Herrero-Garcia, J., Schwetz, T., & Zupan, J. (2012). Astrophysics independent bounds on the annual modulation of dark matter signals. Phys. Rev. Lett., 109(14), 141301–5pp.
Abstract: We show how constraints on the time integrated event rate from a given dark matter (DM) direct detection experiment can be used to bound the amplitude of the annual modulation signal in another experiment. The method requires only mild assumptions about the properties of the local DM distribution: that it is temporally stable on the scale of months and spatially homogeneous on the ecliptic. We apply the method to the annual modulation signal in DAMA/LIBRA, which we compare to the bounds derived from XENON10, XENON100, cryogenic DM search, and SIMPLE data. Assuming a DM mass of 10 GeV, we show that under the above assumptions about the DM halo, a DM interpretation of the DAMA/LIBRA signal is excluded for several classes of models: at 6.3 sigma (4.6 sigma) for elastic isospin conserving (violating) spin-independent interactions, and at 4.9 sigma for elastic spin-dependent interactions on protons.
|
de Gouvea, A., Herrero-Garcia, J., & Kobach, A. (2014). Neutrino masses, grand unification, and baryon number violation. Phys. Rev. D, 90(1), 016011–11pp.
Abstract: If grand unification is real, searches for baryon-number violation should be included on the list of observables that may reveal information regarding the origin of neutrino masses. Making use of an effective-operator approach and assuming that nature is SU(5) invariant at very short distances, we estimate the consequences of different scenarios that lead to light Majorana neutrinos for low-energy phenomena that violate baryon number minus lepton number (B – L) by two (or more) units, including neutron-antineutron oscillations and B – L violating nucleon decays. We find that, among all possible effective theories of lepton-number violation that lead to nonzero neutrino masses, only a subset is, broadly speaking, consistent with grand unification.
|
Aristizabal Sierra, D., Herrero-Garcia, J., Restrepo, D., & Vicente, A. (2016). Diboson anomaly: Heavy Higgs resonance and QCD vectorlike exotics. Phys. Rev. D, 93(1), 015012–12pp.
Abstract: The ATLAS Collaboration (and also CMS) has recently reported an excess over Standard Model expectations for gauge boson pair production in the invariant mass region 1.8-2.2 TeV. In light of these results, we argue that such a signal might be the first manifestation of the production and further decay of a heavy CP-even Higgs resulting from a type-I two Higgs doublet model. We demonstrate that in the presence of colored vectorlike fermions, its gluon fusion production cross section is strongly enhanced, with the enhancement depending on the color representation of the new fermion states. Our findings show that barring the color triplet case, any QCD “exotic” representation can fit the ATLAS result in fairly large portions of the parameter space. We have found that if the diboson excess is confirmed and this mechanism is indeed responsible for it, then the LHC Run-2 should find (i) a CP-odd scalar with mass below similar to 2.3 TeV, (ii) new colored states with masses below similar to 2 TeV, (iii) no statistically significant diboson events in the W(+/-)Z channel, (iv) events in the triboson channels W(+/-)W(-/+)Z and ZZZ with invariant mass amounting to the mass of the CP-odd scalar.
|
Berbig, M., Herrero-Garcia, J., & Landini, G. (2024). Dynamical origin of neutrino masses and dark matter from a new confining sector. Phys. Rev. D, 110(3), 035011–13pp.
Abstract: A dynamical mechanism, based on a confining non-Abelian dark symmetry, which generates Majorana masses for hyperchargeless fermions, is proposed. We apply it to the inverse seesaw scenario, which allows us to generate light neutrino masses from the interplay of TeV-scale pseudo-Dirac mass terms and a small explicit breaking of lepton number. A single generation of vectorlike dark quarks, transforming under a SU(3)D gauge symmetry, is coupled to a real singlet scalar, which serves as a portal between the dark quark condensate and three generations of heavy sterile neutrinos. Such a dark sector and the Standard Model (SM) are kept in thermal equilibrium with each other via sizable Yukawa couplings to the heavy neutrinos. In this framework, the lightest dark baryon, which has spin 3/2 and is stabilized at the renormalizable level by an accidental dark baryon number symmetry, can account for the observed relic density via thermal freeze-out from annihilations into the lightest dark mesons. These mesons, in turn, decay to heavy neutrinos, which produce SM final states upon decay. This model may be probed by next generation neutrino telescopes via neutrino lines produced from dark matter annihilations.
|
Herrero-Garcia, J., Landini, G., & Yanagida, T. T. (2025). Dark matter in the high-scale seesaw leptogenesis paradigm. Phys. Rev. D, 111(7), 075033–9pp.
Abstract: The seesaw mechanism with three heavy Majorana right-handed neutrinos provides an elegant explanation for neutrino masses and, combined with leptogenesis, can generate the baryon asymmetry of the universe (BAU). Naturally embedded in a grand unified theory, this framework stands as one of the best-motivated extensions beyond the Standard Model, but it is very difficult to test it. Moreover, it does not account for dark matter (DM). In this paper, we propose a minimal extension that introduces a dark sector with a singlet Majorana fermion (as the DM candidate) and a complex scalar singlet. The heavy righthanded neutrinos serve another role beyond generating neutrino masses and the BAU: producing the cold DM density through their decays. Interestingly, the model also predicts a subdominant DM component from late scalar decays, which in some cases may be hot or warm at the onset of structure formation, as well as an equal number of nonthermal neutrinos. These components leave distinct signatures in various cosmological observables. Furthermore, electromagnetic energy injection from scalar decays alter predictions from big bang nucleosynthesis and induce spectral distortions in the cosmic microwave background black-body spectrum. In this context, upcoming experiments, such as the Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE), could probe the mechanism of neutrino mass generation.
|
Herrero-Garcia, J., Nebot, M., Rius, N., & Santamaria, A. (2014). The Zee-Babu model revisited in the light of new data. Nucl. Phys. B, 885, 542–570.
Abstract: We update previous analyses of the Zee-Babu model in the light of new data, e.g., the mixing angle On, the rare decay μ-> e gamma and the LHC results. We also analyze the possibility of accommodating the deviations in Gamma (H -> gamma gamma) hinted by the LHC experiments, and the stability of the scalar potential. We find that neutrino oscillation data and low energy constraints are still compatible with masses of the extra charged scalars accessible to LHC. Moreover, if any of them is discovered, the model can be falsified by combining the information on the singly and doubly charged scalar decay modes with neutrino data. Conversely, if the neutrino spectrum is found to be inverted and the CP phase delta is quite different from pi, the masses of the charged scalars will be well outside the LHC reach.
|
Aparici, A., Herrero-Garcia, J., Rius, N., & Santamaria, A. (2011). Neutrino masses from new generations. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 122.
Abstract: We reconsider the possibility that Majorana masses for the three known neutrinos are generated radiatively by the presence of a fourth generation and one right-handed neutrino with Yukawa couplings and a Majorana mass term. We find that the observed light neutrino mass hierarchy is not compatible with low energy universality bounds in this minimal scenario, but all present data can be accommodated with five generations and two right-handed neutrinos. Within this framework, we explore the parameter space regions which are currently allowed and could lead to observable effects in neutrinoless double beta decay, mu-e conversion in nuclei and μ-> e gamma experiments. We also discuss the detection prospects at LHC.
|
Aparici, A., Herrero-Garcia, J., Rius, N., & Santamaria, A. (2012). On the nature of the fourth generation neutrino and its implications. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 030–31pp.
Abstract: We consider the neutrino sector of a Standard Model with four generations. While the three light neutrinos can obtain their masses from a variety of mechanisms with or without new neutral fermions, fourth-generation neutrinos need at least one new relatively light right-handed neutrino. If lepton number is not conserved this neutrino must have a Majorana mass term whose size depends on the underlying mechanism for lepton number violation. Majorana masses for the fourth-generation neutrinos induce relative large two-loop contributions to the light neutrino masses which could be even larger than the cosmological bounds. This sets strong limits on the mass parameters and mixings of the fourth-generation neutrinos.
|
Herrero-Garcia, J., Rius, N., & Santamaria, A. (2016). Higgs lepton flavour violation: UV completions and connection to neutrino masses. J. High Energy Phys., 11(11), 084–45pp.
Abstract: We study lepton violating Higgs (HLFV) decays, first from the effective field theory (EFT) point of view, and then analysing the different high-energy realizations of the operators of the EFT, highlighting the most promising models. We argue why two Higgs doublet models can have a BR(h -> tau mu) similar to 0:01, and why this rate is suppressed in all other realizations including vector-like leptons. We further discuss HLFV in the context of neutrino mass models: in most cases it is generated at one loop giving always BR (h -> tau mu) < 10(-4) and typically much less, which is beyond experimental reach. However, both the Zee model and extended left-right symmetric models contain extra SU(2) doublets coupled to leptons and could in principle account for the observed excess, with interesting connections between HLFV and neutrino parameters.
|
Felkl, T., Herrero-Garcia, J., & Schmidt, M. A. (2021). The singly-charged scalar singlet as the origin of neutrino masses. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 122–39pp.
Abstract: We consider the generation of neutrino masses via a singly-charged scalar singlet. Under general assumptions we identify two distinct structures for the neutrino mass matrix. This yields a constraint for the antisymmetric Yukawa coupling of the singly-charged scalar singlet to two left-handed lepton doublets, irrespective of how the breaking of lepton-number conservation is achieved. The constraint disfavours large hierarchies among the Yukawa couplings. We study the implications for the phenomenology of lepton-flavour universality, measurements of the W-boson mass, flavour violation in the charged-lepton sector and decays of the singly-charged scalar singlet. We also discuss the parameter space that can address the Cabibbo Angle Anomaly.
|
