Abstract: We propose an extension of the Standard Model (SM) based on the SU(3)(C) circle times SU(3)(L) circle times U(1)(X) (3-3-1) gauge symmetry and scale invariance. Maintaining the main features of the so-called 3-3-1 models, such as the cancellation of gauge anomalies related to the number of chiral fermion generations, this model exhibits a very compact scalar sector. Only two scalar triplets and one singlet are necessary and sufficient to break the symmetries dynamically via the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism. With the introduction of an Abelian discrete symmetry and assuming a natural hierarchy among the vacuum expectation values of the neutral scalar fields, we show that all particles in the model can get phenomenologically consistent masses. In particular, most of the standard fermion masses are generated via a seesaw mechanism involving some extra heavy fermions introduced for consistency. This mechanism provides a partial solution for the fermion mass hierarchy problem in the SM. Furthermore, the simplicity of the scalar sector allows us to analytically find the conditions for the potential stability up to one-loop level and show how they can be easily satisfied. Some of the new particles, such as the scalars H, H-+/- and all the non-SMvector bosons, are predicted to get masses around the TeV scale and, therefore, could be produced at the high-luminosity LHC. Finally, we show that the model features a residual symmetry, which leads to the stability of a heavy neutral particle; the latter is expected to show up in experiments as missing energy.

Abstract: Heavy vectorlike quarks with electric charge Q = 2/3 (also called heavy tops) appear naturally in many extensions of the Standard Model. Although these typically predict the existence of further particles below the TeV scale, direct searches for heavy tops have been performed assuming that they decay only into SM particles. The aim of this paper is to overcome this situation. We consider the most constraining experimental LHC searches for vectorlike quarks, including analyses of the 36 fb(-1) of data collected in the latest run at 13 TeV of center of mass energy, as well as searches sensitive to heavy tops decaying into a new scalar, S. Combining all these, we derive bounds for arbitrary values of the heavy top branching ratios. A simple code that automatizes this process is also provided. At the physics level, we demonstrate that bounds on heavy tops are not inevitably weaker in the presence of new light scalars. We find that heavy tops with masses below similar to 900 GeV are excluded by direct searches, independently of whether they decay into Zt, Ht, Wb or St (with S giving either missing energy of bottom quarks) or into any combination of them.

Abstract: We discuss the experimental prospects for observing processes which violate lepton number (Delta L) in four units ( or more). First, we reconsider neutrinoless quadruple beta decay, deriving a model independent and very conservative lower limit on its half- life of the order of 10(41) ys for Nd-150. This renders quadruple beta decay unobservable for any feasible experiment. We then turn to a more general discussion of different possible low-energy processes with values Delta L >= 4. A simple operator analysis leads to rather pessimistic conclusions about the observability at low-energy experiments in all cases we study. However, the situation looks much brighter for accelerator experiments. For two example models with Delta L = 4 and another one with Delta L = 5, we show how the LHC or a hypothetical future pp collider, such as the FCC, could probe multilepton number violating operators at the TeV scale.

Abstract: We suggest a minimal extension of the simplest A(4) flavor model that can induce a nonzero theta(13) value, as required by recent neutrino oscillation data from reactors and accelerators. The predicted correlation between the atmospheric mixing angle theta(23) and the magnitude of theta(13) leads to an allowed region substantially smaller than indicated by neutrino-oscillation global fits. Moreover, the scheme correlates CP violation in neutrino oscillations with the octant of the atmospheric mixing parameter theta(23) in such a way that, for example, maximal mixing necessarily violates CP. We briefly comment on other phenomenological features of the model.

Abstract: This paper presents a combined analysis of the potential of a future electron-positron collider to constrain the Higgs, top, and electroweak sectors of the Standard Model effective field theory. The leading contributions of operators involving top quarks arise mostly at one-loop suppressed order and can be captured by the renormalization group mixing with Higgs operators. We perform global fits with an extended basis of 29 parameters, including both Higgs and top operators, to the projections for the Higgs, top, and electroweak precision measurements at the International Linear Collider (ILC). The determination of the Higgs boson couplings in the 250 GeV stage of the ILC is initially severely degraded by the additional top-quark degrees of freedom, but can be nearly completely recovered by the inclusion of precise measurements of top-quark EW couplings at the LHC. The physical Higgs couplings are relatively robust, as the top mass is larger than the energy scale of electroweak processes. The effect of the top operators on the bounds on the Wilson coefficients is much more pronounced and may limit our ability to identify the source of deviations from the Standard Model. Robust global bounds on all Wilson coefficients are only obtained when the 500 GeV stage of the ILC is included.