238 research outputs found
On fast CP violating interactions in leptogenesis
We show that when the relevant CP violating interactions in leptogenesis are
fast, the different matter density asymmetries are determined at each instant
by a balance condition between the amount of asymmetry being created and
destroyed. This fact allows to understand in a simple way many features of
leptogenesis in the strong washout regime. In particular, we find some
non-trivial effects of flavour changing interactions that conserve lepton
number, which are specially relevant in models for leptogenesis that rely
heavily on flavour effects.Comment: V2: To match published version in JCAP. Minor changes, including one
figure, with respect to V1. 17 pages, 4 figure
Accidental Supersymmetric Dark Matter and Baryogenesis
We show that "accidental" supersymmetry is a beyond-the-Standard Model
framework that naturally accommodates a thermal relic dark matter candidate and
successful electroweak baryogenesis, including the needed strongly first-order
character of the electroweak phase transition. We study the phenomenology of
this setup from the standpoint of both dark matter and baryogenesis. For
energies around the electroweak phase transition temperature, the low-energy
effective theory is similar to the MSSM with light super-partners of the
third-generation quarks and of the Higgs and gauge bosons. We calculate the
dark matter relic abundance and the baryon asymmetry across the accidental
supersymmetry parameter space, including resonant and non-resonant CP-violating
sources. We find that there are regions of parameter space producing both the
observed value of the baryon asymmetry and a dark matter candidate with the
correct relic density and conforming to present-day constraints from dark
matter searches. This scenario makes sharp predictions for the particle
spectrum, predicting a lightest neutralino mass between 200 and 500 GeV, with
all charginos and neutralinos within less than a factor 2 of the lightest
neutralino mass and the heavy Higgs sector within 20-25% of that mass, making
it an interesting target for collider searches. In addition, we demonstrate
that successful accidental supersymmetric dark matter and baryogenesis will be
conclusively tested with improvements smaller than one order of magnitude to
the current performance of electron electric dipole moment searches and of
direct dark matter searches, as well as with IceCube plus Deep Core neutrino
telescope data.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figure
Neutrinos as the messengers of CPT violation
CPT violation has the potential to explain all three existing neutrino anomalies without enlarging the neutrino sector. CPT violation in the Dirac mass terms of the three neutrino flavors preserves Lorentz invariance, but generates independent masses for neutrinos and antineutrinos. This specific signature is strongly motivated by braneworld scenarios with extra dimensions, where neutrinos are the natural messengers for Standard Model physics of CPT violation in the bulk. A simple model of maximal CPT violation is sufficient to explain the exisiting neutrino data quite neatly, while making dramatic predictions for the upcoming KamLAND and MiniBooNE experiments. Furthermore we obtain a promising new mechanism for baryogenesis
Supergauge interactions and electroweak baryogenesis
We present a complete treatment of the diffusion processes for supersymmetric
electroweak baryogenesis that characterizes transport dynamics ahead of the
phase transition bubble wall within the symmetric phase. In particular, we
generalize existing approaches to distinguish between chemical potentials of
particles and their superpartners. This allows us to test the assumption of
superequilibrium (equal chemical potentials for particles and sparticles) that
has usually been made in earlier studies. We show that in the Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model, superequilibrium is generically maintained --
even in the absence of fast supergauge interactions -- due to the presence of
Yukawa interactions. We provide both analytic arguments as well as illustrative
numerical examples. We also extend the latter to regions where analytical
approximations are not available since down-type Yukawa couplings or supergauge
interactions only incompletely equilibrate. We further comment on cases of
broken superequilibrium wherein a heavy superpartner decouples from the
electroweak plasma, causing a kinematic bottleneck in the chain of
equilibrating reactions. Such situations may be relevant for baryogenesis
within extensions of the MSSM. We also provide a compendium of inputs required
to characterize the symmetric phase transport dynamics.Comment: 49 pages, 9 figure
Antimatter in the Universe
Cosmological models which predict a large amount of antimatter in the
Universe are reviewed. Observational signatures and searches for cosmic
antimatter are briefly considered. A short discussion of new long range forces
which might be associated with matter and antimatter is presented.Comment: 17 pages + 2 figure
Energy composition of the Universe: time-independent internal symmetry
The energy composition of the Universe, as emerged from the Type Ia supernova
observations and the WMAP data, looks preposterously complex, -- but only at
the first glance. In fact, its structure proves to be simple and regular. An
analysis in terms of the Friedmann integral enables to recognize a remarkably
simple time-independent covariant robust recipe of the cosmic mix: the
numerical values of the Friedmann integral for vacuum, dark matter, baryons and
radiation are approximately identical. The identity may be treated as a
symmetry relation that unifies cosmic energies into a regular set, a quartet,
with the Friedmann integral as its common genuine time-independent physical
parameter. Such cosmic internal (non-geometrical) symmetry exists whenever
cosmic energies themselves exist in nature. It is most natural for a finite
Universe suggested by the WMAP data. A link to fundamental theory may be found
under the assumption about a special significance of the electroweak energy
scale in both particle physics and cosmology. A freeze-out model developed on
this basis demonstrates that the physical nature of new symmetry might be due
to the interplay between electroweak physics and gravity at the cosmic age of a
few picoseconds. The big `hierarchy number' of particle physics represents the
interplay in the model. This number quantifies the Friedmann integral and gives
also a measure to some other basic cosmological figures and phenomena
associated with new symmetry. In this way, cosmic internal symmetry provides a
common ground for better understanding of old and recent problems that
otherwise seem unrelated; the coincidence of the observed cosmic densities, the
flatness of the co-moving space, the initial perturbations and their amplitude,
the cosmic entropy are among them.Comment: 32 page
Thermal production of ultrarelativistic right-handed neutrinos: Complete leading-order results
The thermal production of relativistic right-handed Majorana neutrinos is of
importance for models of thermal leptogenesis in the early Universe.
Right-handed neutrinos can be produced both by 1 2 decay or inverse decay
and by 2 -> 2 scattering processes. In a previous publication, we have studied
the production via 1 2 (inverse) decay processes. There we have shown that
multiple scattering mediated by soft gauge boson exchange also contributes to
the production rate at leading order, and gives a strong enhancement. Here we
complete the leading order calculation by adding 2 -> 2 scattering processes
involving either electroweak gauge bosons or third-generation quarks. We find
that processes with gauge interactions give the most important contributions.
We also obtain a new sum rule for the Hard Thermal Loop resummed fermion
propagator.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures. Error in the matrix element for the
(subdominant) subprocess with s-channel fermion exchange corrected. This
changes the corresponding phase space integral and the constant c_V.
Numerically it increases the total 2 -> 2 rate by about 2 percent and the
complete rate by about 1 percent. The main results and conclusions are
unaffecte
New Ways to Soft Leptogenesis
Soft supersymmetry breaking terms involving heavy singlet sneutrinos provide
new sources of lepton number violation and of CP violation. In addition to the
CP violation in mixing, investigated previously, we find that `soft
leptogenesis' can be generated by CP violation in decay and in the interference
of mixing and decay. These additional ways to leptogenesis can be significant
for a singlet neutrino Majorana mass that is not much larger than the
supersymmetry breaking scale, . In contrast to CP violation
in mixing, for some of these new contributions the sneutrino oscillation rate
can be much faster than the decay rate, so that the bilinear scalar term need
not be smaller than its natural scale.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure
Leptogenesis from Pseudo-Scalar Driven Inflation
We examine recent claims for a considerable amount of leptogenesis, in some
inflationary scenarios, through the gravitational anomaly in the lepton number
current. We find that when the short distances contributions are properly
included the amount of lepton number generated is actually much smaller.Comment: JHEP style, 11 pages. Corrected typ
Inflation with a Weyl term, or ghosts at work
In order to assess the role of ghosts in cosmology, we study the evolution of
linear cosmological perturbations during inflation when a Weyl term is added to
the action. Our main result is that vector perturbations can no longer be
ignored and that scalar modes diverge in the newtonian gauge but remain bounded
in the comoving slicing.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure
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