2,343 research outputs found
A variety of lepton number violating processes related to Majorana neutrino masses
A Majorana type of the neutrino mass matrix induces a class of lepton number
violating processes. Cross sections of these reactions are given in terms of
the neutrino mass matrix element, and a semi-realistic event rate is estimated.
These processes provide mass and mixing parameters not directly accessible by
the neutrino oscillation experiments. If these processes are discovered with a
larger rate than given here, it would imply a new physics of the lepton number
violation not directly related to the Majorana neutrino mass, such as R-parity
violating operators in SUSY models.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur
Phase effects from the general neutrino Yukawa matrix on lepton flavor violation
We examine contributions from Majorana phases to lepton flavor violating
processes in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with
heavy right-handed neutrinos. All phases in the complex neutrino Yukawa matrix
are taken into account in our study. We find that in the scenario with
universal soft-breaking terms sizable phase effects can appear on the lepton
flavor violating processes such as , , and
. In particular, the branching ratio of
can be considerably enhanced due to the Majorana phases, so that it can be much
greater than that of .Comment: 14 pages, 4 eps figures, revtex
Enhancement of lepton flavor violation in a model with bi-maximal mixing at the grand unification scale
We study phenomenological predictions in the scenario with the
quasi-degenerate relation among neutrino Dirac masses, m_D1 simeq m_D2 < m_D3,
assuming the bi-maximal mixing at the grand unification scale in supersymmetric
standard models with right-handed neutrinos. A sufficient lepton number
asymmetry can be produced for successful leptogenesis. The lepton flavor
violating process mu to e gamma can be enhanced due to the Majorana phase, so
that it can be detectable at forthcoming experiments. The processes tau to e
gamma and tau to mu gamma are suppressed because of the structure of neutrino
Dirac masses, and their branching ratios are smaller than that of mu to e
gamma.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
New Leptoquark Mechanism of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
A new mechanism for neutrinoless double beta (\znbb) decay based on
leptoquark exchange is discussed. Due to the specific helicity structure of the
effective four-fermion interaction this contribution is strongly enhanced
compared to the well-known mass mechanism of \znbb decay. As a result the
corresponding leptoquark parameters are severely constrained from
non-observation of \znbb-decay. These constraints are more stringent than
those derived from other experiments.Comment: LaTeX, 6 pages, 1 figur
Sister chromatid telomere fusions, but not NHEJ-mediated inter-chromosomal telomere fusions, occur independently of DNA ligases 3 and 4
Telomeres shorten with each cell division and can ultimately become substrates for non-homologous end-joining repair, leading to large-scale genomic rearrangements of the kind frequently observed in human cancers. We have characterised over 1400 telomere fusion events at the single-molecule level, using a combination of high-throughput sequence analysis together with experimentally-induced telomeric double-stranded DNA breaks. We show that a single chromosomal dysfunctional telomere can fuse with diverse non-telomeric genomic loci, even in the presence of an otherwise stable genome, and that fusion predominates in coding regions. Fusion frequency was markedly increased in the absence of TP53 checkpoint control and significantly modulated by the cellular capacity for classical, versus alternative, non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). We observed a striking reduction in inter-chromosomal fusion events in cells lacking DNA ligase 4, in contrast to a remarkably consistent profile of intra-chromosomal fusion in the context of multiple genetic knockouts, including DNA ligase 3 and 4 double-knockouts. We reveal distinct mutational signatures associated with classical NHEJ-mediated inter-chromosomal, as opposed to alternative NHEJ-mediated intra-chromosomal telomere fusions and evidence an unanticipated sufficiency of DNA ligase 1 for these intra-chromosomal events. Our findings have implications for mechanisms driving cancer genome evolution
On the Quantitative Impact of the Schechter-Valle Theorem
We evaluate the Schechter-Valle (Black Box) theorem quantitatively by
considering the most general Lorentz invariant Lagrangian consisting of
point-like operators for neutrinoless double beta decay. It is well known that
the Black Box operators induce Majorana neutrino masses at four-loop level.
This warrants the statement that an observation of neutrinoless double beta
decay guarantees the Majorana nature of neutrinos. We calculate these
radiatively generated masses and find that they are many orders of magnitude
smaller than the observed neutrino masses and splittings. Thus, some lepton
number violating New Physics (which may at tree-level not be related to
neutrino masses) may induce Black Box operators which can explain an observed
rate of neutrinoless double beta decay. Although these operators guarantee
finite Majorana neutrino masses, the smallness of the Black Box contributions
implies that other neutrino mass terms (Dirac or Majorana) must exist. If
neutrino masses have a significant Majorana contribution then this will become
the dominant part of the Black Box operator. However, neutrinos might also be
predominantly Dirac particles, while other lepton number violating New Physics
dominates neutrinoless double beta decay. Translating an observed rate of
neutrinoless double beta decay into neutrino masses would then be completely
misleading. Although the principal statement of the Schechter-Valle theorem
remains valid, we conclude that the Black Box diagram itself generates
radiatively only mass terms which are many orders of magnitude too small to
explain neutrino masses. Therefore, other operators must give the leading
contributions to neutrino masses, which could be of Dirac or Majorana nature.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor corrections, reference added, matches
journal version; v3: typo corrected, physics result and conclusions unchange
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