Abstract: It is suggested that the Higgs boson may have a branching ratio into the c (c) over bar c mode suppressed by several orders of magnitude compared with conventional predictions and in addition some small but detectable flavour-violating modes such as b (s) over bar and tau(mu) over bar. The suggestion is based on a scheme proposed and tested earlier for explaining the mixing pattern and mass hierarchy of fermions in terms of a rotating mass matrix. If confirmed, the effects would cast new light on the geometric origin of fermion generations and of the Higgs field itself.

Abstract: It is shown that if, from the starting point of a universal rank-one mass matrix long favored by phenomenologists, one adds the assumption that it rotates (changes its orientation in generation space) with changing scale, one can reproduce, in terms of only six real parameters, all the 16 mass ratios and mixing parameters of quarks and leptons. Of these 16 quantities so reproduced, 10 for which data exist for direct comparison (i.e. the CKM elements including the CP-violating phase, the angles theta(12), theta(13), theta(23) in nu-oscillation, and the masses m(c), m(mu), m(e)) agree well with experiment, mostly to within experimental errors; four others (m(s), m(u), m(d), m(nu 2)), the experimental values for which can only be inferred, agree reasonably well; while two others (m(nu 1), delta(CP) for leptons), not yet measured experimentally, remain as predictions. In addition, one gets as bonuses, estimates for (i) the right-handed neutrino mass m(nu R) and (ii) the strong CP angle theta inherent in QCD. One notes in particular that the output value for sin(2) 2 theta(13) from the fit agrees very well with recent experiments. By inputting the current experimental value with its error, one obtains further from the fit two new testable constraints: (i) that theta(23) must depart from its “maximal” value: sin(2) 2 theta(23) similar to 0.935 +/- 0.021, (ii) that the CP-violating (Dirac) phase in the PMNS would be smaller than in the CKM matrix: of order only vertical bar sin delta(CP)vertical bar <= 0.31 if not vanishing altogether.

Abstract: Finite energy QCD sum rules involving both inverse-and positive-moment integration kernels are employed to determine the bottom-quark mass. The result obtained in the (MS) over bar scheme at a reference scale of 10 GeV is m (m) over bar (b)(10 GeV) = 3623(9) MeV. This value translates into a scale-invariant mass (m) over bar (b)((m) over bar (b)) = 4171(9) MeV. This result has the lowest total uncertainty of any method, and is less sensitive to a number of systematic uncertainties that affect other QCD sum rule determinations.