Minimal Anomalous U(1)' Extension of the MSSM

We study an extension of the MSSM by an anomalous abelian vector multiplet and a St\"uckelberg multiplet. The anomalies are cancelled by the Green-Schwarz mechanism and the addition of Chern-Simons terms. The advantage of this choice over the standard one is that it allows for arbitrary values of the quantum numbers of the extra U(1). As a first step towards the study of hadron annihilations producing four leptons in the final state (a clean signal which might be studied at LHC) we then compute the decays Z'\to Z_0 \g and $Z'\to Z_0 Z_0$. We find that the largest values of the decay rate is $\sim 10^{-4}$ GeV, while the expected number of events per year at LHC is at most of the order of 10.Comment: 45 pages, 8 eps figures, feynmf. Phenomenological section expanded. 2 plots and references adde

Neutrino Induced Coherent Pion Production off Nuclei and PCAC

We review the Rein--Sehgal model and criticize its use for low energy neutrino induced coherent pion production. We have studied the validity of the main approximations implicit in that model, trying to compare with physical observables when that is possible and with microscopical calculations. Next, we have tried to elaborate a new improved model by removing the more problematic approximations, while keeping the model still reasonably simple. Last, we have discussed the limitations intrinsic to any approach based on the partial conservation of the axial current hypothesis. In particular, we have shown the inability of such models to determine the angular distribution of the outgoing pion with respect to the direction of the incoming neutrino, except for the $q^2= 0$ kinematical point.Comment: 19 latex pages, 7 figures, 1 table. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Breakdown of PCAC in diffractive neutrino interactions

We test the hypothesis of partially conserved axial current (PCAC) in high energy diffractive neutrino production of pions. Since the pion pole contribution to the Adler relation (AR) is forbidden by conservation of the lepton current, the heavier states, like the a_1 pole, \rho-\pi-cut, etc., control the lifetime of the hadronic fluctuations of the neutrino. We evaluate the deviation from the AR in diffractive neutrino-production of pions on proton and nuclear targets. At high energies, when all the relevant time scales considerably exceed the size of the target, the AR explicitly breaks down on an absorptive target, such as a heavy nucleus. In this regime, close to the black disc limit, the off-diagonal diffractive amplitudes vanish, while the diagonal one, \pi->\pi, which enters the AR, maximizes and saturates the unitarity bound. At lower energies, in the regime of short lifetime of heavy hadronic fluctuations the AR is restored, i.e. it is not altered by the nuclear effects.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Theoretical study of neutrino-induced coherent pion production off nuclei at T2K and MiniBooNE energies

We have developed a model for neutrino-induced coherent pion production off nuclei in the energy regime of interest for present and forthcoming neutrino oscillation experiments. It is based on a microscopic model for pion production off the nucleon that, besides the dominant Delta pole contribution, takes into account the effect of background terms required by chiral symmetry. Moreover, the model uses a reduced nucleon-to-Delta resonance axial coupling, which leads to coherent pion production cross sections around a factor two smaller than most of the previous theoretical estimates. In the coherent production, the main nuclear effects, namely medium corrections on the Delta propagator and the final pion distortion, are included. We have improved on previous similar models by taking into account the nucleon motion and employing a more sophisticated optical potential. As found in previous calculations the modification of the Delta self-energy inside the nuclear medium strongly reduces the cross section, while the final pion distortion mainly shifts the peak position to lower pion energies. The angular distribution profiles are not much affected by nuclear effects. Nucleon motion increases the cross section by 15% at neutrino energies of 650 MeV, while Coulomb effects on charged pions are estimated to be small. Finally, we discuss at length the deficiencies of the Rein-Sehgal pion coherent production model for neutrino energies below 2 GeV, and in particular for the MiniBooNE and T2K experiments. We also predict flux averaged cross sections for these two latter experiments and K2K.Comment: 19 latex pages, 10 figures, 2 tables. Minor changes. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Diffractive neutrino-production of pions on nuclei: Adler relation within the color-dipole description

Effects of coherence in neutrino-production of pions off nuclei are studied employing the color dipole representation and path integral technique. If the nucleus remains intact, the process is controlled by the interplay of two length scales. One is related to the pion mass and is quite long (at low Q^2), while the other, associated with heavy axial-vector states, is much shorter. The Adler relation is found to be broken at all energies, but especially strongly at \nu > 10 GeV, where the cross section is suppressed by a factor ~A^{-1/3}. On the contrary, in a process where the recoil nucleus breaks up into fragments, the Adler relation turns out to be strongly broken at low energies, where the cross section is enhanced by a factor ~A^{1/3}, but has a reasonable accuracy at higher energies, where all the coherence length scales become long.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure