0000000000056469

AUTHOR

Apostolos Pilaftsis

Leptonic Flavor-changing Z0 Decays in SU(2)xU(1) Theories with Right- handed Neutrinos

We analyze possible lepton-flavor-violating decays of the $Z^0$ particle in a minimal extension of the Standard Model, in which one right-handed neutral field for each family has been introduced. Such rare leptonic decays are induced by Majorana neutrinos at the first electroweak loop level and are generally not suppressed by the ordinary "see-saw" mechanism. In particular, we find that experimental bounds on branching ratios of the order of $10^{-5}-10^{-6}$ attainable at $LEP$ may impose constraints on lepton-flavor-mixing parameters and the masses of the heavy Majorana neutrinos.

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Displacement Operator Formalism for Renormalization and Gauge Dependence to All Orders

We present a new method for determining the renormalization of Green functions to all orders in perturbation theory, which we call the displacement operator formalism, or the D-formalism, in short. This formalism exploits the fact that the renormalized Green functions may be calculated by displacing by an infinite amount the renormalized fields and parameters of the theory with respect to the unrenormalized ones. With the help of this formalism, we are able to obtain the precise form of the deformations induced to the Nielsen identities after renormalization, and thus derive the exact dependence of the renormalized Green functions on the renormalized gauge-fixing parameter to all orders. As…

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On Gauge Invariance of Breit-Wigner Propagators

We present an approach to bosonic ($Z^0, W^{\pm}$) as well as fermionic (top-quark) Breit-Wigner propagators which is consistent with gauge invariance arguments. In particular, for the $Z^0$-boson propagator we extend previous analyses and show that the part proportional to $k_{\mu} k_{\nu}/M^2$ must be modified near the resonance. We derive a mass shift which agrees with results obtained elsewhere by different methods. The modified form of a resonant heavy fermion propagator is also given.

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Dominant Three-Body Decays of a Heavy Higgs and Top Quark

We calculate the dominant three body Higgs decays, $H \to W^+W^-(Z^0, \gamma)$ and $H \to t\overline{t}(Z^0,\gamma ,g)$, in the Standard Model. We find that the branching ratios of these decays are of the order of few percent for large Higgs masses. We comment on the behaviour of the partial decay width $\Gamma (H \to t\overline{b}W^-)$ below the $t\overline{t}$ threshold. Numerical results of the following three body top decays, $t \to W^+b(\gamma ,g,Z^0)$ and $t \to W^+bH$, are also given. We discuss the feasibility of observing these Higgs and top decays at future high energy colliders.

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Theory of Neutrinos: A White Paper

During 2004, four divisions of the American Physical Society commissioned a study of neutrino physics to take stock of where the field is at the moment and where it is going in the near and far future. Several working groups looked at various aspects of this vast field. The summary was published as a main report entitled ``The Neutrino Matrix'' accompanied by short 50 page versions of the report of each working group. Theoretical research in this field has been quite extensive and touches many areas and the short 50 page report provided only a brief summary and overview of few of the important points. The theory discussion group felt that it may be of value to the community to publish the e…

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On the classification of accidental symmetries of the two Higgs doublet model potential

Recently, it has been shown [arXiv:1106.3482] that the two-Higgs-doublet-model potential may exhibit a maximum of 13 distinct accidental symmetries. Such a classification is based on a six-dimensional bilinear scalar field formalism realizing the SO(1,5) symmetry group. This note presents the transformation relations for each of the 13 symmetries in the original scalar field space and their one-to-one correspondence to the space of scalar bilinears, thereby providing firm support for the completeness of the classification.

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Lepton flavour nonconservation in H0 decays

Abstract We calculate the off-diagonal lepton-lepton-Higgs boson vertex induced by one-loop electroweak corrections, in the context of the standard model in which one right-handed neutrino for each family has been introduced. We find that in the presence of very heavy Majorana neutrinos the lepton-flavour-violating decays of the H0 boson can be significantly enhanced yielding observable signals at high energy collider machines.

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Gauge invariance and unstable particles.

A gauge-independent approach to resonant transition amplitudes with nonconserved external currents is presented, which is implemented by the pinch technique. The analytic expressions derived with this method are $U(1)_{em}$ invariant, independent of the choice of the gauge-fixing parameter, and satisfy a number of required theoretical properties, including unitarity. Although special attention is paid to resonant scatterings involving the $\gamma WW$ and $ZWW$ vertices in the minimal Standard Model, our approach can be extended to the top quark or other unstable particles appearing in renormalizable models of new physics.

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Constraints from lepton universality at the z-peak on unified theories

We suggest the use of a universality-breaking observable based on lepton asymmetries as derived from the left-right asymmetry and the $\tau$ polarization at the $Z$ peak, which can efficiently constrain the parameter space of unified theories. The new observable is complementary to the leptonic partial width differences and it depends critically on the chirality of a possible non-universal $Z$-boson coupling to like-flavour leptons. The LEP/SLC potential of probing universality violation is discussed in representative low-energy extensions of the Standard Model (SM) that could be derived by supersymmetric grand unified theories, such as the SM with left-handed and/or right-handed neutral is…

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Revealing the Majorana nature of heavy neutrinos via a heavy Higgs boson

Abstract Analyzing several recently proposed models, based on simple extensions of the standard model (SM), with heavy Majorana neutrinos, it is shown that the change of detecting lepton number violation through their production and subsequent decays may be significantly enhanced, if a heavy Higgs boson with mass within a reasonably broad range is present.

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Gauge- and renormalization-group-invariant formulation of the Higgs-boson resonance

A gauge- and renormalization-group- invariant approach implemented by the pinch technique is formulated for resonant transitions involving the Higgs boson. The lineshape of the Higgs boson is shown to consist of two distinct and physically meaningful contributions: a process-independent resonant part and a process-dependent non-resonant background, which are separately gauge independent, invariant under the renormalization group, satisfy naive, tree-level Ward identities, and respect the optical and equivalence theorem individually. The former process-independent quantity serves as the natural extension of the concept of the effective charge to the case of the Higgs scalar, and constitutes …

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Gauge-independent approach to resonant transition amplitudes

We present a new gauge-independent approach to resonant transition amplitudes with nonconserved external currents, based on the pinch technique method. In the context of $2\to 2$ and $2\to 3$ scattering processes, we show explicitly that the analytic results derived respect $U(1)_{em}$ gauge symmetry and do not depend on the choice of the $SU(2)_L$ gauge fixing. Our analytic approach treats, on equal footing, fermionic as well as bosonic contributions to the resummed gauge boson propagators, does not contain any residual space-like threshold terms, shows the correct high-energy unitarity behaviour, admits renormalization, and satisfies a number of other required properties, including the op…

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Flavour-violating charged lepton decays in seesaw-type models

Analytic expressions of lepton-flavour- and lepton-number-violating decays of charged leptons are derived in the context of general $SU(2)_L\otimes U(1)_Y$ seesaw scenarios that are motivated by grand unified theories (GUT's) or superstring models, in which left-handed and/or right-handed neutral singlets are present. Possible constraints imposed by cosmology and low-energy data are briefly discussed. The violation of the decoupling theorem in flavour-dependent graphs due to the presence of heavy neutral leptons of Dirac or Majorana nature is emphasized. Numerical estimates reveal that the decays $\tau^-\to e^-e^-e^+$ or $\tau^-\to e^-\mu^-\mu^+$ can be as large as $\sim 10^{-6}$, which may…

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Universality-Breaking Effects in Leptonic Z Decays

We analyze the possibility of universality violation in diagonal leptonic decays of the $Z$ boson, in the context of interfamily "see-saw" models. In a minimal extension of the Standard Model with right-handed neutrino fields, we find that universality-breaking effects increase quadratically with the heavy Majorana neutrino mass and may be observed in the running $LEP$ experiments.

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Frame covariant nonminimal multifield inflation

We introduce a frame-covariant formalism for inflation of scalar-curvature theories by adopting a differential geometric approach which treats the scalar fields as coordinates living on a field-space manifold. This ensures that our description of inflation is both conformally and reparameterization covariant. Our formulation gives rise to extensions of the usual Hubble and potential slow-roll parameters to generalized fully frame-covariant forms, which allow us to provide manifestly frame-invariant predictions for cosmological observables, such as the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, the spectral indices $n_{\cal R}$ and $n_T$, their runnings $\alpha_{\cal R}$ and $\alpha_T$, the non-Gaussianity…

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Gauge-invariant resummation formalism for two-point correlation functions

The consistent description of unstable particles, renormalons, or other Schwinger--Dyson-type of solutions within the framework of perturbative gauge field theories necessitates the definition and resummation of off-shell Green's functions, which must respect several crucial physical requirements. A formalism is presented for resummation of off-shell two-point correlation functions, which is mainly based on arguments of analyticity, unitarity, gauge invariance and renormalizability. The analytic results obtained with various methods, including the background field gauges and the pinch technique are confronted with the physical requirements imposed; to one-loop order the pinch technique appr…

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CP Violation in Correlated Production and Decay of Unstable Particles

We study resonant CP-violating Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen correlations that may take place in the production and decay of unstable scalar particles at high-energy colliders. We show that as a consequence of unitarity and CPT invariance of the S-matrix, in 2 --> 2 scatterings mediated by mixed scalar particles, at least three linearly independent decay matrices associated with the unstable scalar states are needed to obtain non-zero CP-odd observables that are also odd under C-conjugation. Instead, for the correlated production and decay of two unstable particle systems in 2 --> 4 processes, we find that only two independent decay matrices are sufficient to induce a net non-vanishing CP…

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LeptonicCPasymmetries in flavor-changingH0decays

Leptonic flavor-changing ${H}^{0}$ decays with branching ratios of the order of ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$-${10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ may constitute an interesting framework when looking for large $\mathrm{CP}$-violating effects. We show that leptonic $\mathrm{CP}$ asymmetries of an intermediate ${H}^{0}$ boson can be fairly large in natural scenarios of the minimal standard model with right-handed neutrinos, at a level that may be probed at future ${H}^{0}$ factories.

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Gauge-Independent Analysis of K_L --> e \mu in Left-Right Models

The lepton-flavour-violating decay K_L --> e \mu is studied in detail within the context of SU(2)_R x SU(2)_L x U(1)_(B-L) models, which include heavy Majorana neutrinos. Particular attention is paid to the gauge independence of this decay process to one loop. In analogy with earlier studies on the K^0\bar{K}^0 mixing, it is explicitly shown how restoration of gauge invariance occurs in the decay amplitude containing the box diagrams, when the relevant Higgs-dependent self-energy and vertex graphs are taken into account in the on-shell skeleton renormalization scheme. Based on the analytic expressions so derived, we find that the branching ratio B(K_L --> e \mu) can be considerably enhanced…

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IMPLICATIONS OF A LARGE $Ht \bar{t}$-COUPLING FOR THREE-BODY DECAYS OF HIGGS BOSON AND TOP QUARK

The three-body decays a heavy Higgs [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and of a heavy top t → bW+ H are studied in the context of the Standard Model. The common feature of these decay channels is the relative big coupling constant of the Higgs particle to the top quark. Indeed within a certain range of the masses M H , mt we find that branching ratios of the order O(10-3) are possible for the decays [Formula: see text] and t → bW+ H. The decay with [Formula: see text] as a function of M H and mt is investigated below the 2mt threshold (Mtt < 2mt) and is found to have an interesting behaviour just near this threshold.

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Effective Charge of the Higgs Boson

The Higgs-boson lineshape is studied within the pinch technique resummation formalism. It is shown that any resonant Higgs-boson amplitude contains a universal part which is gauge independent, renormalization-group invariant, satisfies the optical and equivalence theorems, and constitutes the natural extension of the QED effective charge to the case of the Higgs scalar.

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Radiatively Induced Neutrino Masses and Large Higgs-Neutrino Couplings in the Standard Model with Majorana Fields

The Higgs sector of the Standard Model with one right-handed neutrino per family is systematically analyzed. In a model with intergenerational independent mixings between families, we can account for very light neutrinos acquiring Majorana masses radiatively at the first electroweak loop level. We also find that in such a scenario the Higgs coupling to the light-heavy neutrinos and to the heavy-heavy ones may be remarkably enhanced with significant implications for the production of these heavy neutrinos at high energy colliders.

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CP-violation with bosons

We formulate the conditions under which a purely bosonic theory (without fermions) containing neutral spin-0 particles and vector (gauge) bosons violates the CP-symmetry through the presence of CP-even and CP-odd operators in the Lagrangian. This is done without reference to explicitly CP-violating scalar sector of extended standard models (SM) with two or more Higgs doublets. The Lagrangian expressed in the mass basis of the spin-0 fields can, however, in certain cirumstances be identified with a part of the CP-violating SM with two Higgs doublets. It is instructive to consider the manifestation of CP-violation in the mass basis since this leads directly to suggestions of genuine CP-signal…

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Radiative Corrections to Scalar Masses and Mixing in a Scale Invariant Two Higgs Doublet Model

We study the Higgs-boson mass spectrum of a classical scale-invariant realization of the two-Higgs-doublet model (SI-2HDM). The classical scale symmetry of the theory is explicitly broken by quantum loop effects due to gauge interactions, Higgs self-couplings and top-quark Yukawa couplings. We determine the allowed parameter space compatible with perturbative unitarity and electroweak precision data. Taking into account the LEP and the recent LHC exclusion limits on a Standard-Model-like Higgs boson H_SM, we obtain rather strict constraints on the mass spectrum of the heavy Higgs sector of the SI-2HDM. In particular, if M_{H_SM} \sim 125 GeV, the SI-2HDM strongly favours scenarios, in which…

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The Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

233 páginas.-- AHEP Group: et al..-- El Pdf del artículo es la versión pre-print: arXiv.1001.2693v1.-- Trabajo presentado al "The International Workshop on Beyond the Standard Model Physics and LHC Signatures (BSM-LHC) celebrado en Boston (USA) del 2 al 4 de junio de 2009.

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A White Paper on keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter

We present a comprehensive review of keV-scale sterile neutrino Dark Matter, collecting views and insights from all disciplines involved - cosmology, astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics - in each case viewed from both theoretical and experimental/observational perspectives. After reviewing the role of active neutrinos in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, we focus on sterile neutrinos in the context of the Dark Matter puzzle. Here, we first review the physics motivation for sterile neutrino Dark Matter, based on challenges and tensions in purely cold Dark Matter scenarios. We then round out the discussion by critically summarizing all known constraints on sterile neutrin…

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Flavour geometry and effective Yukawa couplings in the MSSM

We present a new geometric approach to the flavour decomposition of an arbitrary soft supersymmetry-breaking sector in the MSSM. Our approach is based on the geometry that results from the quark and lepton Yukawa couplings, and enables us to derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for a linearly-independent basis of matrices related to the completeness of the internal [SU(3) circle times U(1)](5) flavour space. In a second step, we calculate the effective Yukawa couplings that are enhanced at large values of tan beta for general soft supersymmetry-breaking mass parameters. We highlight the contributions due to non-universal terms in the flavour decompositions of the sfermion mass mat…

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Vacuum Topology of the Two Higgs Doublet Model

We perform a systematic study of generic accidental Higgs-family and CP symmetries that could occur in the two-Higgs-doublet-model potential, based on a Majorana scalar-field formalism which realizes a subgroup of GL(8,C). We derive the general conditions of convexity and stability of the scalar potential and present analytical solutions for two non-zero neutral vacuum expectation values of the Higgs doublets for a typical set of six symmetries, in terms of the gauge-invariant parameters of the theory. By means of a homotopy-group analysis, we identify the topological defects associated with the spontaneous symmetry breaking of each symmetry, as well as the massless Goldstone bosons emergin…

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