46 research outputs found
CP Violation in Supersymmetry with Effective Minimal Flavour Violation
We analyze CP violation in supersymmetry with Effective Minimal Flavour
Violation, as recently proposed in arXiv:1011.0730. Unlike the case of standard
Minimal Flavour Violation, we show that all the phases allowed by the flavour
symmetry can be sizable without violating existing Electric Dipole Moment
constraints, thus solving the SUSY CP problem. The EDMs at one and two loops
are precisely analyzed as well as their correlations with the expected CP
asymmetries in B physics.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. v2: Discussion in section 2 extended,
conclusions unchanged. Matches published versio
Covariant Description of Flavor Conversion in the LHC Era
A simple covariant formalism to describe flavor and CP violation in the
left-handed quark sector in a model independent way is provided. The
introduction of a covariant basis, which makes the standard model approximate
symmetry structure manifest, leads to a physical and transparent picture of
flavor conversion processes. Our method is particularly useful to derive robust
bounds on models with arbitrary mechanisms of alignment. Known constraints on
flavor violation in the K and D systems are reproduced in a straightforward
manner. Assumptions-free limits, based on top flavor violation at the LHC, are
then obtained. In the absence of signal, with 100 fb^{-1} of data, the LHC will
exclude weakly coupled (strongly coupled) new physics up to a scale of 0.6 TeV
(7.6 TeV), while at present no general constraint can be set related to Delta
t=1 processes. LHC data will constrain Delta F=2 contributions via same-sign
tops signal, with a model independent exclusion region of 0.08 TeV (1.0 TeV).
However, in this case, stronger bounds are found from the study of CP violation
in D-bar D mixing with a scale of 0.57 TeV (7.2 TeV). In addition, we apply our
analysis to models of supersymmetry and warped extra dimension. The minimal
flavor violation framework is also discussed, where the formalism allows to
distinguish between the linear and generic non-linear limits within this class
of models.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. Some corrections and clarifications; references
added. Matches published versio
MFV Reductions of MSSM Parameter Space
The 100+ free parameters of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM)
make it computationally difficult to compare systematically with data,
motivating the study of specific parameter reductions such as the cMSSM and
pMSSM. Here we instead study the reductions of parameter space implied by using
minimal flavour violation (MFV) to organise the R-parity conserving MSSM, with
a view towards systematically building in constraints on flavour-violating
physics. Within this framework the space of parameters is reduced by expanding
soft supersymmetry-breaking terms in powers of the Cabibbo angle, leading to a
24-, 30- or 42-parameter framework (which we call MSSM-24, MSSM-30, and MSSM-42
respectively), depending on the order kept in the expansion. We provide a
Bayesian global fit to data of the MSSM-30 parameter set to show that this is
manageable with current tools. We compare the MFV reductions to the
19-parameter pMSSM choice and show that the pMSSM is not contained as a subset.
The MSSM-30 analysis favours a relatively lighter TeV-scale pseudoscalar Higgs
boson and with multi-TeV sparticles.Comment: 2nd version, minor comments and references added, accepted for
publication in JHE
Higgs-mediated FCNCs: Natural Flavour Conservation vs. Minimal Flavour Violation
We compare the effectiveness of two hypotheses, Natural Flavour Conservation
(NFC) and Minimal Flavour Violation (MFV), in suppressing the strength of
flavour-changing neutral-currents (FCNCs) in models with more than one Higgs
doublet. We show that the MFV hypothesis, in its general formulation, is more
stable in suppressing FCNCs than the hypothesis of NFC alone when quantum
corrections are taken into account. The phenomenological implications of the
two scenarios are discussed analysing meson-antimeson mixing observables and
the rare decays B -> mu+ mu-. We demonstrate that, introducing flavour-blind CP
phases, two-Higgs doublet models respecting the MFV hypothesis can accommodate
a large CP-violating phase in Bs mixing, as hinted by CDF and D0 data and,
without extra free parameters, soften significantly in a correlated manner the
observed anomaly in the relation between epsilon_K and S_psi_K.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures. v3: minor modifications (typos corrected and few
refs. added), conclusions unchanged; journal versio
Tectonic and climatic controls on rift escarpments: Erosion and flexural rebound of the Dhofar passive margin (Gulf of Aden, Oman)
International audienceWe investigate the respective roles of climatic parameters and the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere in the erosion history and behavior of two adjacent rift escarpments along the northern coast of the Gulf of Aden, in Oman. At this 25 Myr old passive margin, we define a type 1 scarp, which is high, sharp-crested and has retreated 25-30 km inland from its master fault, and a type 2 scarp, which exhibits a more rounded profile, lower relief, and still coincides with its mapped normal fault trace. Since about 15 Ma, the margin has been seasonally affected by monsoon precipitation but with contrasting effects at the type 1 and type 2 escarpments depending on the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the geologic past: during peak monsoon conditions, both scarps experienced heavy rainfall and runoff, whereas during monsoon-starved conditions (such as today), the type 2 scarp experienced a foggy, moist climate while the type 1 scarp remained much drier. In order to assess the relative effects of climate and flexural parameters on the present-day morphology of the Dhofar margin, we present onedimensional numerical models of erosion and flexure along two profiles representative of the type 1 and type 2 scarps. Unlike most surface process models previously published, where present-day topography is the only criterion by which to evaluate the quality of model outputs, model behavior here is additionally constrained by independent estimates of denudation provided by geological cross sections, well-defined fault traces, and other stratigraphic markers. The best fitting models indicate that the type 1 escarpment formed under relatively arid climatic conditions and was affected by significant erosion, recession and flexural uplift due to a low (7 km) effective elastic thickness. In contrast, the morphology of the type 2 fault scarp was smoothed by a more humid climate, but a high effective elastic thickness ( 15 km) prevented it from uplifting or receding. In addition, we show that the sedimentary load acting at the foot of the escarpments exerts significant influence on their morphological evolution, though this parameter is often neglected in other scarp evolution models
CP violation in sbottom decays
We study CP asymmetries in two-body decays of bottom squarks into charginos
and tops. These asymmetries probe the SUSY CP phases of the sbottom and the
chargino sector in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We identify the
MSSM parameter space where the CP asymmetries are sizeable, and analyze the
feasibility of their observation at the LHC. As a result, potentially
detectable CP asymmetries in sbottom decays are found, which motivates further
detailed experimental studies for probing the SUSY CP phases.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure
The s ---> d gamma decay in and beyond the Standard Model
The New Physics sensitivity of the s ---> d gamma transition and its
accessibility through hadronic processes are thoroughly investigated. Firstly,
the Standard Model predictions for the direct CP-violating observables in
radiative K decays are systematically improved. Besides, the magnetic
contribution to epsilon prime is estimated and found subleading, even in the
presence of New Physics, and a new strategy to resolve its electroweak versus
QCD penguin fraction is identified. Secondly, the signatures of a series of New
Physics scenarios, characterized as model-independently as possible in terms of
their underlying dynamics, are investigated by combining the information from
all the FCNC transitions in the s ---> d sector.Comment: 54 pages, 14 eps figure
The matter power spectrum in redshift space using effective field theory
The use of Eulerian 'standard perturbation theory' to describe mass assembly in the early universe has traditionally been limited to modes with k <= 0.1 h/Mpc at z=0. At larger k the SPT power spectrum deviates from measurements made using N-body simulations. Recently, there has been progress in extending the reach of perturbation theory to larger k using ideas borrowed from effective field theory. We revisit the computation of the redshift-space matter power spectrum within this framework, including for the first time for the full one-loop time dependence. We use a resummation scheme proposed by Vlah et al. to account for damping of the baryonic acoustic oscillations due to large-scale random motions and show that this has a significant effect on the multipole power spectra. We renormalize by comparison to a suite of custom N-body simulations matching the MultiDark MDR1 cosmology. At z=0 and for scales k <~ 0.4 h/Mpc we find that the EFT furnishes a description of the real-space power spectrum up to ~ 2%, for the ell=0 mode up to ~ 5% and for the ell = 2, 4 modes up to ~ 25%. We argue that, in the MDR1 cosmology, positivity of the ell = 0 mode gives a firm upper limit of k ~ 0.74 h/Mpc for the validity of the one-loop EFT prediction in redshift space using only the lowest-order counterterm. We show that replacing the one-loop growth factors by their Einstein-de Sitter counterparts is a good approximation for the ell = 0 mode, but can induce deviations as large as 2% for the ell = 2, 4 modes. An accompanying software bundle, distributed under open source licenses, includes Mathematica notebooks describing the calculation, together with parallel pipelines capable of computing both the necessary one-loop SPT integrals and the effective field theory counterterms