Split Supersymmetry

The naturalness criterion applied to the cosmological constant implies a new-physics threshold at 10^-3 eV. Either the naturalness criterion fails, or this threshold does not influence particle dynamics at higher energies. It has been suggested that the Higgs naturalness problem may follow the same fate. We investigate this possibility and, abandoning the hierarchy problem, we use unification and dark matter as the only guiding principles. The model recently proposed by Arkani-Hamed and Dimopoulos emerges as a very interesting option. We study it in detail, analysing its structure, and the conditions for obtaining unification and dark matter.Comment: 29 pages, comments, corrections and references adde

General considerations on lepton mass matrices

We classify the flavour groups and representations providing, in the symmetric limit, an approximate description of lepton masses and mixings. We assume that the light neutrinos are of Majorana type and that the flavour symmetry directly constrains their mass matrix. The representations can be characterised by the dimension, type (real, pseudoreal, complex), and equivalence of its irreducible components, and in terms of such a classification we find only six viable cases. It turns out that the neutrinos are always either anarchical or have an inverted hierarchical spectrum. Therefore, if the hint of a normal hierarchical spectrum were confirmed, we would conclude (under the above assumption) that symmetry breaking effects must play a primary role in the understanding of neutrino flavour observables. \ua9 Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons

Can an unbroken flavour symmetry provide an approximate description of lepton masses and mixing?

We provide a complete answer to the following question: what are the flavour groups and representations providing, in the symmetric limit, an approximate description of lepton masses and mixings? We assume that neutrino masses are described by the Wein- berg operator. We show that the pattern of lepton masses and mixings only depends on the dimension, type (real, pseudoreal, complex), and equivalence of the irreducible components of the flavour representation, and we find only six viable cases. In all cases the neutrinos are either anarchical or have an inverted hierarchical spectrum. In the context of SU(5) unification, only the anarchical option is allowed. Therefore, if the hint of a normal hier- archical spectrum were confirmed, we would conclude (under the above assumption) that symmetry breaking effects must play a leading order role in the understanding of neutrino flavour observables. In order to obtain the above results, we develop a simple algorithm to determine the form of the lepton masses and mixings directly from the structure of the decomposition of the flavour representation in irreducible components, without the need to specify the form of the lepton mass matrices

Alterations to mTORC1 signaling in the skeletal muscle differentially affect whole-body metabolism

The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a central node in a network of signaling pathways controlling cell growth and survival. This multiprotein complex integrates external signals and affects different nutrient pathways in various organs. However, it is not clear how alterations of mTORC1 signaling in skeletal muscle affect whole-body metabolism.; We characterized the metabolic phenotype of young and old raptor muscle knock-out (RAmKO) and TSC1 muscle knock-out (TSCmKO) mice, where mTORC1 activity in skeletal muscle is inhibited or constitutively activated, respectively. Ten-week-old RAmKO mice are lean and insulin resistant with increased energy expenditure, and they are resistant to a high-fat diet (HFD). This correlates with an increased expression of histone deacetylases (HDACs) and a downregulation of genes involved in glucose and fatty acid metabolism. Ten-week-old TSCmKO mice are also lean, glucose intolerant with a decreased activation of protein kinase B (Akt/PKB) targets that regulate glucose transporters in the muscle. The mice are resistant to a HFD and show reduced accumulation of glycogen and lipids in the liver. Both mouse models suffer from a myopathy with age, with reduced fat and lean mass, and both RAmKO and TSCmKO mice develop insulin resistance and increased intramyocellular lipid content.; Our study shows that alterations of mTORC1 signaling in the skeletal muscle differentially affect whole-body metabolism. While both inhibition and constitutive activation of mTORC1 induce leanness and resistance to obesity, changes in the metabolism of muscle and peripheral organs are distinct. These results indicate that a balanced mTORC1 signaling in the muscle is required for proper metabolic homeostasis

Testing Matter Effects in Very Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiments

Assuming three-neutrino mixing, we study the capabilities of very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments to verify and test the MSW effect and to measure the lepton mixing angle theta_13. We suppose that intense neutrino and antineutrino beams will become available in so-called neutrino factories. We find that the most promising and statistically significant results can be obtained by studying nu_e ->nu_mu and \bar{nu}_e-> \bar{nu}_mu oscillations which lead to matter enhancements and suppressions of wrong sign muon rates. We show the theta_13 ranges where matter effects could be observed as a function of the baseline. We discuss the scaling laws of rates, significances and sensitivities with the relevant mixing angles and experimental parameters. Our analysis includes fluxes, event rates and statistical aspects so that the conclusions should be useful for the planning of experimental setups. We discuss the subleading Delta m^2_{21} effects in the case of the LMA MSW solution of the solar problem, showing that they are small for L >= 7000 km. For shorter baselines, Delta m^2_{21} effects can be relevant and their dependence on L offers a further handle for the determination of the CP-violation phase \delta. Finally we comment on the possibility to measure the specific distortion of the energy spectrum due to the MSW effect.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, figures and more discussion added, results and conclusions unchange

Electric Dipole Moments in Split Supersymmetry

We perform a quantitative study of the neutron and electron electric dipole moments (EDM) in Supersymmetry, in the limit of heavy scalars. The leading contributions arise at two loops. We give the complete analytic result, including a new contribution associated with Z-Higgs exchange, which plays an important and often leading role in the neutron EDM. The predictions for the EDM are typically within the sensitivities of the next generation experiments. We also analyse the correlation between the electron and neutron EDM, which provides a robust test of Split Supersymmetry

Connections between epsilon'/epsilon and Rare Kaon Decays in Supersymmetry

We analyze the rare kaon decays $K_L \to \pi^0 \nu \bar \nu$, $K^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar \nu$, $K_L \to \pi^0 e^+ e^-$ and $K_L \to \mu^+ \mu^-$ in conjunction with the CP violating ratio $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ in a general class of supersymmetric models in which $Z$- and magnetic-penguin contributions can be substantially larger than in the Standard Model. We point out that radiative effects relate the double left-right mass insertion to the single left-left one, and that the phenomenological constraints on the latter reflect into a stringent bound on the supersymmetric contribution to the $Z$ penguin. Using this bound, and those coming from recent data on $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ we find {\rm BR}(K_L \to \pi^0 \nu \bar \nu)\lsim 1.2\cdot 10^{-10}, {\rm BR}(K^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar \nu)\lsim 1.7\cdot 10^{-10}, {\rm BR}(K_L \to \pi^0 e^+ e^-)_{\rm dir}\lsim 2.0\cdot 10^{-11}, assuming the usual determination of the CKM parameters and neglecting the possibility of cancellations among different supersymmetric effects in $\epsilon'/\epsilon$. Larger values are possible, in principle, but rather unlikely. We stress the importance of a measurement of these three branching ratios, together with improved data and improved theory of $\epsilon'/\epsilon$, in order to shed light on the realization of various supersymmetric scenarios. We reemphasize that the most natural enhancement of $\epsilon'/\epsilon$, within supersymmetric models, comes from chromomagnetic penguins and show that in this case sizable enhancements of $BR(K_L \to \pi^0 e^+ e^-)_{\rm dir}$ can also be expected.Comment: 40 pages, 5 figure

Matter profile effect in neutrino factory

We point out that the matter profile effect --- the effect of matter density fluctuation on the baseline --- is very important to estimate the parameters in a neutrino factory with a very long baseline. To make it clear, we propose the method of the Fourier series expansion of the matter profile. By using this method, we can take account of both the matter profile effect and its ambiguity. For very long baseline experiment, such as L=7332km, in the analysis of the oscillation phenomena we need to introduce a new parameter $a_{1}$--- the Fourier coefficient of the matter profile --- as a theoretical parameter to deal with the matter profile effects.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure

Unveiling Neutrino Mixing and Leptonic CP Violation

We review the present understanding of neutrino masses and mixings, discussing what are the unknowns in the three family oscillation scenario. Despite the anticipated success coming from the planned long baseline neutrino experiments in unraveling the leptonic mixing sector, there are two important unknowns which may remain obscure: the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and the CP-phase $\delta$. The measurement of these two parameters has led us to consider the combination of superbeams and neutrino factories as the key to unveil the neutrino oscillation picture.Comment: Invited brief review, 18 pages, 6 figure