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Feruglio, F., Gherardi, V., Romanino, A., & Titov, A. (2021). Modular invariant dynamics and fermion mass hierarchies around tau = i. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 242–26pp.
Abstract: We discuss fermion mass hierarchies within modular invariant flavour models. We analyse the neighbourhood of the self-dual point tau = i, where modular invariant theories possess a residual Z(4) invariance. In this region the breaking of Z(4) can be fully described by the spurion epsilon approximate to tau – i, that flips its sign under Z(4). Degeneracies or vanishing eigenvalues of fermion mass matrices, forced by the Z(4) symmetry at tau = i, are removed by slightly deviating from the self-dual point. Relevant mass ratios are controlled by powers of vertical bar epsilon vertical bar. We present examples where this mechanism is a key ingredient to successfully implement an hierarchical spectrum in the lepton sector, even in the presence of a non-minimal Kahler potential.
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Cottin, G., Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., Titov, A., & Wang, Z. S. (2021). Heavy neutral leptons in effective field theory and the high-luminosity LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 039–34pp.
Abstract: Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) with masses around the electroweak scale are expected to be rather long-lived particles, as a result of the observed smallness of the active neutrino masses. In this work, we study long-lived HNLs in NRSMEFT, a Standard Model (SM) extension with singlet fermions to which we add non-renormalizable operators up to dimension-6. Operators which contain two HNLs can lead to a sizable enhancement of the production cross sections, compared to the minimal case where HNLs are produced only via their mixing with the SM neutrinos. We calculate the expected sensitivities for the ATLAS detector and the future far-detector experiments: AL3X, ANUBIS, CODEX-b, FASER, MATHUSLA, and MoEDAL-MAPP in this setup. The sensitive ranges of the HNL mass and of the active-heavy mixing angle are much larger than those in the minimal case. We study both, Dirac and Majorana, HNLs and discuss how the two cases actually differ phenomenologically, for HNL masses above roughly 100 GeV.
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Coito, L., Faubel, C., Herrero-Garcia, J., Santamaria, A., & Titov, A. (2022). Sterile neutrino portals to Majorana dark matter: effective operators and UV completions. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 085–36pp.
Abstract: Stringent constraints on the interactions of dark matter with the Standard Model suggest that dark matter does not take part in gauge interactions. In this regard, the possibility of communicating between the visible and dark sectors via gauge singlets seems rather natural. We consider a framework where the dark matter talks to the Standard Model through its coupling to sterile neutrinos, which generate active neutrino masses. We focus on the case of Majorana dark matter, with its relic abundance set by thermal freeze-out through annihilations into sterile neutrinos. We use an effective field theory approach to study the possible sterile neutrino portals to dark matter. We find that both lepton-number-conserving and lepton-number-violating operators are possible, yielding an interesting connection with the Dirac/Majorana character of active neutrinos. In a second step, we open the different operators and outline the possible renormalisable models. We analyse the phenomenology of the most promising ones, including a particular case in which the Majorana mass of the sterile neutrinos is generated radiatively.
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Chala, M., & Titov, A. (2021). Neutrino masses in the Standard Model effective field theory. Phys. Rev. D, 104(3), 035002–8pp.
Abstract: We compute the leading-logarithmic correction to the neutrino mass matrix in the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) to dimension seven. In the limit of negligible lepton and down-type quark Yukawa couplings, it receives contributions from the Weinberg dimension-five operator as well as from 11 dimension-six and five dimension-seven independent interactions. Two of the main implications we derive from this result are the following. First, we find dimension-seven operators which, despite violating lepton number, do not renormalize neutrino masses at one loop. And second, we demonstrate that the presence of dimension-six operators around the TeV scale can modify the Standard Model prediction by up to O(50%). Our result comprises also one step forward towards the renormalization of the SMEFT to order v(3)/Lambda(3).
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Beltran, R., Cottin, G., Hirsch, M., Titov, A., & Wang, Z. S. (2023). Reinterpretation of searches for long-lived particles from meson decays. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 031–31pp.
Abstract: Many models beyond the Standard Model predict light and feebly interacting particles that are often long-lived. These long-lived particles (LLPs) in many cases can be produced from meson decays. In this work, we propose a simple and quick reinterpretation method for models predicting LLPs produced from meson decays. With the method, we are not required to run Monte-Carlo simulation, implement detector geometries and efficiencies, or apply experimental cuts in an event analysis, as typically done in recasting and reinterpretation works. The main ingredients our method requires are only the theoretical input, allowing for computation of the production and decay rates of the LLPs. There are two conditions for the method to work: firstly, the LLPs in the models considered should be produced from a set of mesons with similar mass and lifetime (or the same meson) and second, the LLPs should, in general, have a lab-frame decay length much larger than the distance between the interaction point and the detector. As an example, we use this method to reinterpret exclusion bounds on heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) in the minimal “3+1” scenario, into those for HNLs in the general effective-field-theory framework as well as for axion-like particles. We are able to reproduce existing results, and obtain new bounds via reinterpretation of past experimental results, in particular, from CHARM and Belle.
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