Heisenberg, L., Ramirez, H., & Tsujikawa, S. (2019). Inflation with mixed helicities and its observational imprint on CMB. Phys. Rev. D, 99(2), 023505–14pp.
Abstract: In the framework of effective field theories with prominent helicity-0 and helicity-1 fields coupled to each other via a dimension-3 operator, we study the dynamics of inflation driven by the helicity-0 mode, with a given potential energy, as well as the evolution of cosmological perturbations, influenced by the presence of a mixing term between both helicities. In this scenario, the temporal component of the helicity-1 mode is an auxiliary field and can be integrated out in terms of the time derivative of the helicity-0 mode, so that the background dynamics effectively reduces to that in single-field inflation modulated by a parameter beta associated to the coupling between helicity-0 and helicity-1 modes. We discuss the evolution of a longitudinal scalar perturbation psi and an inflaton fluctuation delta phi, and we explicitly show that a particular combination of these two, which corresponds to an isocurvature mode, is subject to exponential suppression by the vector mass comparable to the Hubble expansion rate during inflation. Furthermore, we find that the effective single-field description corrected by beta also holds for the power spectrum of curvature perturbations generated during inflation. We compute the standard inflationary observables such as the scalar spectral index n(s), and the tensorto-scalar ratio r and confront several inflaton potentials with the recent observational data provided by Planck 2018. Our results show that the coupling between helicity-0 and helicity-1 modes can lead to a smaller value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio especially for small-field inflationary models, so our scenario exhibits even better compatibility with the current observational data.
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Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., & Ota, T. (2019). Proton decay at one loop. Phys. Rev. D, 99(9), 095021–14pp.
Abstract: Proton decay is usually discussed in the context of grand unified theories. However, as is well known, in the standard model effective theory proton decay appears in the form of higher-dimensional non-renormalizable operators. Here, we study systematically the one-loop decomposition of the d = 6 B + L violating operators. We exhaustively list the possible one-loop ultraviolet completions of these operators and discuss that, in general, two distinct classes of models appear. Models in the first class need an additional symmetry in order to avoid tree-level proton decay. These models necessarily contain a neutral particle, which could act as a dark matter candidate. For models in the second class the loop contribution dominates automatically over the tree-level proton decay, without the need for additional symmetries. We also discuss possible phenomenology of two example models, one from each class, and their possible connections to neutrino masses, LHC searches and dark matter.
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Hernandez, P., Jones-Perez, J., & Suarez-Navarro, O. (2019). Majorana vs pseudo-Dirac neutrinos at the ILC. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(3), 220–11pp.
Abstract: Neutrino masses could originate in seesaw models testable at colliders, with light mediators and an approximate lepton number symmetry. The minimal model of this type contains two quasi-degenerate Majorana fermions forming a pseudo-Dirac pair. An important question is to what extent future colliders will have sensitivity to the splitting between the Majorana components, since this quantity signals the breaking of lepton number and is connected to the light neutrino masses. We consider the production of these neutral heavy leptons at the ILC, where their displaced decays provide a golden signal: a forward-backward charge asymmetry, which depends crucially on the mass splitting between the two Majorana components. We show that this observable can constrain the mass splitting to values much lower than current bounds from neutrinoless double beta decay and natural loop corrections.
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Hernandez, P., Pena, C., & Romero-Lopez, F. (2019). Large Nc scaling of meson masses and decay constants. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(10), 865–13pp.
Abstract: We perform an ab initio calculation of the Nc scaling of the low-energy couplings of the chiral Lagrangian of low-energy strong interactions, extracted from the mass dependence of meson masses and decay constants. We compute these observables on the lattice with four degenerate fermions, Nf=4, and varying number of colours, Nc=3-6, at a lattice spacing of a similar or equal to 0.075 fm. We find good agreement with the expected Nc scaling and measure the coefficients of the leading and subleading terms in the large Nc expansion. From the subleading Nc corrections, we can also infer the Nf dependence, that we use to extract the value of the low-energy couplings for different values of Nf. We find agreement with previous determinations at Nc=3 and Nf=2,3 and also, our results support a strong paramagnetic suppression of the chiral condensate in moving from Nf=2 to Nf=3.
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Husek, T., Goudzovski, E., & Icampf, K. (2019). Precise Determination of the Branching Ratio of the Neutral-Pion Dalitz Decay. Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(2), 022003–6pp.
Abstract: We provide a new value for the ratio R = Gamma(pi(0) -> e(+)e(-)gamma(gamma))/Gamma(pi(0) -> gamma gamma) = 11.978(6) x 10(-3), which is by 2 orders of magnitude more precise than the current Particle Data Group average. It is obtained using the complete set of the next-to-leading-order radiative corrections in the QED sector, and incorporates up-to-date values of the pi(0)-transition-form-factor slope. The ratio R translates into the branching ratios of the two main pi(0) decay modes: B(pi(0) -> gamma gamma) = 98.8131(6)% and B(pi(0) -> e(+)e(-)gamma(gamma)) = 1.1836(6)%.
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Ikeno, N., Dias, J. M., Liang, W. H., & Oset, E. (2019). chi(c1) decays into a pseudoscalar meson and a vector-vector molecule. Phys. Rev. D, 100(11), 114011–7pp.
Abstract: We evaluate ratios of the chi(c1) decay rates to eta (eta', K-) and one of the f(0) (1370), f(0) (1710), f(2) (1270), f(2)'(1525), K-2*(1430) resonances, which in the local hidden gauge approach are dynamically generated from the vector-vector interaction. With the simple assumption that the chi(c1) is a singlet of SU(3), and the input from the study of these resonances as vector-vector molecular states, we describe the experimental ratio B(chi(c1)-> eta f(2) (1270))/B(chi(c1) -> eta'f(2)' (1525)) and make predictions for six more ratios that can be tested in future experiments.
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Ilner, A., Blair, J., Cabrera, D., Markert, C., & Bratkovskaya, E. (2019). Probing hot and dense nuclear matter with K*, (K)over-bar* vector mesons. Phys. Rev. C, 99(2), 024914–22pp.
Abstract: We investigate the possibility of probing the hot and dense nuclear matter-created in relativistic heavyion collisions (HICs)-with strange vector mesons (K*, (K) over bar*). Our analysis is based on the nonequilibrium parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which incorporates partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom and describes the full dynamics of HIC on a microscopic level-starting from the primary nucleon-nucleon collisions to the formation of the strongly interacting quark gluon plasma (QGP), followed by dynamical hadronization of (anti)quarks as well as final hadronic elastic and inelastic interactions. This allows us to study the K* and (K) over bar* meson formation from the QGP as well as the in-medium effects related to the modification of their spectral properties during the propagation through the dense and hot hadronic environment in the expansion phase. We employ relativistic Breit-Wigner spectral functions for the K*, (K) over bar* mesons with self-energies obtained from a self-consistent coupled-channel G-matrix approach to study the role of in-medium effects on the K* and (K) over bar* meson dynamics in heavy-ion collisions from FAIR/NICA to LHC energies. According to our analysis most of the final K* /(K) over bar*'s, that can be observed experimentally by reconstruction of the invariant mass of pi + K((K) over bar) pairs, are produced during the late hadronic phase and originate dominantly from the K((K) over bar) + pi -> K*( (K) over bar*) formation channel. The amount of K*/ (K) over bar*'s, originating from the QGP channel is comparatively small even at LHC energies and those K* /(K) over bar*'s can hardly be reconstructed experimentally due to the rescattering of final pions and (anti)kaons. This mirrors the results from our previous study on the strange vector-meson production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies. We demonstrate that K* /(K) over bar* in-medium effects should be visible at FAIR/NICA and BES RHIC energies, where the production of K* /(K) over bar*'s occurs at larger net-baryon densities. Finally, we present the experimental procedures to extract the information on the resonance masses and widths by fitting the final mass spectra at LHC energies.
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Jiang, S. J., Sakai, S., Liang, W. H., & Oset, E. (2019). The chi c J decay to phi K*(K)over-bar, phi h(1)(1380) testing the nature of axial vector meson resonances. Phys. Lett. B, 797, 134831–5pp.
Abstract: We perform a theoretical study of the chi(cJ) -> phi K*(K) over bar -> phi K pi(K) over bar reaction taking into account the K*(K) over bar final state interaction, which in the chiral unitary approach is responsible, together with its coupled channels, for the formation of the low lying axial vector mesons, in this case the h(1)(1380) given the selection of quantum numbers. Based on this picture we can easily explain why in the chi(c0) decay the h(1)(1380) resonance is not produced, and, in the case of chi(c1) and chi(c2) decay, why a dip in the K+ pi K-0(-) mass distribution appears in the 1550-1600 MeV region, that in our picture comes from a destructive interference between the tree level mechanism and the rescattering that generates the h(1)(1380) state. Such a dip is not reproduced in pictures where the nominal h(1)(1380) signal is added incoherently to a background, which provides support to the picture where the resonance appears from rescattering of vector-pseudoscalar components.
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Kang, S. K., Popov, O., Srivastava, R., Valle, J. W. F., & Vaquera-Araujo, C. A. (2019). Scotogenic dark matter stability from gauged matter parity. Phys. Lett. B, 798, 135013–10pp.
Abstract: We explore the idea that dark matter stability results from the presence of a matter-parity symmetry, arising naturally as a consequence of the spontaneous breaking of an extended SU(3) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) circle times U(1)(N) electroweak gauge symmetry with fully gauged B-L. Using this framework we construct a theory for scotogenic dark matter and analyze its main features.
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Karan, A., Sinha, R., & Mandal, R. (2019). Testing WW gamma vertex in radiative muon decay. Phys. Rev. D, 99(3), 033006–9pp.
Abstract: Large numbers of muons will be produced at facilities developed to probe the lepton-flavor-violating process μ-> e gamma. We show that by constructing a suitable asymmetry, radiative muon decay μ-> e gamma nu(mu)(nu) over bar (e) can also be used to test the WW gamma vertex at such facilities. The process has two missing neutrinos in the final state, and upon integrating their momenta the partial differential decay rate shows no radiation-amplitude zero. However, we establish that an easily separable part of the normalized differential decay rate that is odd under the exchange of photon and electron energies does have a zero in the case of the standard model (SM). This new type of zero has hitherto not been studied in the literature. A suitably constructed asymmetry using this fact enables a sensitive probe for the WW gamma vertex beyond the SM. With a simplistic analysis, we find that the C- and P-conserving dimension-four WW gamma vertex can be probed at O(10(-2)) with a satisfactory significance level.
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