Baryon and lepton numbers in two scenarios of leptogenesis

Baryon and lepton numbers of the Universe in leptogenesis with Dirac neutrino and leptogenesis with Majorana neutrino scenarios are considered. It is shown that despite quite different features of Dirac and Majorana fermions both scenarios yield the same relation among the initial lepton and the final baryon asymmetries. Moreover right-handed neutrinos in the leptogenesis with Dirac neutrino scenario have very little impact on the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, constrained by BBN. Thus the two scenarios are similar from the cosmological point of view. It is also pointed out that in thermal equilibrium the 3B+L sum is zero for left-handed fermions.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Basis invariant measure of CP-violation and renormalization

We analyze, in the context of a simple toy model, for which renormalization schemes the CP-properties of bare Lagrangian and its finite part coincide. We show that this is the case for the minimal subtraction and on-shell schemes. The CP-properties of the theory can then be characterized by CP-odd basis invariants expressed in terms of renormalized masses and couplings. For the minimal subtraction scheme we furthermore show that in CP-conserving theories the CP-odd basis invariants are zero at any scale but are not renormalization group invariant in CP-violating ones.Comment: 5 page

Leptogenesis in crossing and runaway regimes

We study the impact of effective thermal masses and widths on resonant leptogenesis. We identify two distinct possibilities which we refer to as crossing and runaway regimes. In the runaway regime the mass difference grows monotonously with temperature, whereas it initially decreases in the crossing regime, such that the effective masses become equal at some temperature. Following the conventional logic the source of the asymmetry would vanish in the latter case. Using non-equilibrium quantum field theory, we analytically demonstrate that the vanishing of the difference of the effective masses does however neither imply a suppression nor a strong enhancement of the source for the lepton asymmetry. In the vicinity of the crossing point the asymmetry calculated in an (improved) Boltzmann limit develops a spurious peak, which signals the breakdown of the quasiparticle approximation. In the exact result this spurious enhancement is compensated by coherent transitions between the two mass shells. Despite the breakdown of the quasiparticle approximation off-shell contributions remain negligibly small even at the crossing point.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures, figures 3 and 6 are animation

Medium corrections to the CP-violating parameter in leptogenesis

In two recent papers, arXiv:0909.1559 and arXiv:0911.4122, it has been demonstrated that one can obtain quantum corrected Boltzmann kinetic equations for leptogenesis using a top-down approach based on the Schwinger-Keldysh/Kadanoff-Baym formalism. These "Boltzmann-like" equations are similar to the ones obtained in the conventional bottom-up approach but differ in important details. In particular there is a discrepancy between the CP-violating parameter obtained in the first-principle derivation and in the framework of thermal field theory. Here we demonstrate that the two approaches can be reconciled if causal n-point functions are used in the thermal field theory approach. The new result for the medium correction to the CP-violating parameter is qualitatively different from the conventional one. The analogy to a toy model considered earlier enables us to write down consistent quantum corrected Boltzmann equations for thermal leptogenesis in the Standard Model (supplemented by three right-handed neutrinos) which include quantum statistical terms and medium corrected expressions for the CP-violating parameter.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Universal description of three two-component fermions

A quantum mechanical three-body problem for two identical fermions of mass $m$ and a distinct particle of mass $m_1$ in the universal limit of zero-range two-body interaction is studied. For the unambiguous formulation of the problem in the interval $\mu_r < m/m_1 \le \mu_c$ ($\mu_r \approx 8.619$ and $\mu_c \approx 13.607$) an additional parameter $b$ determining the wave function near the triple-collision point is introduced; thus, a one-parameter family of self-adjoint Hamiltonians is defined. The dependence of the bound-state energies on $m/m_1$ and $b$ in the sector of angular momentum and parity $L^P = 1^-$ is calculated and analysed with the aid of a simple model