17,143 research outputs found
Neutrino Mass Matrix Textures: A Data-driven Approach
We analyze the neutrino mass matrix entries and their correlations in a
probabilistic fashion, constructing probability distribution functions using
the latest results from neutrino oscillation fits. Two cases are considered:
the standard three neutrino scenario as well as the inclusion of a new sterile
neutrino that potentially explains the reactor and gallium anomalies. We
discuss the current limits and future perspectives on the mass matrix elements
that can be useful for model building.Comment: 25 pages, 18 figure
Flavor Gauge Models Below the Fermi Scale
The mass and weak interaction eigenstates for the quarks of the third
generation are very well aligned, an empirical fact for which the Standard
Model offers no explanation. We explore the possibility that this alignment is
due to an additional gauge symmetry in the third generation. Specifically, we
construct and analyze an explicit, renormalizable model with a gauge boson,
, corresponding to the symmetry of the third family. Having a
relatively light (in the MeV to multi-GeV range), flavor-nonuniversal gauge
boson results in a variety of constraints from different sources. By
systematically analyzing 20 different constraints, we identify the most
sensitive probes: kaon, , and Upsilon decays, mixing,
atomic parity violation, and neutrino scattering and oscillations. For the new
gauge coupling in the range the model is shown to
be consistent with the data. Possible ways of testing the model in physics,
top and decays, direct collider production and neutrino oscillation
experiments, where one can observe nonstandard matter effects, are outlined.
The choice of leptons to carry the new force is ambiguous, resulting in
additional phenomenological implications, such as non-universality in
semileptonic bottom decays. The proposed framework provides interesting
connections between neutrino oscillations, flavor and collider physics.Comment: 44 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables; B physics constraints and references
added, conclusions unchange
The Quest for an Intermediate-Scale Accidental Axion and Further ALPs
The recent detection of the cosmic microwave background polarimeter
experiment BICEP2 of tensor fluctuations in the B-mode power spectrum basically
excludes all plausible axion models where its decay constant is above
GeV. Moreover, there are strong theoretical, astrophysical, and cosmological
motivations for models involving, in addition to the axion, also axion-like
particles (ALPs), with decay constants in the intermediate scale range, between
GeV and GeV. Here, we present a general analysis of models
with an axion and further ALPs and derive bounds on the relative size of the
axion and ALP photon (and electron) coupling. We discuss what we can learn from
measurements of the axion and ALP photon couplings about the fundamental
parameters of the underlying ultraviolet completion of the theory. For the
latter we consider extensions of the Standard Model in which the axion and the
ALP(s) appear as pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons from the breaking of global
chiral (Peccei-Quinn (PQ)) symmetries, occuring accidentally as low
energy remnants from exact discrete symmetries. In such models, the axion and
the further ALP are protected from disastrous explicit symmetry breaking
effects due to Planck-scale suppressed operators. The scenarios considered
exploit heavy right handed neutrinos getting their mass via PQ symmetry
breaking and thus explain the small mass of the active neutrinos via a seesaw
relation between the electroweak and an intermediate PQ symmetry breaking
scale. We show some models that can accommodate simultaneously an axion dark
matter candidate, an ALP explaining the anomalous transparency of the universe
for -rays, and an ALP explaining the recently reported 3.55 keV gamma
line from galaxies and clusters of galaxies, if the respective decay constants
are of intermediate scale.Comment: 43pp, 4 figures. v2: version accepted for publication in JHE
What can we learn about the lepton CP phase in the next 10 years?
We discuss how the lepton CP phase can be constrained by accelerator and
reactor measurements in an era without dedicated experiments for CP violation
search. To characterize globally the sensitivity to the CP phase \delta_{CP},
we introduce a new measure, the CP exclusion fraction, which quantifies what
fraction of the \delta_{CP} space can be excluded at a given input values of
\theta_{23} and \delta_{CP}. Using the measure we study the CP sensitivity
which may be possessed by the accelerator experiments T2K and NOvA. We show
that, if the mass hierarchy is known, T2K and NOvA alone may exclude,
respectively, about 50%-60% and 40%-50% of the \delta_{CP} space at 90% CL by
10 years running, provided that a considerable fraction of beam time is devoted
to the antineutrino run. The synergy between T2K and NOvA is remarkable,
leading to the determination of the mass hierarchy through CP sensitivity at
the same CL.Comment: Analyses and plots improved, conclusions unchanged, 23 pages, 8
figures, 1 tabl
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