43 research outputs found
The Origin of Mass
The quark-lepton mass problem and the ideas of mass protection are reviewed.
The hierarchy problem and suggestions for its resolution, including Little
Higgs models, are discussed. The Multiple Point Principle is introduced and
used within the Standard Model to predict the top quark and Higgs particle
masses. Mass matrix ans\"{a}tze are considered; in particular we discuss the
lightest family mass generation model, in which all the quark mixing angles are
successfully expressed in terms of simple expressions involving quark mass
ratios. It is argued that an underlying chiral flavour symmetry is responsible
for the hierarchical texture of the fermion mass matrices. The phenomenology of
neutrino mass matrices is briefly discussed.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the XXXI
ITEP Winter School, Moscow, Russia, 18 - 26 February 200
Measuring Slepton Masses and Mixings at the LHC
Flavor physics may help us understand theories beyond the standard model. In
the context of supersymmetry, if we can measure the masses and mixings of
sleptons and squarks, we may learn something about supersymmetry and
supersymmetry breaking. Here we consider a hybrid gauge-gravity supersymmetric
model in which the observed masses and mixings of the standard model leptons
are explained by a U(1) x U(1) flavor symmetry. In the supersymmetric sector,
the charged sleptons have reasonably large flavor mixings, and the lightest is
metastable. As a result, supersymmetric events are characterized not by missing
energy, but by heavy metastable charged particles. Many supersymmetric events
are therefore fully reconstructible, and we can reconstruct most of the charged
sleptons by working up the long supersymmetric decay chains. We obtain
promising results for both masses and mixings, and conclude that, given a
favorable model, precise measurements at the LHC may help shed light not only
on new physics, but also on the standard model flavor parameters.Comment: 24 pages; v2: fixed a typo in our computer program that led to some
miscalculated branching ratios, various clarifications and minor
improvements, conclusions unchanged, published versio
Flavored Gauge-Mediation
The messengers of Gauge-Mediation Models can couple to standard-model matter
fields through renormalizable superpotential couplings. These matter-messenger
couplings generate generation-dependent sfermion masses and are therefore
usually forbidden by discrete symmetries. However, the non-trivial structure of
the standard-model Yukawa couplings hints at some underlying flavor theory,
which would necessarily control the sizes of the matter-messenger couplings as
well. Thus for example, if the doublet messenger and the Higgs have the same
properties under the flavor theory, the resulting messenger-lepton couplings
are parametrically of the same order as the lepton Yukawas, so that slepton
mass-splittings are similar to those of minimally-flavor-violating models and
therefore satisfy bounds on flavor-violation, with, however, slepton mixings
that are potentially large. Assuming that fermion masses are explained by a
flavor symmetry, we construct viable and natural models with messenger-lepton
couplings controlled by the flavor symmetry. The resulting slepton spectra are
unusual and interesting, with slepton mass-splittings and mixings that may be
probed at the LHC. In particular, since the new contributions are typically
negative, and since they are often larger for the first- and second-generation
sleptons, some of these examples have the selectron or the smuon as the
lightest slepton, with mass splittings of a few to tens of GeV.Comment: 16 pages v2: Explicit expressions (which are not needed in the
analysis) for the pure Yukawa contributions removed. There was an error in
some of these expressions in v1. References adde
The flavor puzzle in multi-Higgs models
We reconsider the flavor problem in the models with two Higgs doublets. By
studying two generation toy models, we look for flavor basis independent
constraints on Yukawa couplings that will give us the mass hierarchy while
keeping all Yukawa couplings of the same order. We then generalize our findings
to the full three generation Standard Model. We find that we need two
constraints on the Yukawa couplings to generate the observed mass hierarchy,
and a slight tuning of Yukawa couplings of order 10%, much less than the
Standard Model. We briefly study how these constraints can be realized, and
show how flavor changing currents are under control for mixing in
the near-decoupling limit.Comment: 26 pages, typos are corrected, references are added, the final
versio
Flavor of quiver-like realizations of effective supersymmetry
We present a class of supersymmetric models which address the flavor puzzle
and have an inverted hierarchy of sfermions. Their construction involves
quiver-like models with link fields in generic representations. The magnitude
of Standard-Model parameters is obtained naturally and a relatively heavy Higgs
boson is allowed without fine tuning. Collider signatures of such models are
possibly within the reach of LHC in the near future.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, 3 figures. V2: reference adde
Superconformal Flavor Simplified
A simple explanation of the flavor hierarchies can arise if matter fields
interact with a conformal sector and different generations have different
anomalous dimensions under the CFT. However, in the original study by Nelson
and Strassler many supersymmetric models of this type were considered to be
'incalculable' because the R-charges were not sufficiently constrained by the
superpotential. We point out that nearly all such models are calculable with
the use of a-maximization. Utilizing this, we construct the simplest
vector-like flavor models and discuss their viability. A significant constraint
on these models comes from requiring that the visible gauge couplings remain
perturbative throughout the conformal window needed to generate the
hierarchies. However, we find that there is a small class of simple flavor
models that can evade this bound.Comment: 43 pages, 1 figure; V3: small corrections and clarifications,
references adde
The anomalous U(1) global symmetry and flavors from an SU(5) x SU(5) GUT in orbifold compactification
In string compactifications, frequently there appears the anomalous U(1)
gauge symmetry which belonged to E8E8 of the heterotic string. This
anomalous U(1) gauge boson obtains mass at the compactification scale, just
below GeV, by absorbing one pseudoscalar (corresponding to the
model-independent axion) from the second rank anti-symmetric tensor field
.
Below the compactification scale, there results a global symmetry U(1) whose charge is the original gauge U(1) charge. This is
the most natural global symmetry, realizing the "invisible" axion. This global
symmetry U(1) is suitable for a flavor symmetry. In the simplest
compactification model with the flipped SU(5) grand unification, we calculate
all the low energy parameters in terms of the vacuum expectation values of the
standard model singlets.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figur
The Impact of Flavour Changing Neutral Gauge Bosons on B->X_s gamma
The branching ratio of the rare decay B->X_s gamma provides potentially
strong constraints on models beyond the Standard Model. Considering a general
scenario with new heavy neutral gauge bosons, present in particular in Z' and
gauge flavour models, we point out two new contributions to the B->X_s gamma
decay. The first one originates from one-loop diagrams mediated by gauge bosons
and heavy exotic quarks with electric charge -1/3. The second contribution
stems from the QCD mixing of neutral current-current operators generated by
heavy neutral gauge bosons and the dipole operators responsible for the B->X_s
gamma decay. The latter mixing is calculated here for the first time. We
discuss general sum rules which have to be satisfied in any model of this type.
We emphasise that the neutral gauge bosons in question could also significantly
affect other fermion radiative decays as well as non-leptonic two-body B
decays, epsilon'/epsilon, anomalous (g-2)_mu and electric dipole moments.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures; version published on JHEP; added magic QCD
numbers for flavour-violating Z gauge boson contribution to B -> X_s gamm
Chiral U(1) flavor models and flavored Higgs doublets: the top FB asymmetry and the Wjj
We present U(1) flavor models for leptophobic Z' with flavor dependent
couplings to the right-handed up-type quarks in the Standard Model, which can
accommodate the recent data on the top forward-backward (FB) asymmetry and the
dijet resonance associated with a W boson reported by CDF Collaboration. Such
flavor-dependent leptophobic charge assignments generally require extra chiral
fermions for anomaly cancellation. Also the chiral nature of U(1)' flavor
symmetry calls for new U(1)'-charged Higgs doublets in order for the SM
fermions to have realistic renormalizable Yukawa couplings. The stringent
constraints from the top FB asymmetry at the Tevatron and the same sign top
pair production at the LHC can be evaded due to contributions of the extra
Higgs doublets. We also show that the extension could realize cold dark matter
candidates.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures, added 1 figure and extended discussion,
accepted for publication in JHE
Roy-Steiner equations for pion-nucleon scattering
Starting from hyperbolic dispersion relations, we derive a closed system of
Roy-Steiner equations for pion-nucleon scattering that respects analyticity,
unitarity, and crossing symmetry. We work out analytically all kernel functions
and unitarity relations required for the lowest partial waves. In order to
suppress the dependence on the high-energy regime we also consider once- and
twice-subtracted versions of the equations, where we identify the subtraction
constants with subthreshold parameters. Assuming Mandelstam analyticity we
determine the maximal range of validity of these equations. As a first step
towards the solution of the full system we cast the equations for the
partial waves into the form of a Muskhelishvili-Omn\`es
problem with finite matching point, which we solve numerically in the
single-channel approximation. We investigate in detail the role of individual
contributions to our solutions and discuss some consequences for the spectral
functions of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors.Comment: 106 pages, 18 figures; version published in JHE