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Sanjuan, R., Nebot, M., Peris, J. B., & Alcami, J. (2013). Immune Activation Promotes Evolutionary Conservation of T-Cell Epitopes in HIV-1. PLoS. Biol., 11(4), e1001523–10pp.
Abstract: The immune system should constitute a strong selective pressure promoting viral genetic diversity and evolution. However, HIV shows lower sequence variability at T-cell epitopes than elsewhere in the genome, in contrast with other human RNA viruses. Here, we propose that epitope conservation is a consequence of the particular interactions established between HIV and the immune system. On one hand, epitope recognition triggers an anti-HIV response mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs), but on the other hand, activation of CD4(+) helper T lymphocytes (T-H cells) promotes HIV replication. Mathematical modeling of these opposite selective forces revealed that selection at the intrapatient level can promote either T-cell epitope conservation or escape. We predict greater conservation for epitopes contributing significantly to total immune activation levels (immunodominance), and when T-H cell infection is concomitant to epitope recognition (transinfection). We suggest that HIV-driven immune activation in the lymph nodes during the chronic stage of the disease may offer a favorable scenario for epitope conservation. Our results also support the view that some pathogens draw benefits from the immune response and suggest that vaccination strategies based on conserved T-H epitopes may be counterproductive.
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Bernabeu, J., Botella, F. J., & Nebot, M. (2014). Novel T-Violation observable open to any pair of decay channels at meson factories. Phys. Lett. B, 728, 95–98.
Abstract: Quantum entanglement between the two neutral mesons produced in meson factories has allowed the first indisputable direct observation of Time Reversal Violation in the time evolution of the neutral meson between the two decays. The exceptional meson transitions are directly connected to semileptonic and CP eigenstate decay channels. The possibility of extending the observable asymmetries to more decay channels confronts the problem of the “orthogonality condition”, which can be stated with this tonguetwister: Given a decay channel f, which is the decay channel f' such that the meson state not decaying to f is orthogonal to the meson state not decaying to f? In this Letter we propose an alternative T-Violation asymmetry at meson factories which allows its opening to any pair of decay channels. Instead of searching which is the pair of decay channels associated to the T-reverse meson transition, we build an asymmetry which tags the initial states of both the Reference and the T-reverse meson transitions. This observable filters the appropriate final states by means of two measurable survival probabilities. We discuss the methodology to be followed in the analysis of the new observable and the results expected in specific examples.
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Morisi, S., Nebot, M., Patel, K. M., Peinado, E., & Valle, J. W. F. (2013). Quark-lepton mass relation and CKM mixing in an A(4) extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. Phys. Rev. D, 88(3), 036001–8pp.
Abstract: An interesting mass relation between down-type quarks and charged leptons has been recently predicted within a supersymmetric SU(3)(c) circle times SU(2)(L) circle times U(1)(Y) model based on the A(4) flavor symmetry. Here we propose a simple extension which provides an adequate full description of the quark sector. By adding a pair of vectorlike up quarks, we show how the CKM entries V-ub, V-cb, V-td and V-ts arise from deviations of the unitarity. We perform an analysis including the most relevant observables in the quark sector, such as oscillations and rare decays of kaons, B-d and B-s mesons. In the lepton sector, the model predicts an inverted hierarchy for the neutrino masses, leading to a potentially observable rate of neutrinoless double beta decay.
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Botella, F. J., Branco, G. C., Nebot, M., & Sanchez, A. (2015). Mixing asymmetries in B meson systems, the D0 like-sign dimuon asymmetry, and generic new physics. Phys. Rev. D, 91(3), 035013–14pp.
Abstract: The measurement of a large like-sign dimuon asymmetry A(SL)(b) by the D0 experiment at the Tevatron departs noticeably from Standard Model (SM) expectations and it may be interpreted as a hint of physics beyond the Standard Model contributing to Delta B not equal 0 transitions. In this work we analyze how the natural suppression of A(SL)(b) in the SM can be circumvented by new physics. We consider generic Standard Model extensions where the charged current mixing matrix is enlarged with respect to the usual 3 x 3 unitary Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, and show how, within this framework, a significant enhancement over Standard Model expectations for Ab SL is easily reachable through enhancements of the semileptonic asymmetries A(SL)(d) and A(SL)(s) of both B-d(0)- (B) over bar (0)(d) and B-s(0)- (B) over bar (0)(s) systems. Despite being insufficient to reproduce the D0 measurement, such deviations from SM expectations may be probed by the LHCb experiment.
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Bonilla, C., Nebot, M., Valle, J. W. F., & Srivastava, R. (2016). Flavor physics scenario for the 750 GeV diphoton anomaly. Phys. Rev. D, 93(7), 073009–5pp.
Abstract: A simple variant of a realistic flavor symmetry scheme for fermion masses and mixings provides a possible interpretation of the diphoton anomaly as an electroweak singlet “flavon.” The existence of TeV scale vectorlike T-quarks required to provide adequate values for Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) parameters can also naturally account for the diphoton anomaly. Correlations between V-ub and V-cb with the vectorlike T-quark mass can be predicted. Should the diphoton anomaly survive in a future run, our proposed interpretation can also be tested in upcoming B and LHC studies.
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