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Biggio, C., Fernandez-Martinez, E., Filaci, M., Hernandez-Garcia, J., & Lopez-Pavon, J. (2020). Global bounds on the Type-III Seesaw. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 022–33pp.
Abstract: We derive general bounds on the Type-III Seesaw parameters from a global fit to flavor and electroweak precision data. We explore and compare three Type-III Seesaw realizations: a general scenario, where an arbitrary number of heavy triplets is integrated out without any further assumption, and the more constrained cases in which only 3 or 2 (minimal scenario) additional heavy states are included. The latter assumption implies rather non-trivial correlations in the Yukawa flavor structure of the model so as to reproduce the neutrino masses and mixings as measured in neutrino oscillations experiments and thus qualitative differences can be found with the more general scenario. In particular, we find that, while the bounds on most elements of the dimension 6 operator coefficients are of order 10(-4) for the general and 3-triplet cases, the 2-triplet scenario is more strongly constrained with bounds between 10(-5) and 10(-7) for the different flavours. We also discuss how these correlations affect the present CMS constraints on the Type-III Seesaw in the minimal 2-triplet scenario.
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Vincent, A. C., Fernandez Martinez, E., Hernandez, P., Mena, O., & Lattanzi, M. (2015). Revisiting cosmological bounds on sterile neutrinos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 006–23pp.
Abstract: We employ state-of-the art cosmological observables including supernova surveys and BAO information to provide constraints on the mass and mixing angle of a non-resonantly produced sterile neutrino species, showing that cosmology can effectively rule out sterile neutrinos which decay between BBN and the present day. The decoupling of an additional heavy neutrino species can modify the time dependence of the Universe's expansion between BBN and recombination and, in extreme cases, lead to an additional matter-dominated period; while this could naively lead to a younger Universe with a larger Hubble parameter, it could later be compensated by the extra radiation expected in the form of neutrinos from sterile decay. However, recombination-era observables including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the shift parameter R-CMB and the sound horizon r(s) from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) severely constrain this scenario. We self-consistently include the full time-evolution of the coupled sterile neutrino and standard model sectors in an MCMC, showing that if decay occurs after BBN, the sterile neutrino is essentially bounded by the constraint sin(2) theta less than or similar to 0.026(m(s)/eV)(-2).
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Barenboim, G., Fernandez-Martinez, E., Mena, O., & Verde, L. (2010). The dark side of curvature. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 008–17pp.
Abstract: Geometrical tests such as the combination of the Hubble parameter H(z) and the angular diameter distance d(A)(z) can, in principle, break the degeneracy between the dark energy equation of state parameter w(z), and the spatial curvature Omega(k) in a direct, model-independent way. In practice, constraints on these quantities achievable from realistic experiments, such as those to be provided by Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) galaxy surveys in combination with CMB data, can resolve the cosmic confusion between the dark energy equation of state parameter and curvature only statistically and within a parameterized model for w(z). Combining measurements of both H(z) and d(A)(z) up to sufficiently high redshifts z similar to 2 and employing a parameterization of the redshift evolution of the dark energy equation of state are the keys to resolve the w(z) – Omega(k) degeneracy.
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Blennow, M., Dasgupta, B., Fernandez-Martinez, E., & Rius, N. (2011). Aidnogenesis via leptogenesis and dark sphalerons. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 014–14pp.
Abstract: We discuss aidnogenesis,(1) i.e. the generation of a dark matter asymmetry, via new sphaleron processes associated to an extra non-abelian gauge symmetry common to both the visible and the dark sectors. Such a theory can naturally produce an abundance of asymmetric dark matter which is of the same size as the lepton and baryon asymmetries, as suggested by the similar sizes of the observed baryonic and dark matter energy content, and provide a definite prediction for the mass of the dark matter particle. We discuss in detail a minimal realization in which the Standard Model is only extended by dark matter fermions which form “dark baryons” through an SU(3) interaction, and a (broken) horizontal symmetry that induces the new sphalerons. The dark matter mass is predicted to be similar to 6GeV, close to the region favored by DAMA and CoGeNT. Furthermore, a remnant of the horizontal symmetry should be broken at a lower scale and can also explain the Tevatron dimuon anomaly.
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De Romeri, V., Fernandez-Martinez, E., Gehrlein, J., Machado, P. A. N., & Niro, V. (2017). Dark Matter and the elusive Z' in a dynamical Inverse Seesaw scenario. J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 169–21pp.
Abstract: The Inverse Seesaw naturally explains the smallness of neutrino masses via an approximate B-L symmetry broken only by a correspondingly small parameter. In this work the possible dynamical generation of the Inverse Seesaw neutrino mass mechanism from the spontaneous breaking of a gauged U(1) B-L symmetry is investigated. Interestingly, the Inverse Seesaw pattern requires a chiral content such that anomaly cancellation predicts the existence of extra fermions belonging to a dark sector with large, non-trivial, charges under the U(1) B-L. We investigate the phenomenology associated to these new states and find that one of them is a viable dark matter candidate with mass around the TeV scale, whose interaction with the Standard Model is mediated by the Z' boson associated to the gauged U(1) B-L symmetry. Given the large charges required for anomaly cancellation in the dark sector, the B-L Z' interacts preferentially with this dark sector rather than with the Standard Model. This suppresses the rate at direct detection searches and thus alleviates the constraints on Z'-mediated dark matter relic abundance. The collider phenomenology of this elusive Z' is also discussed.
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