Flavor Physics in SO(10) GUTs with Suppressed Proton decay Due to Gauged Discrete Symmetry

Generic SO(10) GUT models suffer from the problem that Planck scale induced non-renormalizable proton decay operators require extreme suppression of their couplings to be compatible with present experimental upper limits. One way to resolve this problem is to supplement SO(10) by simple gauged discrete symmetries which can also simultaneously suppress the renormalizable R-parity violating ones when they occur and make the theory "more natural". Here we discuss the phenomenological viability of such models. We first show that for both classes of models, e.g the ones that use ${\bf 16}_H$ or ${\bf 126}_H$ to break B-L symmetry, the minimal Higgs content which is sufficient for proton decay suppression is inadequate for explaining fermion masses despite the presence of all apparently needed couplings. We then present an extended ${\bf 16}_H$ model, with three {\bf 10} and three {\bf 45}-Higgs, where is free of this problem. We propose this as a realistic and "natural" model for fermion unification and discuss the phenomenology of this model e.g. its predictions for neutrino mixings and lepton flavor violation.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Unification of standard and exotic matter through a Z2Z_2 symmetry

We consider a scenario in which the discrete weak symmetry between quarks and leptons is extended to the weak force by introducing exotic partners. We conjecture that there exists a hidden discrete symmetry $\tilde{P}$, defining a $Z_2$ group, between standard and exotic quarks and leptons. The unified model $SU(3)_{q} \times SU(3)_{\tilde{q}} \times SU(2)_{q \tilde{\ell}} \times SU(2)_{\tilde{q} \ell} \times U(1)_{Y} \times \tilde{P}$ is discussed, where the unifying discrete symmetry extends over particles and forces. It is shown that the lighter neutral and charged weak bosons generated upon spontaneous symmetry breaking have the same properties as those of the standard model. Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity is used to set a mass of order 2.8 TeV for the nonstandard weak bosons, which do not exhibit quark-lepton universality. A grand unified theory of $GUT_{q \tilde{\ell}} \times GUT_{\tilde{q} \ell} \times \tilde{P}$ type, with decay of exotic matter into standard matter and no decay of the ordinary nucleon, is put forward.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Cosmology of Brane-Bulk Models in Five Dimensions

We study the cosmology of models with four space and one time dimension where our universe is a 3-brane and report a few results which extend existing work in several directions. Assuming a stable fifth dimension, we obtain a solution for the metric, which does not depend on any arbitrary parameters. We discuss some implications of this result.Comment: Minor changes: brane energy conservation law and some typos corrected. All main results unchanged. 11 pages, no figures, LaTeX fil

New vector-scalar contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay and constraints on R-parity violation

We show that in minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with R-parity breaking as well as in the left-right symmetric model, there are new observable contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay arising from hitherto overlooked diagrams involving the exchange of one W boson and one scalar boson. In particular, in the case of MSSM, the present experimental bounds on neutrinoless double beta decay lifetime improves the limits on certain R-parity violating couplings by about two orders of magnitude. It is shown that similar diagrams also lead to enhanced rates for $\mu^-\rightarrow e^+$ conversion in nuclei, which are in the range accessible to ongoing experiments.Comment: Latex file; 9 pages; 3 figures available on reques

Higgs triplet effects in purely leptonic processes

We consider the effect of complex Higgs triplets on purely leptonic processes and survey the experimental constraints on the mass and couplings of their single and double charge members. Present day experiments tolerate values of the Yukawa couplings of these scalars at the level of the standard electroweak gauge couplings. We show that the proposed measurement of the ratio R_{LCD}=\sigma (\nu_{\mu}e)/ [\sigma (\bb\nu_{\mu}e) + \sigma (\nu_e e )] would allow to explore a large region of the parameter space inaccessible to the usual ratio R=\sigma (\nu_{\mu}e)/\sigma (\bb\nu_{\mu}e).Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, Three figures included using uufiles. A postscript version is available at ftp://ftp.ifae.es/preprint/ft/uabft378.p

Radion Cosmology in Theories with Universal Extra Dimensions

We discuss cosmology of models with universal extra dimensions, where the Standard Model degrees of freedom live in a $4+n$ dimensional brane, with $n$ compact and small extra spatial dimensions. In these models, the simplest way to obtain the conventional 4-dimensional Planck scale starting with a low string scale is to have also some larger extra dimensions, where only gravity propagates. In such theories, dimensional reduction generically leads to at least two radion fields, one associated with the total volume of the extra spatial dimensions, and the other with the ratio of the sizes of small and large extra dimensions. In this paper, we discuss the impact of the radion fields on cosmology. We emphasize various aspects of radion physics such as radion coupling to the Standard Model fields, bare and dressed radion masses during inflation, dynamical stabilization of radions during and after inflation, radion decay life time and its late dominance in thermal history of the Universe as well as its quantum fluctuations during inflation. We argue that models where the radion plays the role of an inflaton or the inflaton is a brane scalar field, run into problems. We then present a successful inflation model with bulk scalar fields that seems to have all the desired properties. We also briefly discuss the possibility of radion as a cold dark matter candidate.Comment: 37 pages + 3 figure

The Higgs Sector on a Two-Sheeted Space Time

We present a general formalism based on the framework of non-commutative geometry, suitable to the study the standard model of electroweak interactions, as well as that of more general gauge theories. Left- and right-handed chiral fields are assigned to two different sheets of space-time (a discretized version of Kaluza-Klein theory). Scalar Higgs fields find themselves treated on the same footing as the gauge fields, resulting in spontaneous symmetry breaking in a natural and predictable way. We first apply the formalism to the Standard Model, where one can predict the Higgs mass and the top Yukawa coupling. We then study the left-right symmetric model, where we show that this framework imposes constraints on the type and coefficients of terms appearing in the Higgs potential.Comment: 24 pages, uses revtex