Relaxing the Landau-pole constraint in the NMSSM with the Abelian gauge symmetries

In order to relax the Landau pole constraint on "\lambda", which is a coupling constant between a singlet S and the MSSM Higgs, \lambda Sh_uh_d in the next-to-MSSM (NMSSM), and also maintain the gauge coupling unification, we consider U(1) gauge extensions of the NMSSM. For relatively strong U(1) gauge interactions down to low energies, we assign U(1) charges only to the Higgs and the third family of the chiral matter among the MSSM superfields. In the U(1)_Z [U(1)_Z\times U(1)_X] extension, the low energy value of \lambda can be lifted up to 0.85-0.95 [0.9-1.0], depending on the employed charge normalizations, when \lambda and the new gauge couplings are required not to blow up below the 10^{16} GeV energy scale. Introduction of extra vector-like superfields can induce the desired Yukawa couplings for the first two families of the chiral matter. We also discuss various phenomenological constraints associated with extra U(1) breaking.Comment: 22 pages, 2 eps figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Magnetogenesis from a rotating scalar: \`a la scalar chiral magnetic effect

The chiral magnetic effect (CME) is a phenomenon in which an electric current is induced parallel to an external magnetic field in the presence of chiral asymmetry in a fermionic system. In this paper, we show that the electric current induced by the dynamics of a pseudo-scalar field which anomalously couples to electromagnetic fields can be interpreted as closely analogous to the CME. In particular, the velocity of the pseudo-scalar field, which is the phase of a complex scalar, indicates that the system carries a global U(1) number asymmetry as the source of the induced current. We demonstrate that an initial kick to the phase-field velocity and an anomalous coupling between the phase-field and gauge fields are naturally provided, in a set-up such as the Affleck-Dine mechanism. The resulting asymmetry carried by the Affleck-Dine field can give rise to instability in the (electro)magnetic field. Cosmological consequences of this mechanism are also investigated.Comment: 35 pages, 1 figure; v2: extended discussions, comments and references added, matches version accepted for publication in JHE

Adiabatic Electroweak Baryogenesis Driven by an Axion-like Particle

An axion-like particle (ALP) offers a new direction in electroweak baryogenesis because the periodic nature enables it to trigger a strong first-order phase transition insensitively to the decay constant $f$. For $f$ much above TeV, the ALP-induced electroweak phase transition is approximately described by adiabatic processes, distinguishing our scenario for electroweak baryogenesis from the conventional ones. We show that, coupled to the electroweak anomaly, the ALP can naturally realize spontaneous electroweak baryogenesis to solve the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem for $f$ in the range between about $10^5$ GeV and $10^7$ GeV. In such an ALP window, the $CP$ violation for baryogenesis is totally free from the experimental constraints, especially from the recently improved limit on the electron electric dipole moment. Future searches for ALPs could probe our scenario while revealing the connection between electroweak symmetry breaking and baryogenesis.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, appendices added, published versio