4,290 research outputs found
Some constraints on neutral heavy leptons from flavor-conserving decays of the Z boson
Small neutrino masses can arise in some grand unified models or superstring
theories. We consider a model with an enhanced fermion sector containing Dirac
neutral heavy leptons. The dependence on the mass and mixing parameters of
these new fermions is investigated for several measurable quantities. We study
the flavor-conserving leptonic decays of the Z boson and universality breaking
in these decays. We also consider the W boson mass dependence on neutral heavy
lepton parameters.Comment: 20 pages, Revtex 3.0, 6 uuencoded and compressed postscript figures
included. Compressed postscript file of paper, including figures, also
available by anonymous ftp at
ftp://ftp.physics.carleton.ca/pub/theory/gour/ocipc9411.ps.Z . Accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. D
Leptogenesis without violation of B-L
We study the possibility of generating the observed baryon asymmetry via
leptogenesis in the decay of heavy Standard Model singlet fermions which carry
lepton number, in a framework without Majorana masses above the electroweak
scale. Such scenario does not contain any source of total lepton number
violation besides the Standard Model sphalerons, and the baryon asymmetry is
generated by the interplay of lepton flavour effects and the sphaleron
decoupling in the decay epoch.Comment: V2 (published version): 21 pages, 4 figures. Some explanations have
been adde
Models of Neutrino Masses: Anarchy versus Hierarchy
We present a quantitative study of the ability of models with different
levels of hierarchy to reproduce the solar neutrino solutions, in particular
the LA solution. As a flexible testing ground we consider models based on
SU(5)xU(1)_F. In this context, we have made statistical simulations of models
with different patterns from anarchy to various types of hierachy: normal
hierarchical models with and without automatic suppression of the 23
(sub)determinant and inverse hierarchy models. We find that, not only for the
LOW or VO solutions, but even in the LA case, the hierarchical models have a
significantly better success rate than those based on anarchy. The normal
hierachy and the inverse hierarchy models have comparable performances in
models with see-saw dominance, while the inverse hierarchy models are
particularly good in the no see-saw versions. As a possible distinction between
these categories of models, the inverse hierarchy models favour a maximal solar
mixing angle and their rate of success drops dramatically as the mixing angle
decreases, while normal hierarchy models are far more stable in this respect.Comment: v1: 28 pages, 12 figures; v2: 34 pages, 14 figures, updated previous
analysis with the inclusion of recent SNO result
Measuring individual overpotentials in an operating solid-oxide electrochemical cell
We use photo-electrons as a non-contact probe to measure local electrical
potentials in a solid-oxide electrochemical cell. We characterize the cell in
operando at near-ambient pressure using spatially-resolved X-ray photoemission
spectroscopy. The overpotentials at the interfaces between the Ni and Pt
electrodes and the yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte are directly
measured. The method is validated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.
Using the overpotentials, which characterize the cell's inefficiencies, we
compare without ambiguity the electro-catalytic efficiencies of Ni and Pt,
finding that on Ni H_2O splitting proceeds more rapidly than H2 oxidation,
while on Pt, H2 oxidation proceeds more rapidly than H2O splitting.Comment: corrected; Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 201
The Little Review on Leptogenesis
This is a brief review on the scenario of baryogenesis through leptogenesis.
Leptogenesis is an appealing scenario that may relate the observed baryon
asymmetry in the Universe to the low-energy neutrino data. In this review talk,
particular emphasis is put on recent developments on the field, such as the
flavourdynamics of leptogenesis and resonant leptogenesis near the electroweak
phase transition. It is illustrated how these recent developments enable the
modelling of phenomenologically predictive scenarios that can directly be
tested at the LHC and indirectly in low-energy experiments of lepton-number and
lepton-flavour violation.Comment: 15 pages, based on a plenary presentation given at the DISCRETE'08
Symposium, 11-16 December 2008, Valencia, Spai
Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment and mu -> e gamma in B-L Model with Inverse Seesaw
We study the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a_\mu, and lepton flavor
violating decay \mu -> e \gamma in TeV scale B-L extension of the Standard
Model (SM) with inverse seesaw mechanism. We show that the B-L contributions to
a_\mu are severely constrained, therefore the SM contribution remains intact.
We also emphasize that the current experimental limit of BR(\mu -> e \gamma)
can be satisfied for a wide range of parameter space and it can be within the
reach of MEG experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 4 Figure
Impact of Fermion Mass Degeneracy on Flavor Mixing
We carry out a systematic analysis of flavor mixing and CP violation in the
conceptually interesting limit where two quarks or leptons of the same charge
are degenerate in mass. We pay some particular attention to the impact of
neutrino mass degeneracy and Majorana phase degeneracy on the lepton flavor
mixing matrix.Comment: 14 page
Neutrino Oscillations v.s. Leptogenesis in SO(10) Models
We study the link between neutrino oscillations and leptogenesis in the
minimal framework assuming an SO(10) see-saw mechanism with 3 families. Dirac
neutrino masses being fixed, the solar and atmospheric data then generically
induce a large mass-hierarchy and a small mixing between the lightest
right-handed neutrinos, which fails to produce sufficient lepton asymmetry by 5
orders of magnitudes at least. This failure can be attenuated for a very
specific value of the mixing sin^2(2\theta_{e3})=0.1, which interestingly lies
at the boundary of the CHOOZ exclusion region, but will be accessible to future
long baseline experiments.Comment: 23 pages, 8 eps figures, JHEP3 format; more accurate effect of
dilution reduces previous results, inclusion of all phases, added reference
Sterile Neutrinos in E_6 and a Natural Understanding of Vacuum Oscillation Solution to the Solar Neutrino Puzzle
If Nature has chosen the vacuum oscillation solution to the Solar neutrino
puzzle, a key theoretical challenge is to understand the extreme smallness of
the () required for the purpose.
We find that in a class of models such as [SU(3)]^3 or its parent group E_6,
which contain one sterile neutrino, for each family, the is proportional to the cube of the lepton Yukawa
coupling. Therefore fitting the atmospheric neutrino data then predicts the
mass difference square to be , where the atmospheric neutrino data is assumed to be
solved via the oscillation. This provides a natural
explanation of the vacuum oscillation solution to the solar neutrino problem.Comment: 7 pages, UMD-PP-99-109; new references added; no other chang
Unconventional superstring derived E models and neutrino phenomenology
Conventional superstring derived E models can accommodate small neutrino
masses if a discrete symmetry is imposed which forbids tree level Dirac
neutrino masses but allows for radiative mass generation. Since the only
possible symmetries of this kind are known to be generation dependent, we
explore the possibility that the three sets of light states in each generation
do not have the same assignments with respect to the 27 of , leading to
non universal gauge interactions under the additional factors for the
known fermions. We argue that models realising such a scenario are viable, with
their structure being constrained mainly by the requirement of the absence of
flavor changing neutral currents in the Higgs sector. Moreover, in contrast to
the standard case, rank 6 models are not disfavoured with respect to rank 5. By
requiring the number of light neutral states to be minimal, these models have
an almost unique pattern of neutrino masses and mixings. We construct a model
based on the unconventional assignment scenario in which (with a natural choice
of the parameters) m_{\nut}\sim O(10)eV is generated at one loop, m_{\num}
is generated at two loops and lies in a range interesting for the solar
neutrino problem, and \nue remains massless. In addition, since baryon and
lepton number are conserved, there is no proton decay in the model. To
illustrate the non-standard phenomenology implied by our scheme we also discuss
a second scenario in which an attempt for solving the solar neutrino puzzle
with matter enhanced oscillations and practically massless neutrinos can be
formulated, and in which peculiar effects for the \num --> \nut conversion
of the upward-going atmospheric neutrinos could arise as well.Comment: Plain Tex, 33 pages, 3 PostScript figures (uses epsf.tex). Modified
file-format. No changes in the tex
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