry. The leptonic and hadronic decays of sneutrinos in this model, taken to be the lightest and next-to-lightest superpartners, allow for a natural fit to the recent results reported by the PAMELA experiment.Comment: Revised to match the published version; 11 pages (2 column format), 1 table, 6 figures, to appear in PR

Tevatron Higgs Mass Bounds: Projecting U(1)' Models to LHC Domain

We study Higgs boson masses in supersymmetric models with an extra U(1) symmetry to be called U(1)$^{\prime}$. Such extra gauge symmetries are urged by the $\mu$ problem of the MSSM, and they also arise frequently in low-energy supersymmetric models stemming from GUTs and strings. We analyze mass of the lightest Higgs boson and various other particle masses and couplings by taking into account the LEP bounds as well as the recent bounds from Tevatron experiments. We find that the $\mu$-problem motivated generic low-energy U(1)$^{\prime}$ model yields Higgs masses as large as $\sim 200\ {\rm GeV}$ and violate the Tevatron bounds for certain ranges of parameters. We analyze correlations among various model parameters, and determine excluded regions by both scanning the parameter space and by examining certain likely parameter values. We also make educated projections for LHC measurements in light of the Tevatron restrictions on the parameter space. We further analyze certain benchmark models stemming from E(6) breaking, and find that they elevate Higgs boson mass into Tevatron's forbidden band when U(1)$^{\prime}$ gauge coupling takes larger values than the one corresponding to one-step GUT breaking.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Scalars, Vectors and Tensors from Metric-Affine Gravity

The metric-affine gravity provides a useful framework for analyzing gravitational dynamics since it treats metric tensor and affine connection as fundamentally independent variables. In this work, we show that, a metric-affine gravity theory composed of the invariants formed from non-metricity, torsion and curvature tensors can be decomposed into a theory of scalar, vector and tensor fields. These fields are natural candidates for the ones needed by various cosmological and other phenomena. Indeed, we show that the model accommodates TeVeS gravity (relativistic modified gravity theory), vector inflation, and aether-like models. Detailed analyses of these and other phenomena can lead to a standard metric-affine gravity model encoding scalars, vectors and tensors.Comment: 13 p

Higher Curvature Quantum Gravity and Large Extra Dimensions

We discuss effective interactions among brane matter induced by modifications of higher dimensional Einstein gravity via the replacement of Einstein-Hilbert term with a generic function f(R) of the curvature scalar R. After deriving the graviton propagator, we analyze impact of virtual graviton exchanges on particle interactions, and conclude that f(R) gravity effects are best probed by high-energy processes involving massive gauge bosons, heavy fermions or the Higgs boson. We perform a comparative analysis of the predictions of f(R) gravity and of Arkani-Hamed-Dvali-Dimopoulos (ADD) scenario, and find that the former competes with the latter when f''(0) is positive and comparable to the fundamental scale of gravity in higher dimensions. In addition, we briefly discuss graviton emission from the brane as well as its decays into brane-localized matter, and find that they hardly compete with the ADD expectations. Possible existence of higher-curvature gravitational interactions in large extra spatial dimensions opens up various signatures to be confronted with existing and future collider experiments.Comment: 19 pp, 2 figs. Added references, corrected typo

Nonlinearly Realized Local Scale Invariance: Gravity and Matter

That the scalar field theories with no dimensional couplings possess local scale invariance (LSI) via the curvature gauging is utilized to show that the Goldstone boson, released by the spontaneous LSI breakdown, is swallowed by the spacetime curvature in order to generate Newton's constant in the same spirit as the induction of vector boson masses via spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking. For Einstein gravity to be reproduced correctly, the Goldstone boson of spontaneous LSI breaking must be endowed with ghost dynamics. The matter sector, taken to be the standard model spectrum, gains full LSI with the physical Higgs boson acting as the Goldstone boson released by LSI breakdown at the weak scale. The pattern of particle masses is identical to that of the standard model. There are unitary LSI gauges in which either the Goldstone ghost from gravity sector or the Higgs boson from matter sector is eliminated from the spectrum. The heavy right-handed neutrinos as well as softly broken supersymmetry naturally fit into the nonlinearly realized LSI framework.Comment: 12pp, added a referenc

Non-Gravitating Scalars and Spacetime Compactification

We discuss role of partially gravitating scalar fields, scalar fields whose energy-momentum tensors vanish for a subset of dimensions, in dynamical compactification of a given set of dimensions. We show that the resulting spacetime exhibits a factorizable geometry consisting of usual four-dimensional spacetime with full Poincare invariance times a manifold of extra dimensions whose size and shape are determined by the scalar field dynamics. Depending on the strength of its coupling to the curvature scalar, the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the scalar field may or may not vanish. When its VEV is zero the higher dimensional spacetime is completely flat and there is no compactification effect at all. On the other hand, when its VEV is nonzero the extra dimensions get spontaneously compactified. The compactification process is such that a bulk cosmological constant is utilized for curving the extra dimensions.Comment: 18 pp, 1 fi

Higgs boson couplings to quarks with supersymmetric CP and flavor violations

In minimal supersymmetric model (SUSY) with a light Higgs sector, explicit CP violation and most general flavor mixings in the sfermion sector, integration of the superpartners out of the spectrum induces potentially large contributions to the Yukawa couplings of light quarks via those of the heavier ones. These corrections can be sizeable even for moderate values of tan(beta), and remain nonvanishing even if all superpartners decouple. When the SUSY breaking scale is close to the electroweak scale, the Higgs exchange effects can compete with the gauge boson and box diagram contributions to rare processes, and their partial cancellations can lead to relaxation of the existing bounds on flavor violation sources. In this case there exist sizeable enhancements in flavor-changing Higgs decays. When the superpartners completely decouple, however, the Higgs mediation becomes the dominant SUSY contribution to rare processes the saturation of which, without a strong suppression of the flavor mixings, prefers large tan(beta) and certain ranges for the CP-odd phases. The decay rate of the lightest Higgs into light down quarks become comparable with that into the bottom quark. Moreover, the Higgs decay into the up quark is significantly enhanced. There are observable implications for rare processes, atomic electric dipole moments, and collider searches for Higgs bosons.Comment: 20 pp. Added references, improved the discussion of FCNC constraints;journal versio

General Tensor Lagrangians from Gravitational Higgs Mechanism

The gravitational Higgs mechanism proposed by 't Hooft in arXiv:0708.3184 involves the spacetime metric g_{mu nu} as well as the induced metric \bar{g}_{mu nu} proportional to \eta_{a b} \partial_{mu} \phi^a \partial_{nu} \phi^b where \phi^{a} (a=0,...,3), as we call it, break all four diffeomorphisms spontaneously via the vacuum expectation values proportional to x^a. In this framework, we construct and analyze the most general action density in terms of various invariants involving the curvature tensors, connexion coefficients, and the contractions and the determinants of the two metric fields. We show that this action admits a consistent expansion about the flat background such that the resulting Lagrangian possesses several novel features not found in the linearized Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian with Fierz-Pauli mass term (LELHL-FP): (i) its kinetic part generalizes that of LELHL-FP by weighing the corresponding structures with certain coefficients generated by invariants, (ii) the entire Lagrangian is ghost-- and tachyon--free for mass terms not necessarily in the Fierz-Pauli form, and, (iii) a consistent mass term is generated with no apparent need to higher derivative couplings.Comment: 20 pp; added a referenc