Up-Down Unification just above the supersymmetric threshold

Large corrections to the quark mass matrices at the supersymmetric threshold allow the theory to have identical Yukawa matrices in the superpotential. We demonstrate that Up-Down unification can take place in a moderate quark-squark alignment scenario with an average squark mass of the order 1 TeV and with $\tan\beta>15$Comment: 12 pages, latex, two figure

How natural is a small \bar\theta in left-right SUSY models ?

In the world without an axion the smallness of $\bar\theta$ may be achieved due to a spontaneously broken discrete left-right symmetry. We analyze the radiatively induced \bar\theta in the context of generic left-right symmetric SUSY models without assuming flavor degeneracy in the squark sector. Left-right symmetry allows to keep \bar\theta within its present bound only if the inter-generational mass splitting in the squark sector at the scale of the left-right symmetry breaking is smaller than 0.5%. We also consider the naturalness of m_u=0 solution to the strong CP problem in the context of horizontal flavor symmetries. A strong bound on the combination of the horizontal charges in the Up quark sector is found in this case.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 1 figure, references adde

Minimal Ten-parameter Hermitian Texture Zeroes Mass Matrices and the CKM Matrix

Hermitian mass matrices for the up and down quarks with texture zeroes but with the minimum number of parameters, ten, are investigated. We show how these {\em minimum parameter} forms can be obtained from a general set of hermitian matrices through weak basis transformations. For the most simple forms we show that one can derive exact and compact parametrizations of the CKM mixing matrix in terms of the elements of these mass matrices (and the quark masses).Comment: 14 pages.Talk given by M.B. at the MRST 98, ``Towards the Theory of Everything", Montr\'eal, 13-15 May 199

Unified Flavor Symmetry from warped dimensions

We propose a scenario which accommodates all the masses and mixings of the SM fermions in a model of warped extra-dimensions with all matter fields in the bulk. In this scenario, the same flavor symmetric structure is imposed on all the fermions of the Standard Model (SM), including neutrinos. Due to the exponential sensitivity on bulk fermion masses, a small breaking of the symmetry can be greatly enhanced and produce seemingly un-symmetric hierarchical masses and small mixing angles among the charged fermion zero-modes (SM quarks and charged leptons) and wash-out the obvious effects of the symmetry. With the Higgs field leaking into the bulk, and Dirac neutrinos sufficiently localized towards the UV boundary, the neutrino mass hierarchy and flavor structure will still be largely dominated by the fundamental flavor structure. The neutrino sector would then reflect the fundamental flavor structure, whereas the quark sector would probe the effects of the flavor symmetry breaking sector. As an example, we explore these features in the context of a family permutation symmetry imposed in both quark and lepton sectors.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Canonical Constraints on Leptonic Cp Violation using UHCR neutrino fluxes

It is shown that one can in principle constrain the CP-violating parameter delta from measurements of four independant |V_{ij}|^2, or three of them and a ratio, in the leptonic sector. To quantify our approach, using unitarity, we derive simple expressions in terms of four independant |V_{ij}|^2 for cos(delta) and an expression for sin^2(delta) from J^2. Thus, depending on the values of |V_{ij}| and their accuracy, we can set meaningful limits on |delta|. To illustrate numerically, if |V_{u1}|^2 is close to 0.1 with a 10% precision, and if |V_{e3}^2 is larger than 0.005 and for values of |V_{e2}|^2 and |V_{u3}|^2 that stay within +-0.1 of the current experimental data leads to a bound pi/2 < |delta| < pi. Alternatively, a certain combination of parameters with values of |V_{e3}|^2 larger than 0.01 leads to a closed bound of 73 < |delta| < 103. In general, we find that it is better to use |V_{u1}|^2 or |V_{t1}|^2 as the fourth independant |V_{ij}|^2 and that over most of the parameter space, delta is least sensitive to |V_{e3}|^2. With just three independant measurements (solar, atmospheric and reactor) it is impossible to set limits on the CP phase. In this respect, we study the use of ultra high energy cosmic (UHCR) neutrino fluxes as the additional fourth information. We find that within the SM, neutrino fluxes of all three flavours will be very similar but that pushing current neutrino data to their extreme values still allowed, ratios of cosmic neutrino fluxes can differ by up to 20%; such large discrepancies could imply negligibly small CP-violation. We also study a non radiative neutrino decay model and find that the neutrino fluxes can differ by a factor of up to 3 within this model and that an accuracy of 10% on the neutrino fluxes is sufficient to set interestin limits on delta.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 5 table