0000000000142557
AUTHOR
Palash B. Pal
S3 symmetry and the quark mixing matrix
We impose an $S_3$ symmetry on the quark fields under which two of three quarks transform like a doublet and the remaining one as singlet, and use a scalar sector with the same structure of $SU(2)$ doublets. After gauge symmetry breaking, a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ subgroup of the $S_3$ remains unbroken. We show that this unbroken subgroup can explain the approximate block structure of the CKM matrix. By allowing soft breaking of the $S_3$ symmetry in the scalar sector, we show that one can generate the small elements, of quadratic or higher order in the Wolfenstein parametrization of the CKM matrix. We also predict the existence of exotic new scalars, with unconventional decay properties, which can …
Electromagnetic properties of neutrinos in a medium
We show that, contrary to the situation in the vacuum, a Majorana neutrino can have electric and magnetic dipole moments in a medium. This is because of new contributions, equal for a particle and its antiparticle, that can arise only in a material background. For Dirac neutrinos, these contributions make the magnitudes of the dipole moments of the particle and the antiparticle unequal. We discuss the conditions which give rise to such effects, with particular attention to the role played by the discrete symmetries {ital C}, {ital P}, and {ital T}.
Electromagnetic properties of neutrinos in a background of electrons.
Using covariant methods we calculate the neutrino electromagnetic vertex in a gas of electrons to lowest order in a loop expansion and to the lowest order in $\frac{1}{{M}_{W}^{2}}$. The new induced terms, while they are chirality preserving, yield additional contributions to the dipole moments in the nonrelativistic limit. These are identical for particles and antiparticles and so need not vanish for Majorana neutrinos. As applications of our formulas, the expression for the $\mathrm{plasmon}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\nu}\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}$ decay rate is rederived and the dispersion relation of a massless neutrino propagating in matter in the presence of an external magn…