Bilinear R-parity violation with flavor symmetry

Bilinear R-parity violation (BRPV) provides the simplest intrinsically supersymmetric neutrino mass generation scheme. While neutrino mixing parameters can be probed in high energy accelerators, they are unfortunately not predicted by the theory. Here we propose a model based on the discrete flavor symmetry $A_4$ with a single R-parity violating parameter, leading to (i) correct Cabbibo mixing given by the Gatto-Sartori-Tonin formula, and a successful unification-like b-tau mass relation, and (ii) a correlation between the lepton mixing angles $\theta_{13}$ and $\theta_{23}$ in agreement with recent neutrino oscillation data, as well as a (nearly) massless neutrino, leading to absence of neutrinoless double beta decay.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Extended version, as published in JHE

Mass bound of the lightest neutral Higgs scalar in the extra U(1) models

The upper mass bound of the lightest neutral Higgs scalar is studied in the $\mu$ problem solvable extra U(1) models by using the analysis of the renormalization group equations. In order to restrict the parameter space we take account of a condition of the radiative symmetry breaking and some phenomenological constraints. We compare the bound obtained based on this restricted parameter space with the one of the next to the minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM). Features of the scalar potential and renormalization group equations of the Yukawa couplings among Higgs chiral supermultiplets are rather different between them. They can reflect in this bound.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 11 eps-figure

Discrete symmetries and models of flavor mixing

Evidences of a discrete symmetry behind the pattern of lepton mixing are analyzed. The program of "symmetry building" is outlined. Generic features and problems of realization of this program in consistent gauge models are formulated. The key issues include the flavor symmetry breaking, connection of mixing and masses, {\it ad hoc} prescription of flavor charges, "missing" representations, existence of new particles, possible accidental character of the TBM mixing. Various ways are considered to extend the leptonic symmetries to the quark sector and to reconcile them with Grand Unification. In this connection the quark-lepton complementarity could be a viable alternative to TBM. Observational consequences of the symmetries and future experimental tests of their existence are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. Talk given at the Symposium "DISCRETE 2010", 6 - 11 December 2010, La Sapienza, Rome, Ital

The Global Jukebox: a public database of performing arts and culture

Standardized cross-cultural databases of the arts are critical to a balanced scientific understanding of the performing arts, and their role in other domains of human society. This paper introduces the Global Jukebox as a resource for comparative and cross-cultural study of the performing arts and culture. The Global Jukebox adds an extensive and detailed global database of the performing arts that enlarges our understanding of human cultural diversity. Initially prototyped by Alan Lomax in the 1980s, its core is the Cantometrics dataset, encompassing standardized codings on 37 aspects of musical style for 5,776 traditional songs from 1,026 societies. The Cantometrics dataset has been cleaned and checked for reliability and accuracy, and includes a full coding guide with audio training examples (https://theglobaljukebox.org/?songsofearth). Also being released are seven additional datasets coding and describing instrumentation, conversation, popular music, vowel and consonant placement, breath management, social factors, and societies. For the first time, all digitized Global Jukebox data are being made available in open-access, downloadable format (https://github.com/theglobaljukebox), linked with streaming audio recordings (theglobaljukebox.org) to the maximum extent allowed while respecting copyright and the wishes of culture-bearers. The data are cross-indexed with the Database of Peoples, Languages, and Cultures (D-PLACE) to allow researchers to test hypotheses about worldwide coevolution of aesthetic patterns and traditions. As an example, we analyze the global relationship between song style and societal complexity, showing that they are robustly related, in contrast to previous critiques claiming that these proposed relationships were an artifact of autocorrelation (though causal mechanisms remain unresolved).Introduction Background The Global Jukebox and its data 1. The data 1.1. Datasets of the Global Jukebox 1.2. Comparison with other cross cultural datasets 1.3. Coded performance variables: Selection and reliability 1.4. Performance data sources 1.5. Selection of audio examples 1.6. Availability of audio recordings 1.7. Performance metadata 2. Sampling societies and links to other datasets 2.1. Sampling societies 2.2. Links to other cross-cultural datasets 3. Data curation, cleaning, and validation 4. Coding reliability 5. Is song style correlated with social complexity? An example of hypothesis testing using the Global Jukebox 5.1. Hypothesis testing with the Global Jukebox datasets 5.2. Methods 5.3 Results of reanalysis 5.4 Discussion 6. Ethics, rights and consent 7. Conclusio

Towards Minimal S4 Lepton Flavor Model

We study lepton flavor models with the $S_4$ flavor symmetry. We construct simple models with smaller numbers of flavon fields and free parameters, such that we have predictions among lepton masses and mixing angles. The model with a $S_4$ triplet flavon is not realistic, but we can construct realistic models with two triplet flavons, or one triplet and one doublet flavons.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, references are adde

Neutral Higgs bosons in the MNMSSM with explicit CP violation

Within the framework of the minimal non-minimal supersymmetric standard model (MNMSSM) with tadpole terms, CP violation effects in the Higgs sector are investigated at the one-loop level, where the radiative corrections from the loops of the quark and squarks of the third generation are taken into account. Assuming that the squark masses are not degenerate, the radiative corrections due to the stop and sbottom quarks give rise to CP phases, which trigger the CP violation explicitly in the Higgs sector of the MNMSSM. The masses, the branching ratios for dominant decay channels, and the total decay widths of the five neutral Higgs bosons in the MNMSSM are calculated in the presence of the explicit CP violation. The dependence of these quantities on the CP phases is quite recognizable, for given parameter values.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

CP Violation in Supersymmetric U(1)' Models

The supersymmetric CP problem is studied within superstring-motivated extensions of the MSSM with an additional U(1)' gauge symmetry broken at the TeV scale. This class of models offers an attractive solution to the mu problem of the MSSM, in which U(1)' gauge invariance forbids the bare mu term, but an effective mu parameter is generated by the vacuum expectation value of a Standard Model singlet S which has superpotential coupling of the form SH_uH_d to the electroweak Higgs doublets. The effective mu parameter is thus dynamically determined as a function of the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, and can be complex if the soft parameters have nontrivial CP-violating phases. We examine the phenomenological constraints on the reparameterization invariant phase combinations within this framework, and find that the supersymmetric CP problem can be greatly alleviated in models in which the phase of the SU(2) gaugino mass parameter is aligned with the soft trilinear scalar mass parameter associated with the SH_uH_d coupling. We also study how the phases filter into the Higgs sector, and find that while the Higgs sector conserves CP at the renormalizable level to all orders of perturbation theory, CP violation can enter at the nonrenormalizable level at one-loop order. In the majority of the parameter space, the lightest Higgs boson remains essentially CP even but the heavier Higgs bosons can exhibit large CP-violating mixings, similar to the CP-violating MSSM with large mu parameter.Comment: 29 pp, 3 figs, 2 table