Outpatient Civil Commitment in North Carolina: Constitutional and Policy Concerns

Outpatient commitment of the mentally ill is court-ordered treatment in the community and is usually characterized by short, recurring visits to a mental health clinic that provides treatment such as medication, individual or group therapy, day or part-day activities or supervision of living arrangements. The history and design of the North Carolina preventive commitment scheme and constitutional difficulties with this statute are discussed

Atmospheric and Solar Neutrinos with a Heavy Singlet

We follow a minimalistic approach to neutrino masses, by introducing a single heavy singlet $N$ into the standard model (or supersymmetric standard model) with a heavy Majorana mass $M$, which couples as a single right-handed neutrino in a Dirac fashion to leptons, and induces a single light see-saw mass $m_{\nu}\sim 5\times 10^{-2} eV$, leaving two neutrinos massless. This trivial extension to the standard model may account for the atomospheric neutrino data via $\nu_{\mu}\to \nu_{\tau}$ oscillations with near maximal mixing angle $\theta_{23}\sim \pi/4$ and $\Delta m_{\mu \tau}^2 \sim 2.5\times 10^{-3} eV^2$. In order to account for the solar neutrino data the model is extended to SUSY GUT/ string-inspired type models which can naturally yield an additional light tau neutrino mass $m_{\nu_{\tau}}\sim few \times 10^{-3} eV$ leading to $\nu_{e L}\to (\cos \theta_{23}{\nu}_{\mu L} -\sin \theta_{23}{\nu}_{\tau L})$ oscillations with $\Delta m_{e1}^2\sim 10^{-5} eV^2$ and a mixing angle $\sin^2 2 \theta_1 \approx 10^{-2}$ in the correct range for the small angle MSW solution to the solar neutrino problem. The model predicts $\nu_{e L}\to (\sin \theta_{23}{\nu}_{\mu L} +\cos \theta_{23}{\nu}_{\tau L})$ oscillations with a similar angle but a larger splitting $\Delta m_{e2}^2 \sim 2.5\times 10^{-3} eV^2$.Comment: 10 pages, Latex. Expanded discussion of mixing angles mainly in an Appendi

RK(∗)R_{K^{(*)}} and the origin of Yukawa couplings

We explore the possibility that the semi-leptonic $B$ decay ratios $R_{K^{(*)}}$ which violate $\mu - e$ universality are related to the origin of the fermion Yukawa couplings in the Standard Model. Some time ago, a vector-like fourth family (without a $Z'$) was used to generate fermion mass hierarchies and mixing patterns without introducing any family symmetry. Recently the idea of inducing flavourful $Z'$ couplings via mixing with a vector-like fourth family which carries gauged $U(1)'$ charges has been proposed as a simple way of producing controlled flavour universality violation while elegantly cancelling anomalies. We show that the fusion of these two ideas provides a nice connection between $R_{K^{(*)}}$ and the origin of Yukawa couplings in the quark sector. However the lepton sector requires some tuning of Yukawa couplings to obtain the desired coupling of $Z'$ to muons.Comment: Minor corrections to phenomenology section to match published version. 19 pages, 4 figure

A to Z of Flavour with Pati-Salam

We propose an elegant theory of flavour based on $A_4\times Z_5$ family symmetry with Pati-Salam unification which provides an excellent description of quark and lepton masses, mixing and CP violation. The $A_4$ symmetry unifies the left-handed families and its vacuum alignment determines the columns of Yukawa matrices. The $Z_5$ symmetry distinguishes the right-handed families and its breaking controls CP violation in both the quark and lepton sectors. The Pati-Salam symmetry relates the quark and lepton Yukawa matrices, with $Y^u=Y^{\nu}$ and $Y^d\sim Y^e$. Using the see-saw mechanism with very hierarchical right-handed neutrinos and CSD4 vacuum alignment, the model predicts the entire PMNS mixing matrix and gives a Cabibbo angle $\theta_C\approx 1/4$. In particular it predicts maximal atmospheric mixing, $\theta^l_{23}=45^\circ\pm 0.5^\circ$ and leptonic CP violating phase $\delta^l=260^\circ \pm 5^\circ$. The reactor angle prediction is $\theta^l_{13}=9^\circ\pm 0.5^\circ$, while the solar angle is $34^\circ \geq \theta^l_{12}\geq 31^\circ$, for a lightest neutrino mass in the range $0 \leq m_1 \leq 0.5$ meV, corresponding to a normal neutrino mass hierarchy and a very small rate for neutrinoless double beta decay.Comment: 38 pages, 28 figures, published versio

Flavour from the Planck scale to the electroweak scale

We discuss a theory of flavour in which Higgs Yukawa couplings are related to those of the new scalar triplet leptoquark and/or $Z'$ responsible for $R_{K^{(*)}}$, with all couplings arising effectively from mixing with a vector-like fourth family, whose mass may be anywhere from the Planck scale to the electroweak scale for the leptoquarks explanation, but is pinned down to the TeV scale if the $Z'$ exchange plays a role. However, in this particular model, only leptoquark exchange can contribute significantly to $R_{K^{(*)}}$, since $Z'$ exchange is too constrained from $B_s$ mixing and $\tau \rightarrow 3 \mu$, although other Higgs Yukawa matrix structures may allow it.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures. Contribution to the 2019 EW session of the 54th Rencontres de Morion