0000000000002477
AUTHOR
Daniele Tommasini
μ-e conversion in nuclei and Z' physics
Together with the existence of new neutral gauge bosons, models based on extended gauge groups (rank > 4) often predict also new charged fermions. A mixing of the known fermions with new states with exotic weak-isospin assignments (left-handed singlets and right-handed doublets) will induce tree level flavour changing neutral interactions mediated by Z exchange, while if the mixing is only with new states with ordinary weak-isospin assignments, the flavour changing neutral currents are mainly due to the exchange of the lightest new neutral gauge boson Z'. We show that the present experimental limits on μ-e conversion in nuclei give a nuclear-model-independent bound on the Z-e-μ vertex which…
Reconciling dark matter and solar neutrinos
Abstract We present a simple model for neutrino dark matter in which neutrino masses arise radiatively and the solar neutrino data are explained via the MSW effect. The dark matter scale arises at the one-loop level with the MSW scale arises only in two loops. The model is compatible with all observational facts and allows observable ν e ν τ or ν μ ν τ oscillation rates in the laboratory if the limits from primordial big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) are taken conservatively. In addition, it can be probed by searching for muon number violating processes such as μ → e + γ , and μ →3 e . These rates can well lie within the sensitivities of present experiments. Finally, if we ignore BBN limits we…
Precision tests of QED and non-standard models by searching photon-photon scattering in vacuum with high power lasers
We study how to search for photon-photon scattering in vacuum at present petawatt laser facilities such as HERCULES, and test Quantum Electrodynamics and non-standard models like Born-Infeld theory or scenarios involving minicharged particles or axion-like bosons. First, we compute the phase shift that is produced when an ultra-intense laser beam crosses a low power beam, in the case of arbitrary polarisations. This result is then used in order to design a complete test of all the parameters appearing in the low energy effective photonic Lagrangian. In fact, we propose a set of experiments that can be performed at HERCULES, eventually allowing either to detect photon-photon scattering as du…
Non-decoupling of Heavy Neutrinos and Lepton Flavour Violation
We consider a class of models predicting new heavy neutral fermionic states, whose mixing with the light neutrinos can be naturally significant and produce observable effects below the threshold for their production. We update the indirect limits on the flavour non-diagonal mixing parameters that can be derived from unitarity, and show that significant rates are in general expected for one-loop-induced rare processes due to the exchange of virtual heavy neutrinos, involving the violation of the muon and electron lepton numbers. In particular, the amplitudes for $\mu$--$e$ conversion in nuclei and for $\mu\to ee^+e^-$ show a non-decoupling quadratic dependence on the heavy neutrino mass $M$,…