Reig, M., Valle, J. W. F., Vaquera-Araujo, C. A., & Wilczek, F. (2017). A model of comprehensive unification. Phys. Lett. B, 774, 667–670.
Abstract: Comprehensive – that is, gauge and family – unification using spinors has many attractive features, but it has been challenged to explain chirality. Here, by combining an orbifold construction with more traditional ideas, we address that difficulty. Our candidate model features three chiral families and leads to an acceptable result for quantitative unification of couplings. A potential target for accelerator and astronomical searches emerges.
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Reig, M., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2016). Realistic SU(3)(c) x SU(3)(L) x U(1)(X) model with a type II Dirac neutrino seesaw mechanism. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 033012–4pp.
Abstract: Here we propose a realistic SU(3)(c) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) electroweak gauge model with enlarged Higgs sector. The scheme allows for the natural implementation of a type II seesaw mechanism for Dirac neutrinos, while charged lepton and quark masses are reproduced in a natural way thanks to the presence of new scalars. The new SU(3)(c) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) energy scale characterizing neutrino mass generation could be accessible to the current LHC experiments.
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Reig, M. (2021). The stochastic axiverse. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 207–40pp.
Abstract: In addition to spectacular signatures such as black hole superradiance and the rotation of CMB polarization, the plenitude of axions appearing in the string axiverse may have potentially dangerous implications. An example is the cosmological overproduction of relic axions and moduli by the misalignment mechanism, more pronounced in regions where the signals mentioned above may be observable, that is for large axion decay constant. In this work, we study the minimal requirements to soften this problem and show that the fundamental requirement is a long period of low-scale inflation. However, in this case, if the inflationary Hubble scale is lower than around O(100) eV, no relic DM axion is produced in the early Universe. Cosmological production of some axions may be activated, via the misalignment mechanism, if their potential minimum changes between inflation and today. As a particular example, we study in detail how the maximal-misalignment mechanism dilutes the effect of dangerous axions and allows the production of axion DM in a controlled way. In this case, the potential of the axion that realises the mechanism shifts by a factor increment theta = pi between the inflationary epoch and today, and the axion starts to oscillate from the top of its potential. We also show that axions with masses m(a) similar to O(1 – 100) H-0 realising the maximal-misalignment mechanism generically behave as dark energy with a decay constant that can take values well below the Planck scale, avoiding problems associated to super-Planckian scales. Finally, we briefly study the basic phenomenological implications of the mechanism and comment on the compatibility of this type of maximally-misaligned quintessence with the swampland criteria.
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Reig, M., Valle, J. W. F., & Wilczek, F. (2018). SO(3) family symmetry and axions. Phys. Rev. D, 98(9), 095008–6pp.
Abstract: Motivated by the idea of comprehensive unification, we study a gauged SO(3) flavor extension of the extended Standard Model, including right-handed neutrinos and a Peccei-Quinn symmetry with simple charge assignments. The model accommodates the observed fermion masses and mixings and yields a characteristic, successful relation among them. The Peccei-Quinn symmetry is an essential ingredient.
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Caputo, A., & Reig, M. (2019). Cosmic implications of a low-scale solution to the axion domain wall problem. Phys. Rev. D, 100(6), 063530–10pp.
Abstract: The post-inflationary breaking of Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry can lead to the cosmic domain wall catastrophe. In this paper we show how to avoid domain walls by implementing the instanton interference effect with a new interaction which itself breaks PQ symmetry and confines at an energy scale smaller than Lambda(QCD). We give a general description of the mechanism and consider its cosmological implications and constraints within a minimal model. Contrary to other mechanisms, we do not require an inverse phase transition or fine-tuned bias terms. Incidentally, the mechanism leads to the introduction of new self-interacting dark matter candidates and the possibility of producing gravitational waves in the frequency range of SKA. Unless a fine-tuned hidden sector is introduced, the mechanism predicts a QCD axion in the mass range 1-15 meV.
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Huang, J. W., Madden, A., Racco, D., & Reig, M. (2020). Maximal axion misalignment from a minimal model. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 143–39pp.
Abstract: The QCD axion is one of the best motivated dark matter candidates. The misalignment mechanism is well known to produce an abundance of the QCD axion consistent with dark matter for an axion decay constant of order 10(12) GeV. For a smaller decay constant, the QCD axion, with Peccei-Quinn symmetry broken during inflation, makes up only a fraction of dark matter unless the axion field starts oscillating very close to the top of its potential, in a scenario called “large-misalignment”. In this scenario, QCD axion dark matter with a small axion decay constant is partially comprised of very dense structures. We present a simple dynamical model realising the large-misalignment mechanism. During inflation, the axion classically rolls down its potential approaching its minimum. After inflation, the Universe reheats to a high temperature and a modulus (real scalar field) changes the sign of its minimum dynamically, which changes the sign of the mass of a vector-like fermion charged under QCD. As a result, the minimum of the axion potential during inflation becomes the maximum of the potential after the Universe has cooled through the QCD phase transition and the axion starts oscillating. In this model, we can produce QCD axion dark matter with a decay constant as low as 6 x 10(9) GeV and an axion mass up to 1 meV. We also summarise the phenomenological implications of this mechanism for dark matter experiments and colliders.
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Escribano, P., Reig, M., & Vicente, A. (2020). Generalizing the Scotogenic model. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 097–25pp.
Abstract: The Scotogenic model is an economical setup that induces Majorana neutrino masses at the 1-loop level and includes a dark matter candidate. We discuss a generalization of the original Scotogenic model with arbitrary numbers of generations of singlet fermion and inert doublet scalar fields. First, the full form of the light neutrino mass matrix is presented, with some comments on its derivation and with special attention to some particular cases. The behavior of the theory at high energies is explored by solving the Renormalization Group Equations.
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Fuentes-Martin, J., Reig, M., & Vicente, A. (2019). Strong CP problem with low-energy emergent QCD: The 4321 case. Phys. Rev. D, 100(11), 115028–7pp.
Abstract: We analyze the strong CP problem and the implications for axion physics in the context of U-1 vector leptoquark models, recently put forward as an elegant solution to the hints of lepton flavor universality violation in B-meson decays. It is shown that in minimal gauge models containing the U-1 as a gauge boson, the Peccei-Quinn solution of the strong CP problem requires the introduction of two axions. Characteristic predictions for the associated axions can be deduced from the model parameter space hinted by B-physics, allowing the new axion sector to account for the dark matter of the Universe. We also provide a specific ultraviolet completion of the axion sector that connects the Peccei-Quinn mechanism to the generation of neutrino masses.
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Pich, A., Platschorre, A., & Reig, M. (2023). Electroweak mass difference of mesons. Phys. Rev. D, 108(9), 094044–6pp.
Abstract: We consider electroweak gauge boson corrections to the masses of pseudoscalar mesons to next to leading order in alpha s and 1/NC. The pion mass shift induced by the Z boson is shown to be m pi +/- – m pi 0 = -0.00201(12) MeV. While being small compared to the electromagnetic mass shift, the prediction lies about a factor of similar to 4 above the precision of the current experimental measurement and a factor O(10) below the precision of current lattice calculations. This motivates future implementations of these electroweak gauge boson effects on the lattice. Finally, we consider beyond standard model contributions to the pion mass difference.
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Hati, C., Patra, S., Reig, M., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2017). Towards gauge coupling unification in left-right symmetric SU(3)(c) x SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) x U(1)(X) theories. Phys. Rev. D, 96(1), 015004–9pp.
Abstract: We consider the possibility of gauge coupling unification within the simplest realizations of the SU(3)(c) x SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) xU(1)(X) gauge theory. We present a first exploration of the renormalization group equations governing the “bottom-up” evolution of the gauge couplings in a generic model with free normalization for the generators. Interestingly, we find that for a SU(3)(c) x SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) x U(1)(X) symmetry breaking scale M-X as low as a few TeV one can achieve unification in the presence of leptonic octets. We briefly comment on possible grand unified theory frameworks which can embed the SU(3)(c) x SU(3)(L) x SU(3)(R) xU(1)(X) model as well as possible implications, such as lepton flavor violating physics at the LHC.
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