Unification with Enlarged Kaluza-Klein Dimensions

In minimal theories with extra spatial dimensions at scales mu_0 much lower than the conventional GUT scale, unification can give too-large predictions for alpha_3(M_Z) given alpha_1(M_Z) and alpha_2(M_Z) as empirical input. We systematically study the effects of adding extra states above the compactification scale on running of the gauge couplings and find several simple examples that give unification where all alpha_i(M_Z) are consistent with low-energy data. We study both the supersymmetric and nonsupersymmetric unification.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, analysis for the susy case takes into account that extra hypermultiplets come in conjugate pairs, minor changes in text and references, to be published in Phys. Lett.

Seeking Gauge Bileptons in Linear Colliders

A promising direction to find physics beyond the standard model is to look for violation of $L_{e,\mu,\tau}$ conservation. In particular the process $e^- e^- \to \mu^- \mu^-$ with the exchange of a gauge bilepton has a striking signal without background and is predicted in the most economical model to have a cross-section an order of magnitude higher than previous estimates.Comment: 4 pages LaTeX and 5 postscript figure

Flavor changing interactions mediated by scalars at the weak scale

The quark and lepton mass matrices possess approximate flavor symmetries. Several results follow if the interactions of new scalars possess these approximate symmetries. Present experimental bounds allow these exotic scalars to have a weak scale mass. The Glashow-Weinberg criterion is rendered unnecessary. Finally, rare leptonic B meson decays provide powerful probes of these scalars, especially if they are leptoquarks.Comment: 13 pages, report LBL-3234

CP violation in multi-Higgs supersymmetric models

We consider supersymmetric extensions of the standard model with two pairs of Higgs doublets. We study the possibility of spontaneous $CP$ violation in these scenarios and present a model where the origin of $CP$ violation is soft, with all the complex phases in the Lagrangian derived from complex masses and vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the Higgs fields. The main ingredient of the model is an approximate global symmetry, which determines the order of magnitude of Yukawa couplings and scalar VEVs. We assume that the terms violating this symmetry are suppressed by powers of the small parameter $\epsilon_{PQ}=O(m_b/m_t)$. The tree-level flavor changing interactions are small due to a combination of this global symmetry and a flavor symmetry, but they can be the dominant source of $CP$ violation. All $CP$-violating effects occur at order $\epsilon_{PQ}^2$ as the result of exchange of {\it almost}-decoupled extra Higgs bosons and/or through the usual mechanisms with an {\it almost}-real CKM matrix. On dimensional grounds, the model gives $\epsilon_K\approx \epsilon_{PQ}^2$ and predicts for the neutron electric dipole moment (and possibly also for $\epsilon'_K$) a suppression of order $\epsilon_{PQ}^2$ with respect to the values obtained in standard and minimal supersymmetric scenarios. The predicted $CP$ asymmetries in $B$ decays are generically too small to be seen in the near future. The mass of the lightest neutral scalar, the strong $CP$ problem, and possible contributions to the $Z$ decay into $b$ quarks (the $R_b$ puzzle) are also briefly addressed in the framework of this model.Comment: Latex, 31 pages including 6 figures which are a part of the Latex fil

See-saw and Supersymmetry or Exact R-parity

We show how the renormalizable see-saw mechanism in the context of supersymmetry and spontaneously broken B-L symmetry implies exact R-parity at all energies. We argue that supersymmetry plays an important role in providing a "canonical" form for the see-saw, in particular in grand unified theories that solve the doublet-triplet splitting problem via the Dimopoulos-Wilczek mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes and 2 references added, one correcte

SO(10) theory of R-parity and neutrino mass

We study the Higgs sector of a SO(10) grand unified theory which predicts exact conservation of R-parity at all scales and incorporates the see-saw mechanism. We find possible intermediate scales and light states compatible with the constraints coming from the running of the gauge couplings. Such a pattern could lower the SO(10) breaking scale, allowing the d=6 proton decay operators to be comparable in magnitude to the d=5 ones.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Approximate Flavor Symmetries in the Lepton Sector

Approximate flavor symmetries in the quark sector have been used as a handle on physics beyond the Standard Model. Due to the great interest in neutrino masses and mixings and the wealth of existing and proposed neutrino experiments it is important to extend this analysis to the leptonic sector. We show that in the see-saw mechanism, the neutrino masses and mixing angles do not depend on the details of the right-handed neutrino flavor symmetry breaking, and are related by a simple formula. We propose several ans\"{a}tze which relate different flavor symmetry breaking parameters and find that the MSW solution to the solar neutrino problem is always easily fit. Further, the $\nu_\mu - \nu_\tau$ oscillation is unlikely to solve the atmospheric neutrino problem and, if we fix the neutrino mass scale by the MSW solution, the neutrino masses are found to be too small to close the Universe.Comment: 12 pages (no figures), LBL-3459

Hierarchical Quark Mass Matrices

I define a set of conditions that the most general hierarchical Yukawa mass matrices have to satisfy so that the leading rotations in the diagonalization matrix are a pair of (2,3) and (1,2) rotations. In addition to Fritzsch structures, examples of such hierarchical structures include also matrices with (1,3) elements of the same order or even much larger than the (1,2) elements. Such matrices can be obtained in the framework of a flavor theory. To leading order, the values of the angle in the (2,3) plane (s_{23}) and the angle in the (1,2) plane (s_{12}) do not depend on the order in which they are taken when diagonalizing. We find that any of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix parametrizations that consists of at least one (1,2) and one (2,3) rotation may be suitable. In the particular case when the s_{13} diagonalization angles are sufficiently small compared to the product s_{12}s_{23}, two special CKM parametrizations emerge: the R_{12}R_{23}R_{12} parametrization follows with s_{23} taken before the s_{12} rotation, and vice versa for the R_{23}R_{12}R_{23} parametrization.Comment: LaTeX, 19 pages. References added, minor changes in text. Version published in Phys. Rev.

Simple supersymmetric solution to the strong CP problem

It is shown that the minimal supersymmetric left-right model can provide a natural solution to the strong {\it CP} problem without the need for an axion, nor any additional symmetries beyond supersymmetry and parity.Comment: Plain Latex. 10 pages, including two figures which are part of the Latex file. Shortened version, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. 7

Hypercharge and the Cosmological Baryon Asymmetry

Stringent bounds on baryon and lepton number violating interactions have been derived from the requirement that such interactions, together with electroweak instantons, do not destroy a cosmological baryon asymmetry produced at an extremely high temperature in the big bang. While these bounds apply in specific models, we find that they are generically evaded. In particular, the only requirement for a theory to avoid these bounds is that it contain charged particles which, during a certain cosmological epoch, carry a non-zero hypercharge asymmetry. Hypercharge neutrality of the universe then dictates that the remaining particles must carry a compensating hypercharge density, which is necessarily shared amongst them so as to give a baryon asymmetry. Hence the generation of a hypercharge density in a sector of the theory forces the universe to have a baryon asymmetry.Comment: 12 pages plus 1 Postscript figure available upon request. LBL 3482