Abelian realization of phenomenological two-zero neutrino textures

In an attempt at explaining the observed neutrino mass-squared differences and leptonic mixing, lepton mass matrices with zero textures have been widely studied. In the weak basis where the charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal, various neutrino mass matrices with two zeros have been shown to be consistent with the current experimental data. Using the canonical and Smith normal form methods, we construct the minimal Abelian symmetry realizations of these phenomenological two-zero neutrino textures. The implementation of these symmetries in the context of the seesaw mechanism for Majorana neutrino masses is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages; references added, version to appear in Nuclear Physics

Maximally restrictive leptonic texture zeros in two-Higgs-doublet models

The implementation of maximally restrictive texture zeros in the leptonic sector is investigated in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models with Majorana neutrinos. After analyzing all maximally restrictive pairs of leptonic mass matrices with zero entries, we conclude that there are only four texture combinations that are compatible with observations at 3 sigma confidence level and can be implemented through Abelian symmetries in a two-Higgs-doublet model. The compatibility of these textures with current constraints on lepton-flavor-violating processes is also studied. The ultraviolet completion of these models is discussed in the framework of the seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables; comments and references added, final version to appear in J. Phys.

Effective Aligned 2HDM with a DFSZ-like invisible axion

We discuss the possibility of having a non-minimal scalar sector at the weak scale within the framework of invisible axion models. To frame our discussion we consider an extension of the Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky invisible axion model with two additional Higgs doublets blind under the Peccei-Quinn symmetry. Due to mixing effects among the scalar fields, it is possible to obtain a rich scalar sector at the weak scale in certain decoupling limits of the theory. In particular, this framework provides an ultraviolet completion of the so-called aligned two-Higgs-doublet model and solves the strong CP problem. The axion properties and the smallness of active neutrino masses are also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Discussion improved, references added. Matching the journal versio

Neutrino masses and mixing in A4 models with three Higgs doublets

We study neutrino masses and mixing in the context of flavor models with A4 symmetry, three scalar doublets in the triplet representation, and three lepton families. We show that there is no representation assignment that yields a dimension-five mass operator consistent with experiment. We then consider a type-I seesaw with three heavy right-handed neutrinos, explaining in detail why it fails, and showing with a numerical example that agreement with the present neutrino oscillation data can be recovered with the inclusion of dimension-three heavy neutrino mass terms that break softly the A4 symmetry.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, 3 figures. v2: much expanded section on softly broken A4; refs adde

Yukawa sector of multi-Higgs-doublet models in the presence of Abelian symmetries

A general method for classifying the possible quark models of a multi-Higgs-doublet model, in the presence of Abelian symmetries, is presented. All the possible sets of textures that can be present in a given sector are shown, thus turning the determination of the flavor models into a combinatorial problem. Several symmetry implementations are studied for two and three Higgs doublet models. Some models' implementations are explored in great detail, with a particular emphasis on models known as Branco-Grimus-Lavoura and nearest-neighbor-interaction. Several considerations on the flavor changing neutral currents of multi-Higgs models are also given

Comparing MapReduce and pipeline implementations for counting triangles

A generalized method to define the Divide & Conquer paradigm in order to have processors acting on its own data and scheduled in a parallel fashion. MapReduce is a programming model that follows this paradigm, and allows for the definition of efficient solutions by both decomposing a problem into steps on subsets of the input data and combining the results of each step to produce final results. Albeit used for the implementation of a wide variety of computational problems, MapReduce performance can be negatively affected whenever the replication factor grows or the size of the input is larger than the resources available at each processor. In this paper we show an alternative approach to implement the Divide & Conquer paradigm, named pipeline. The main features of pipeline are illustrated on a parallel implementation of the well-known problem of counting triangles in a graph. This problem is especially interesting either when the input graph does not fit in memory or is dynamically generated. To evaluate the properties of pipeline, a dynamic pipeline of processes and an ad-hoc version of MapReduce are implemented in the language Go, exploiting its ability to deal with channels and spawned processes. An empirical evaluation is conducted on graphs of different sizes and densities. Observed results suggest that pipeline allows for the implementation of an efficient solution of the problem of counting triangles in a graph, particularly, in dense and large graphs, drastically reducing the execution time with respect to the MapReduce implementation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Spontaneous leptonic CP violation and nonzero θ13\theta_{13}

We consider a simple extension of the Standard Model by adding two Higgs triplets and a complex scalar singlet to its particle content. In this framework, the CP symmetry is spontaneously broken at high energies by the complex vacuum expectation value of the scalar singlet. Such a breaking leads to leptonic CP violation at low energies. The model also exhibits an $A_4\times Z_4$ flavour symmetry which, after being spontaneously broken at a high-energy scale, yields a tribimaximal pattern in the lepton sector. We consider small perturbations around the tribimaximal vacuum alignment condition in order to generate nonzero values of $\theta_{13}$, as required by the latest neutrino oscillation data. It is shown that the value of $\theta_{13}$ recently measured by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment can be accommodated in our framework together with large Dirac-type CP violation. We also address the viability of leptogenesis in our model through the out-of-equilibrium decays of the Higgs triplets. In particular, the CP asymmetries in the triplet decays into two leptons are computed and it is shown that the effective leptogenesis and low-energy CP-violating phases are directly linked.Comment: 17 pages; 6 figures; references added and typos corrected. Final version to appear in PR

"Had She Plotted It All?": Mimetic representation and fictionalisation of Sylvia Plath in her work and in David Aceituno's "Sylvia & Ted"

Màster Oficial en Construcció i Representació d'Identitats Culturals (CRIC), Facultat de Filologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2012-2013, Director: Dra. Cristina Alsina RísquezSylvia Plath's poetry, after her suicide in 1963, has become as significantly notorious as her life and her failed marriage to the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Concerning her compositions, Plath had always been aware of the use she made of her life in her search for inspiration. In this sense, not only her poems but also full writings compilations –journals, letters and short stories– have been considered by biographers and critics as reliable information suppliers. In this regard, this MA thesis aims to state Plath's consciousness in the creation of her role as a character in her own fiction, with a focus on her inclination to take to the limits her own daily and vital experiences in order to creatively benefit from them. By the same token, this study intends to explore Plath's reasons to commit suicide by considering it a logical consequence of her work: it argues Plath's creation of her own character and its development in her artistic world, up to the point of being the reason of her last sufferings and ultimate death. Thus, it provides with significant examples of Plath's literary legacy in order to demonstrate this thesis through the analysis of her life and words. In addition to this, this work also traces how the author herself is not entirely the owner of her image as a character, but a potential character in other author's work –novelists, biographers, etc. This study goes further by claiming that the words and actions, in this particular case, do not belong to Plath any longer, but to fiction, where her legacy is as notorious as it was with the intention of reaching posterity in the constitution of her character. Lastly, these biofictions inspired by Plath's life and work are situated at the same level of reliability as biographies about the authoress are, concluding how the biographic genre has in this particular case the same component of fiction as biofictions do