Quasiclassical Coarse Graining and Thermodynamic Entropy

Our everyday descriptions of the universe are highly coarse-grained, following only a tiny fraction of the variables necessary for a perfectly fine-grained description. Coarse graining in classical physics is made natural by our limited powers of observation and computation. But in the modern quantum mechanics of closed systems, some measure of coarse graining is inescapable because there are no non-trivial, probabilistic, fine-grained descriptions. This essay explores the consequences of that fact. Quantum theory allows for various coarse-grained descriptions some of which are mutually incompatible. For most purposes, however, we are interested in the small subset of ``quasiclassical descriptions'' defined by ranges of values of averages over small volumes of densities of conserved quantities such as energy and momentum and approximately conserved quantities such as baryon number. The near-conservation of these quasiclassical quantities results in approximate decoherence, predictability, and local equilibrium, leading to closed sets of equations of motion. In any description, information is sacrificed through the coarse graining that yields decoherence and gives rise to probabilities for histories. In quasiclassical descriptions, further information is sacrificed in exhibiting the emergent regularities summarized by classical equations of motion. An appropriate entropy measures the loss of information. For a ``quasiclassical realm'' this is connected with the usual thermodynamic entropy as obtained from statistical mechanics. It was low for the initial state of our universe and has been increasing since.Comment: 17 pages, 0 figures, revtex4, Dedicated to Rafael Sorkin on his 60th birthday, minor correction

Quark-lepton symmetry and complementarity

We argue that the difference between the observed approximate quark-lepton complementarity and the theoretical prediction based on realistic quark-lepton symmetry within the seesaw mechanism may be adjusted by means of a triplet contribution in the seesaw formula.Comment: 7 pages, RevTex

The Frobenius group T13 and the canonical see-saw mechanism applied to neutrino mixing

The compatibility of the Frobenius group T13 with the canonical see-saw mechanism of neutrino mixing is examined. The Standard Model is extended in a minimalist way, by introducing a family symmetry and three right-handed neutrinos. To fit experiments and place constraints on the possibilities, tribimaximal mixing is used as a guideline. The application of both a family symmetry group and the canonical see-saw mechanism naturally generates small neutrino masses. The various possibilities from combining these two models are listed. Enough constraints are produced to narrow down the parameters of the neutrino mass matrix to two. This is therefore a predictive model where neutrino mass eigenvalues and allowed regions for neutrinoless double beta decay are suggested.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review D. 13 page

GeV Majorana Neutrinos in Top-quark Decay at the LHC

We explore the \Delta L=2 same-sign dilepton signal from top-quark decay via a Majorana neutrino at the LHC in the top anti-top pair production samples. The signature is same-sign dilepton plus multi-jets with no significant missing energy. The most optimistic region lies where the Majorana neutrino mass is between 15-65 GeV. For 300 fb^-1 integrated luminosity, it is possible to probe S_{ij}, the effective mixing parameter, to order of 10^-5.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Observing Signals of the Bulk Matter RS Model through Rare Decays of SUSY Particles

The bulk matter Randall-Sundrum (RS) model is a setup where Standard Model (SM) matter and gauge fields reside in the bulk of 5D warped spacetime while the Higgs field is confined on the IR brane. The wavefunctions of the 1st and 2nd generation matter particles are localized towards the UV brane and those of the 3rd generation towards the IR brane, so that the hierarchical structure of the Yukawa couplings arises geometrically without hierarchy in fundamental parameters. This paper discusses an experimental test of this model in the case where the Kaluza-Klein scale is far above the collider scale, but the model is combined with 5D Minimal SUSY Standard Model (MSSM) and SUSY particles are in the reach of collider experiments. A general SUSY breaking mass spectrum consistent with the bulk matter RS model is considered: SUSY breaking sector locates on the IR brane and its effects are mediated to 5D MSSM through a hybrid of gravity mediation, gaugino mediation and gauge mediation. This paper argues that it is possible to observe the signals of the bulk matter RS model through rare decays of "almost SU(2) singlet mass eigenstates" that are induced by flavor-violating gravity mediation contributions to matter soft SUSY breaking terms

Quasiclassical Equations of Motion for Nonlinear Brownian Systems

Following the formalism of Gell-Mann and Hartle, phenomenological equations of motion are derived from the decoherence functional formalism of quantum mechanics, using a path-integral description. This is done explicitly for the case of a system interacting with a ``bath'' of harmonic oscillators whose individual motions are neglected. The results are compared to the equations derived from the purely classical theory. The case of linear interactions is treated exactly, and nonlinear interactions are compared using classical and quantum perturbation theory.Comment: 24 pages, CALT-68-1848 (RevTeX 2.0 macros

Nonlinear Dynamics in Distributed Systems

We build on a previous statistical model for distributed systems and formulate it in a way that the deterministic and stochastic processes within the system are clearly separable. We show how internal fluctuations can be analysed in a systematic way using Van Kanpen's expansion method for Markov processes. We present some results for both stationary and time-dependent states. Our approach allows the effect of fluctuations to be explored, particularly in finite systems where such processes assume increasing importance.Comment: Two parts: 8 pages LaTeX file and 5 (uuencoded) figures in Postscript forma

Renormalization Group Evolution in the type I + II seesaw model

We carefully analyze the renormalization group equations in the type I + II seesaw scenario in the extended standard model (SM) and minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). Furthermore, we present analytic formulae of the mixing angles and phases and discuss the RG effect on the different mixing parameters in the type II seesaw scenario. The renormalization group equations of the angles have a contribution which is proportional to the mass squared difference for a hierarchical spectrum. This is in contrast to the inverse proportionality to the mass squared difference in the effective field theory case.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; corrected error due to wrong superfield normalization in RG equations (24-28,C1-4) as well as error in RG equations of mixing parameters (38,43); RG equations of mixing angles depend on Majorana phase

A left-right symmetric model with SU(2)-triplet fermions

We consider an $SU(3)_c \otimes SU(2)_L \otimes SU(2)_R \otimes U(1)_{B-L}$ left-right symmetric model with three Higgs scalars including an $SU(2)_L$ doublet, an $SU(2)_R$ doublet and an $SU(2)_L \otimes SU(2)_R$ bidoublet. In addition to usual SU(2)-doublet fermions, our model contains SU(2)-triplet fermions with Majorana masses. The neutral components of the left-handed triplets can contribute a canonical seesaw while the neutral components of the right-handed triplets associated with the right-handed neutrinos can contribute a double/inverse-type seesaw. Our model can be embedded into an SO(10) grand unification theory where the triplets belong to the $45=(1,3,1,0) \oplus (1,1,3,0)\oplus ...$ representations.Comment: 4 pages. To appear in Phys. Rev.

TeV leptogenesis in Z-prime models and its collider probe

We show that the U(1)-prime models linked with the seesaw mechanism at TeV scale can lead to a successful baryogenesis through soft leptogenesis with a resonant behavior in the B parameter. Such a consideration constrains the Z-prime mass to be larger than 2-3 TeV depending on the seesaw scale and the spharelon rate. Together with multi-TeV Z-prime, large sneutrino-antisneutrino mixing and CP violating phenomena required by TeV leptogenesis could be searched for in future colliders by observing the distinct same-sign dilepton--dichargino as well as dislepton--diHiggs signatures.Comment: 10 pages with 2 figure