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DOE OSTI2015

Neutrino in standard model and beyond

After discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN the Standard Model acquired a status of the theory of the elementary particles in the electroweak range (up to about 300 GeV). What general conclusions can be inferred from the Standard Model? It looks that the Standard Model teaches us that in the framework of such general principles as local gauge symmetry, unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions and Brout-Englert-Higgs spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry nature chooses the simplest possibilities. Two-component left-handed massless neutrino fields play crucial role in the determination of the charged current structure of the Standard Model. The absence of the right-handed neutrino fields in the Standard Model is the simplest, most economical possibility. In such a scenario Majorana mass term is the only possibility for neutrinos to be massive and mixed. Such mass term is generated by the lepton-number violating Weinberg effective Lagrangian. In this approach three Majorana neutrino masses are suppressed with respect to the masses of other fundamental fermions by the ratio of the electroweak scale and a scale of a lepton-number violating physics. The discovery of the neutrinoless double β-decay and absence of transitions of flavor neutrinos into sterile states would be evidence in favor of the minimal scenario we advocate here.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Nonuniform phases in the ’t Hooft extended Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

The phase diagram of cold dense quark matter is studied using the ’t Hooft extended Nambu-Jona–Lasinio Model applied to the light quark sector with a finite current mass for the strange quark (up and down are considered in the chiral limit). By relaxing the traditional uniformity assumptions and considering a modulated light quark condensate background we investigate the possible existence of non-uniform phases in this region of the phase diagram. The effects of changes in the coupling strengths of the model are studied and it is shown that the inclusion of flavour mixing combined with the finite current mass of the strange quark catalyses the appearance of the non-uniform phases, extending the domain for their existence.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2017

Oscillation characteristics of neutrino in the model with three sterile neutrinos for analysis of the anomalies on small distances

In the framework of the model with three sterile neutrinos, the transition probabilities for different flavours of neutrino are calculated and the graphical dependences are obtained, in particular, for the appearance probability of electron neutrino and antineutrino in the muon neutrino and antineutrino jets as a function of distance and other model parameters at their acceptable values and at the neutrino energy less than 50 MeV, as well as a function of a ratio of distance to the neutrino energy. The theoretical results obtained can be used for analysis of the neutrino data related to the anomalies on small distances.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2013

SUGRA new inflation with Heisenberg symmetry

We propose a realisation of ''new inflation'' in supergravity (SUGRA), where the flatness of the inflaton potential is protected by a Heisenberg symmetry. Inflation can be associated with a particle physics phase transition, with the inflaton being a (D-flat) direction of Higgs fields which break some symmetry at high energies, e.g. of GUT Higgs fields or of Higgs fields for flavour symmetry breaking. This is possible since compared to a shift symmetry, which is usually used to protect a flat inflaton potential, the Heisenberg symmetry is compatible with a (gauge) non-singlet inflaton field. In contrast to conventional new inflation models in SUGRA, where the predictions depend on unknown parameters of the Kaehler potential, the model with Heisenberg symmetry makes discrete predictions for the primordial perturbation parameters which depend only on the order n at which the inflaton appears in the effective superpotential. The predictions for the spectral index n{sub s} can be close to the best-fit value of the latest Planck 2013 results.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2013

Matter inflation with A{sub 4} flavour symmetry breaking

We discuss model building in tribrid inflation, which is a framework for realising inflation in the matter sector of supersymmetric particle physics models. The inflaton is a D-flat combination of matter fields, and inflation ends by a phase transition in which some Higgs field obtains a vacuum expectation value. We first describe the general procedure for implementing tribrid inflation in realistic models of particle physics that can be applied to a wide variety of BSM particle physics models around the GUT scale. We then demonstrate how the procedure works for an explicit lepton flavour model based on an A{sub 4} family symmetry. The model is both predictive and phenomenologically viable, and illustrates how tribrid inflation connects cosmological and particle physics parameters. In particular, it predicts a relation between the neutrino Yukawa coupling and the running of the spectral index α{sub s}. We also show how topological defects from the flavour symmetry breaking can be avoided automatically.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and Primordial Lithium Abundance Problem

Prediction of the primordial abundances of elements in the big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the three strong evidences for the big bang model. Precise knowledge of the baryon-to-photon ratio of the Universe from observations of the anisotropies of cosmic microwave background radiation has made the Standard BBN a parameter-free theory. Although, there is a good agreement over a range of nine orders of magnitude between abundances of light elements deduced from observations and calculated in primordial nucleosynthesis, there remains a yet-unexplained discrepancy of {sup 7}Li abundance higher by a factor of ~3 when calculated theoretically. The primordial abundances depend on the astrophysical nuclear reaction rates and on three additional parameters, the number of light neutrino flavors, the neutron lifetime and the baryon-to-photon ratio in the Universe. The effect of the modification of thirty-five reaction rates on light element abundance yields in BBN was investigated earlier by us. In the present work we have incorporated the most recent values of neutron lifetime and the baryon-to-photon ratio and further modified {sup 3}He({sup 4}He, γ){sup 7}Be reaction rate which is used directly for estimating the formation of {sup 7}Li as a result of β{sup +} decay as well as the reaction rates for t({sup 4}He,γ){sup 7}Li and d({sup 4}He,γ){sup 6}Li. We find that these modifications reduce the theoretically calculated abundance of {sup 7}Li by ~12%.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2014

Isospin-violating dark matter from a double portal

We study a simple model that can give rise to isospin-violating interactions of Dirac fermion asymmetric dark matter to protons and neutrons through the interference of a scalar and U(1)' gauge boson contribution. The model can yield a large suppression of the elastic scattering cross section off Xenon relative to Silicon thus reconciling CDMS-Si and LUX results while being compatible with LHC findings on the 126 GeV Higgs, electroweak precision tests and flavour constraints.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2017

The discrete family symmetries as the possible solution to the flavour problem

In order to explain the fermions’ masses and mixing parameters appearing in the lepton sector of the Standard Model, one proposes the extension of its symmetry. A discrete, non-Abelian subgroup of U(3) is added to the gauge group SU(3){sub C} × SU(2){sub L} × U(1){sub Y}. Apart from that, one assumes the existence of one extra Higgs doublet. This article focuses mainly on the mathematical theorems and computational techniques which brought us to the results.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Model-independent analysis of B → πℓ{sup +}ℓ{sup −} decays

The results obtained by calculating, on the basis of the Standard Model, the branching fractions for the decays B → πℓ{sup +}ℓ{sup −} (ℓ{sup ±} = e{sup ±}, µ{sup ±}) and the invariant-mass spectrum of dileptons for the process B{sup +} → π{sup +}ℓ{sup +}ℓ{sup −} are presented. The resulting theoretical estimates depend on the choice of model for the B → π transition form factors f{sub +}(q{sup 2}), f{sub 0}(q{sup 2}), and f{sub T} (q{sup 2}). However, one can get rid of this arbitrariness by employing experimental data or the results of QCD lattice calculations to determine the parameter dependence of the form factors. Data from B-meson factories were used to determine the dependence of the form factor f{sub +}(q{sup 2}) on the transfer momentum squared. Yet another required form factor, f{sub T} (q{sup 2}), was extracted from available lattice data on B → π and B → K transitions with allowance for nearly identical effects of the breakdown of flavor SU(3){sub F} symmetry in the respective form factors. The resulting value of the decay branching fraction, B(B{sup +} → π{sup +}µ{sup +}µ{sup −}) = (1.88{sub −0.21}{sup +0.32}) × 10{sup −8}, is in good agreement with the results of measurements of the LHCb Collaboration. The branching fraction for the isospin analog of the decay under consideration is B(B{sup +} → π{sup +}µ{sup +}µ{sup −}) = (0.94{sub −0.11}{sup +0.16}) × 10{sup −8}. Therefore, this decay can be measured at the Super-B factory under construction.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Interacting kinks and meson mixing

A Rayleigh–Schrödinger type of perturbation scheme is employed to study weakly interacting kinks and domain walls formed from two different real scalar fields χ and φ. An interaction potential V{sub 1}(χ,φ) is chosen which vanishes in a vacuum state of either field. Approximate first order corrections for the fields are found, which are associated with scalar field condensates inhabiting the zeroth order topological solitons. The model considered here presents several new and interesting features. These include (1) a condensate of each kink field inhabits the other kink, (2) the condensates contribute an associated mass to the system which vanishes when the kinks overlap, (3) a resulting mass defect of the system for small interkink distances allows the existence of a loosely bound state when the interkink force is repulsive. An identification of the interaction potential energy and forces allows a qualitative description of the classical motion of the system, with bound states, along with scattering states, possible when the interkink force is attractive. (4) Finally, the interaction potential introduces a mixing and oscillation of the perturbative χ and φ meson flavor states, which has effects upon meson–kink interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Cosmological and supernova neutrinos

The Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies are the pillars of modern cosmology. It has recently been suggested that axion which is a dark matter candidate in the framework of the standard model could condensate in the early universe and induce photon cooling before the epoch of the photon last scattering. Although this may render a solution to the overproduction problem of primordial {sup 7}Li abundance, there arises another serious difficulty of overproducing D abundance. We propose a hybrid dark matter model with both axions and relic supersymmetric (SUSY) particles to solve both overproduction problems of the primordial D and {sup 7}Li abundances simultaneously. The BBN also serves to constrain the nature of neutrinos. Considering non-thermal photons produced in the decay of the heavy sterile neutrinos due to the magnetic moment, we explore the cosmological constraint on the strength of neutrino magnetic moment consistent with the observed light element abundances. Core-collapse supernovae eject huge flux of energetic neutrinos which affect explosive nucleosynthesis of rare isotopes like {sup 7}Li, {sup 11}B, {sup 92}Nb, {sup 138}La and {sup 180}Ta and r-process elements. Several isotopes depend strongly on the neutrino flavor oscillation due to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect. Combining the recent experimental constraints on θ{sub 13} with predicted and observed supernova-produced abundance ratio {sup 11}B/{sup 7}Li encapsulated in the presolar grains from the Murchison meteorite, we show a marginal preference for an inverted neutrino mass hierarchy. We also discuss supernova relic neutrinos (SRN) that may indicate the softness of the equation of state (EoS) of nuclear matter and adiabatic conditions of the neutrino oscillation.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Collective neutrino oscillations and neutrino wave packets

Effects of decoherence by wave packet separation on collective neutrino oscillations in dense neutrino gases are considered. We estimate the length of the wave packets of neutrinos produced in core collapse supernovae and the expected neutrino coherence length, and then proceed to consider the decoherence effects within the density matrix formalism of neutrino flavour transitions. First, we demonstrate that for neutrino oscillations in vacuum the decoherence effects are described by a damping term in the equation of motion of the density matrix of a neutrino as a whole (as contrasted to that of the fixed-momentum components of the neutrino density matrix). Next, we consider neutrino oscillations in ordinary matter and dense neutrino backgrounds, both in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes. In the latter case we study two specific models of adiabaticity violation—one with short-term and another with extended non-adiabaticity. It is demonstrated that, while in the adiabatic case a damping term is present in the equation of motion of the neutrino density matrix (just like in the vacuum oscillation case), no such term in general appears in the non-adiabatic regime.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Penguin-like diagrams from the standard model

The Standard Model is highly successful in describing the interactions of leptons and quarks. There are, however, rare processes that involve higher order effects in electroweak interactions. One specific class of processes is the penguin-like diagram. Such class of diagrams involves the neutral change of quark flavours accompanied by the emission of a gluon (gluon penguin), a photon (photon penguin), a gluon and a photon (gluon-photon penguin), a Z-boson (Z penguin), or a Higgs-boson (Higgs penguin). Such diagrams do not arise at the tree level in the Standard Model. They are, however, induced by one-loop effects. In this paper, we present an exact calculation of the penguin diagram vertices in the ‘tHooft-Feynman gauge. Renormalization of the vertex is effected by a prescription by Chia and Chong which gives an expression for the counter term identical to that obtained by employing Ward-Takahashi identity. The on-shell vertex functions for the penguin diagram vertices are obtained. The various penguin diagram vertex functions are related to one another via Ward-Takahashi identity. From these, a set of relations is obtained connecting the vertex form factors of various penguin diagrams. Explicit expressions for the gluon-photon penguin vertex form factors are obtained, and their contributions to the flavor changing processes estimated.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2015

A couplet from flavored dark matter

We show that a couplet, a pair of closely spaced photon lines, in the X-ray spectrum is a distinctive feature of lepton flavored dark matter models for which the mass spectrum is dictated by Minimal Flavor Violation. In this scenario, mass splittings between different dark matter flavors are determined by Standard Model Yukawa couplings and can naturally be small, allowing all three flavors to be long-lived and contribute to the observed abundance. Then, in the presence of a tiny source of flavor violation, heavier dark matter flavors can decay via a dipole transition on cosmological timescales, giving rise to three photon lines. Two of these lines are closely spaced, and constitute the couplet. Provided the flavor violation is sufficiently small, the ratios of the line energies are determined in terms of the charged lepton masses, and constitute a prediction of this framework. Furthermore, for dark matter masses of order the weak scale, the couplet lies in the keV-MeV region, with a much weaker line in the eV-keV region. This scenario constitutes a potential explanation for the recent claim of the observation of a 3.5 keV line. As a result, the next generation of X-ray telescopes may have the necessary resolution to resolve the double line structure of such a couplet.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Strong thermal leptogenesis and the absolute neutrino mass scale

We show that successful strong thermal leptogenesis, where the final asymmetry is independent of the initial conditions and in particular a large pre-existing asymmetry is efficiently washed-out, favours values of the lightest neutrino mass m{sub 1}∼>10 meV for normal ordering (NO) and m{sub 1}∼>3 meV for inverted ordering (IO) for models with orthogonal matrix entries respecting |Ω{sub ij}{sup 2}|∼<2. We show analytically why lower values of m{sub 1} require a higher level of fine tuning in the seesaw formula and/or in the flavoured decay parameters (in the electronic for NO, in the muonic for IO). We also show how this constraint exists thanks to the measured values of the neutrino mixing angles and could be tightened by a future determination of the Dirac phase. Our analysis also allows us to place a more stringent constraint for a specific model or class of models, such as SO(10)-inspired models, and shows that some models cannot realise strong thermal leptogenesis for any value of m{sub 1}. A scatter plot analysis fully supports the analytical results. We also briefly discuss the interplay with absolute neutrino mass scale experiments concluding that they will be able in the coming years to either corner strong thermal leptogenesis or find positive signals pointing to a non-vanishing m{sub 1}. Since the constraint is much stronger for NO than for IO, it is very important that new data from planned neutrino oscillation experiments will be able to solve the ambiguity.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Naturally light Dirac neutrino in Left-Right Symmetric Model

We study the possibility of generating tiny Dirac masses of neutrinos in Left-Right Symmetric Model (LRSM) without requiring the existence of any additional symmetries. The charged fermions acquire masses through a universal seesaw mechanism due to the presence of additional vector like fermions. The neutrinos acquire a one-loop Dirac mass from the same additional vector like charged leptons without requiring any additional discrete symmetries. The model can also be extended by an additional Z {sub 2} symmetry in order to have a scotogenic version of this scenario predicting a stable dark matter candidate. We show that the latest Planck upper bound on the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom N {sub eff}=3.15 ± 0.23 tightly constrains the right sector gauge boson masses to be heavier than 3.548 TeV . This bound on gauge boson mass also affects the allowed values of right scalar doublet dark matter mass from the requirement of satisfying the Planck bound on dark matter relic abundance. We also discuss the possible implications of such a scenario in charged lepton flavour violation and generating observable electric dipole moment of leptons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Skew-flavored dark matter

We explore a novel flavor structure in the interactions of dark matter with the Standard Model. We consider theories in which both the dark matter candidate, and the particles that mediate its interactions with the Standard Model fields, carry flavor quantum numbers. The interactions are skewed in flavor space, so that a dark matter particle does not directly couple to the Standard Model matter fields of the same flavor, but only to the other two flavors. This framework respects minimal flavor violation and is, therefore, naturally consistent with flavor constraints. We study the phenomenology of a benchmark model in which dark matter couples to right-handed charged leptons. In large regions of parameter space, the dark matter can emerge as a thermal relic, while remaining consistent with the constraints from direct and indirect detection. The collider signatures of this scenario include events with multiple leptons and missing energy. In conclusion, these events exhibit a characteristic flavor pattern that may allow this class of models to be distinguished from other theories of dark matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2013

On the sbottom resonance in dark matter scattering

A resonance in the neutralino-nucleus elastic scattering cross section is usually purported when the neutralino-sbottom mass difference m{sub b-tilde}−m{sub χ} is equal to the bottom quark mass m{sub b} ∼ 4 GeV. Such a scenario has been discussed as a viable model for light ( ∼ 10 GeV) neutralino dark matter as explanation of possible DAMA and CoGeNT direct detection signals. Here we give physical and analytical arguments showing that the sbottom resonance may actually not be there. In particular, we show analytically that the one-loop gluon-neutralino scattering amplitude has no pole at m{sub b-tilde} = m{sub χ}+m{sub b}, while by analytic continuation to the regime m{sub b-tilde} < m{sub χ}, it develops a pole at m{sub b-tilde} = m{sub χ}−m{sub b}. In the limit of vanishing gluon momenta, this pole corresponds to the only cut of the neutralino self-energy diagram with a quark and a squark running in the loop, when the decay process χ→ Q-tilde +Q becomes kinematically allowed. The pole can be interpreted as the formation of a b-tilde b-bar qqq or b-tilde *bqqq resonant state (where qqq are the nucleon valence quarks), which is however kinematically not accessible if the neutralino is the LSP. Our analysis shows that the common practice of estimating the neutralino-nucleon cross section by introducing an ad-hoc pole at m{sub b-tilde} = m{sub χ}+m{sub b} into the effective four-fermion interaction (also including higher-twist effects) should be discouraged, since it corresponds to adding a spurious pole to the scattering process at the center-of-mass energy (s){sup 1/2} ≅ m{sub χ} ≅ m{sub b-tilde}−m{sub b}. Our considerations can be extended from the specific case of supersymmetry to other similar cases in which the dark matter particle scatters off nucleons through the exchange of a b-flavored state almost degenerate in mass with the dark matter particle, such as for instance in theories with extra dimensions and in other mass-degenerate dark matter scenarios recently discussed in the literature.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗