Supersymmetric Singlet Majorons and Cosmology

We examine cosmological constraints on the lepton number breaking scale in supersymmetric singlet majoron models. Special attention is drawn to the model dependence arising from the particular choice of a certain majoron extension and a cosmological scenario. We find that the bounds on the symmetry breaking scale can vary substantially. Large values of this scale can be allowed if the decoupling temperature of smajoron and majorino exceeds the reheating temperature of inflation. In the opposite case an upper bound depending on the majoron model can be obtained which, however, is unlikely to be much larger than $10^{10}$ GeV.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, IC/94/40, SNUTP 94-15, TUM - TH - 164/9

Prospects of Scintillating Crystal Detector in Low-Energy Low-Background Experiments

Scintillating crystal detector offers potential advantages in low-energy (keV-MeV range) low-background experiments for particle physics and astrophysics. The merits are discussed using CsI(Tl) crystal as illustrations. The various physics topics which can be pursued with this detector technology are summarized. A conceptual design for a generic detector is presented.Comment: 20 pages, 1 tables, 7 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Transport Properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma -- A Lattice QCD Perspective

Transport properties of a thermal medium determine how its conserved charge densities (for instance the electric charge, energy or momentum) evolve as a function of time and eventually relax back to their equilibrium values. Here the transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma are reviewed from a theoretical perspective. The latter play a key role in the description of heavy-ion collisions, and are an important ingredient in constraining particle production processes in the early universe. We place particular emphasis on lattice QCD calculations of conserved current correlators. These Euclidean correlators are related by an integral transform to spectral functions, whose small-frequency form determines the transport properties via Kubo formulae. The universal hydrodynamic predictions for the small-frequency pole structure of spectral functions are summarized. The viability of a quasiparticle description implies the presence of additional characteristic features in the spectral functions. These features are in stark contrast with the functional form that is found in strongly coupled plasmas via the gauge/gravity duality. A central goal is therefore to determine which of these dynamical regimes the quark-gluon plasma is qualitatively closer to as a function of temperature. We review the analysis of lattice correlators in relation to transport properties, and tentatively estimate what computational effort is required to make decisive progress in this field.Comment: 54 pages, 37 figures, review written for EPJA and APPN; one parag. added end of section 3.4, and one at the end of section 3.2.2; some Refs. added, and some other minor change

Gravitational field around a screwed superconducting cosmic string in scalar-tensor theories

We obtain the solution that corresponds to a screwed superconducting cosmic string (SSCS) in the framework of a general scalar-tensor theory including torsion. We investigate the metric of the SSCS in Brans-Dicke theory with torsion and analyze the case without torsion. We show that in the case with torsion the space-time background presents other properties different from that in which torsion is absent. When the spin vanish, this torsion is a $\phi$-gradient and then it propagates outside of the string. We investigate the effect of torsion on the gravitational force and on the geodesics of a test-particle moving around the SSCS. The accretion of matter by wakes formation when a SSCS moves with speed $v$ is investigated. We compare our results with those obtained for cosmic strings in the framework of scalar-tensor theory.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, presented at the "XXII - Encontro Nacional de Fisica de Particulas e Campos", Sao Lourenco, MG, Brazi

Thermal leptogenesis in a model with mass varying neutrinos

In this paper we consider the possibility of neutrino mass varying during the evolution of the Universe and study its implications on leptogenesis. Specifically, we take the minimal seesaw model of neutrino masses and introduce a coupling between the right-handed neutrinos and the dark energy scalar field, the Quintessence. In our model, the right-handed neutrino masses change as the Quintessence scalar evolves. We then examine in detail the parameter space of this model allowed by the observed baryon number asymmetry. Our results show that it is possible to lower the reheating temperature in this scenario in comparison with the case that the neutrino masses are unchanged, which helps solve the gravitino problem. Furthermore, a degenerate neutrino mass patten with $m_i$ larger than the upper limit given in the minimal leptogenesis scenario is permitted.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, version to appear in PR

Higgs Boson Bounds in Three and Four Generation Scenarios

In light of recent experimental results, we present updated bounds on the lightest Higgs boson mass in the Standard Model (SM) and in the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM). The vacuum stability lower bound on the pure SM Higgs boson mass when the SM is taken to be valid up to the Planck scale lies above the MSSM lightest Higgs boson mass upper bound for a large amount of SUSY parameter space. If the lightest Higgs boson is detected with a mass M_{H} < 134 GeV (150 GeV) for a top quark mass M_{top} = 172 GeV (179 GeV), it may indicate the existence of a fourth generation of fermions. The region of inconsistency is removed and the MSSM is salvagable for such values of M_{H} if one postulates the existence of a fourth generation of leptons and quarks with isodoublet degenerate masses M_{L} and M_{Q} such that 60 GeV 170 GeV.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Physical Review

Non-thermal Leptogenesis from the Heavier Majorana Neutrinos

We investigate a scheme for making leptogenesis by means of the CP violating decays of the seesaw Majorana neutrinos proposed by Fukugita and Yanagida. However, in order to avoid the wash-out of the produced lepton number we propose the production of the Majorana neutrinos to occur non-thermally and sufficiently late. After this time, in consequence, the B-L (baryon minus lepton) quantum number becomes a good ``accidental symmetry'' protecting the asymmetry produced. This non-thermal leptogenesis at late time is realized by a boson decaying into the Majorana neutrinos with a long lifetime. Suggestively this boson could correspond to a scalar field which causes the cosmic inflation, the inflaton, and thus its decay means really the reheating of the Universe. We find that this mechanism works well even if the lightest Majorana neutrinos are not produced sufficiently or not present, and the decays of the heavier seesaw Majorana neutrinos can be responsible to the baryon asymmetry in the present Universe, as we illustrate by the example of the family replicated gauge group model.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure, Latex2e; section 5 modified, refs. adde

Lorentz breaking Effective Field Theory and observational tests

Analogue models of gravity have provided an experimentally realizable test field for our ideas on quantum field theory in curved spacetimes but they have also inspired the investigation of possible departures from exact Lorentz invariance at microscopic scales. In this role they have joined, and sometime anticipated, several quantum gravity models characterized by Lorentz breaking phenomenology. A crucial difference between these speculations and other ones associated to quantum gravity scenarios, is the possibility to carry out observational and experimental tests which have nowadays led to a broad range of constraints on departures from Lorentz invariance. We shall review here the effective field theory approach to Lorentz breaking in the matter sector, present the constraints provided by the available observations and finally discuss the implications of the persisting uncertainty on the composition of the ultra high energy cosmic rays for the constraints on the higher order, analogue gravity inspired, Lorentz violations.Comment: 47 pages, 4 figures. Lecture Notes for the IX SIGRAV School on "Analogue Gravity", Como (Italy), May 2011. V.3. Typo corrected, references adde

Radiative Corrections to Neutrino Mixing and CP Violation in the Minimal Seesaw Model with Leptogenesis

Radiative corrections to neutrino mixing and CP violation are analyzed in the minimal seesaw model with two heavy right-handed neutrinos. We find that textures of the effective Majorana neutrino mass matrix are essentially stable against renormalization effects. Taking account of the Frampton-Glashow-Yanagida ansatz for the Dirac neutrino Yukawa coupling matrix, we calculate the running effects of light neutrino masses, lepton flavor mixing angles and CP-violating phases for both $m_1 =0$ (normal mass hierarchy) and $m_3 =0$ (inverted mass hierarchy) cases in the standard model and in its minimal supersymmetric extension. Very instructive predictions for the cosmological baryon number asymmetry via thermal leptogenesis are also given with the help of low-energy neutrino mixing quantities.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures; more references adde