Abstract: We present a numeric method for the analysis of the fermion mass matrices predicted in flavour models. The method does not require any previous algebraic work, it offers a chi(2) comparison test and an easy estimate of confidence intervals. It can also be used to study the stability of the results when the predictions are disturbed by small perturbations. We have applied the method to the case of two-zero neutrino mass textures using the latest available fits on neutrino oscillations, derived the available parameter space for each texture and compared them. Textures A(1) and A(2) seem favoured because they give a small chi(2), allow for large regions in parameter space and give neutrino masses compatible with Cosmology limits. The other “allowed” textures remain allowed although with a very constrained parameter space, which, in some cases, could be in conflict with Cosmology. We have also revisited the “forbidden” textures and studied the stability of the results when the texture zeroes are not exact. Most of the forbidden textures remain forbidden, but textures F-1 and F-3 are particularly sensitive to small perturbations and could become allowed.

Abstract: We study the case of a pseudo-scalar dark matter candidate which emerges from a complex scalar singlet, charged under a global U(1) symmetry, which is broken both explicitly and spontaneously. The pseudo-scalar is naturally stabilized by the presence of a remnant discrete symmetry: dark CP. We study and compare the phenomenology of several simplified models with only one explicit symmetry breaking term. We find that several regions of the parameter space are able to reproduce the observed dark matter abundance while respecting direct detection and invisible Higgs decay limits: in the resonances of the two scalars, featuring the known as forbidden or secluded dark matter, and through non-resonant Higgs-mediated annihilations. In some cases, combining different measurements would allow one to distinguish the breaking pattern of the symmetry. Moreover, this setup admits a light DM candidate at the sub-GeV scale. We also discuss the situation where more than one symmetry breaking term is present. In that case, the dark CP symmetry may be spontaneously broken, thus spoiling the stability of the dark matter candidate. Requiring that this does not happen imposes a constraint on the allowed parameter space. Finally, we consider an effective field theory approach valid in the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson limit and when the U(1) breaking scale is much larger than the electroweak scale.

Abstract: The minimal Standard Model extension with the Weinberg operator does accommodate the observed neutrino masses and mixing, but predicts a neutrinoless double beta (0 nu beta beta) decay rate proportional to the effective electron neutrino mass, which can be then arbitrarily small within present experimental limits. However, in general 0 nu beta beta decay can have an independent origin and be near its present experimental bound; whereas neutrino masses are generated radiatively, contributing negligibly to 0 nu beta beta decay. We provide a realization of this scenario in a simple, well defined and testable model, with potential LHC effects and calculable neutrino masses, whose two-loop expression we derive exactly. We also discuss the connection of this model to others that have appeared in the literature, and remark on the significant differences that result from various choices of quantum number assignments and symmetry assumptions. In this type of models lepton flavor violating rates are also preferred to be relatively large, at the reach of foreseen experiments. Interestingly enough, in our model this stands for a large third mixing angle, sin(2) theta(13) greater than or similar to 0.008, when μ-> eee is required to lie below its present experimental limit.