Near-infrared K-band Spectroscopic Investigation of Seyfert 2 Nuclei in the CfA and 12 Micron Samples

We present near-infrared K-band slit spectra of the nuclei of 25 Seyfert 2 galaxies in the CfA and 12 micron samples. The strength of the CO absorption features at 2.3-2.4 micron produced by stars is measured in terms of a spectroscopic CO index. A clear anti-correlation between the observed CO index and the nuclear K-L color is present, suggesting that a featureless hot dust continuum heated by an AGN contributes significantly to the observed K-band fluxes in the nuclei of Seyfert 2 galaxies. After correction for this AGN contribution, we estimate nuclear stellar K-band luminosities for all sources, and CO indices for sources with modestly large observed CO indices. The corrected CO indices for 10 (=40%) Seyfert 2 nuclei are found to be as high as those observed in star-forming or elliptical (=spheroidal) galaxies. We combine the K-band data with measurements of the L-band 3.3 micron polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission feature, another powerful indicator for star-formation, and find that the 3.3 micron PAH to K-band stellar luminosity ratios are substantially smaller than those of starburst galaxies. Our results suggest that the 3.3 micron PAH emission originates in the putative nuclear starbursts in the dusty tori surrounding the AGNs, because of its high surface brightness, whereas the K-band CO absorption features detected at the nuclei are dominated by old bulge (=spheroid) stars, and thus may not be a powerful indicator for the nuclear starbursts. We see no clear difference in the strength of the CO absorption and PAH emission features between the CfA and 12 micron Seyfert 2s.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (10 October 2004, v614 issue

Analysis of the h,H,A→τμh, H, A \to \tau \mu decays induced from SUSY loops within the Mass Insertion Approximation

In this paper we study the lepton favor violating decay channels of the neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model into a lepton and an anti-lepton of different flavor. We work in the context of the most general flavor mixing scenario in the slepton sector, in contrast to the minimal flavor violation assumption more frequently used. Our analytic computation is a one-loop diagrammatic one, but in contrast to the full one-loop computation which is usually referred to the physical slepton mass basis, we use here instead the Mass Insertion Approximation (MIA) which uses the electroweak interaction slepton basis and treats perturbatively the mass insertions changing slepton flavor. By performing an expansion in powers of the external momenta in the relevant form factors, we will be able to separate explicitly in the analytic results the leading non-decoupling (constant at asymptotically large sparticle masses) and the next to leading decoupling contributions (decreasing with the sparticle masses). Our final aim is to provide a set of simple analytic formulas for the form factors and the associated effective vertices, that we think may be very useful for future phenomenological studies of the lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decays, and for their comparison with data. The accuracy of the numerical results obtained with the MIA are also analyzed and discussed here in comparison with the full one-loop results. Our most optimistic numerical estimates for the three neutral Higgs boson decays channels into $\tau$ and $\mu$ leptons, searching for their maximum rates that are allowed by present constraints from $\tau \to \mu \gamma$ data and beyond Standard Model Higgs boson searches at the LHC, are also included.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figures, 3 appendices. This version v3 matches the manuscript published in JHE

Imprints of massive inverse seesaw model neutrinos in lepton flavor violating Higgs boson decays

In this paper we consider a Higgs boson with mass and other properties compatible with those of the recently discovered Higgs particle at the LHC, and explore the possibility of new Higgs leptonic decays, beyond the standard model, with the singular feature of being lepton flavor violating (LFV). We study these LFV Higgs decays, $H \to l_k\bar l_m$, within the context of the inverse seesaw model (ISS) and consider the most generic case where three additional pairs of massive right-handed singlet neutrinos are added to the standard model particle content. We require in addition that the input parameters of this ISS model are compatible with the present neutrino data and other constraints, like perturbativity of the neutrino Yukawa couplings. We present a full one-loop computation of the BR($H \to l_k\bar l_m$) rates for the three possible channels, $l_k\bar l_m=\mu \bar \tau,\, e \bar \tau,\, e \bar \mu$, and analyze in full detail the predictions as functions of the various relevant ISS parameters. We study in parallel the correlated one-loop predictions for the radiative decays, $l_m \to l_k \gamma$, within this same ISS context, and require full compatibility of our predictions with the present experimental bounds for the three radiative decays, $\mu \to e \gamma$, $\tau \to \mu \gamma$, and $\tau \to e \gamma$. After exploring the ISS parameter space we conclude on the maximum allowed LFV Higgs decay rates within the ISS.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, 1 appendix: v4 matches the manuscript published in PR

Exotic μτjj\mu\tau j j events from heavy ISS neutrinos at the LHC

In this letter we study new relevant phenomenological consequences of the right-handed heavy neutrinos with masses at the ${\cal O}(1)$ TeV energy scale, working within the context of the Inverse Seesaw Model that includes three pairs of quasi-degenerate pseudo-Dirac heavy neutrinos. We propose a new exotic signal of these heavy neutrinos at the CERN Large Hadron Collider containing a muon, a tau lepton, and two jets in the final state, which is based on the interesting fact that this model can incorporate large Lepton Flavor Violation for specific choices of the relevant parameters, particularly, the neutrino Yukawa couplings. We will show here that an observable number of $\mu\tau jj$ exotic events, without missing energy, can be produced at this ongoing run of the LHC.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. This version v3 matches the manuscript published in Physics Letters