arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Aaron Pierce.
The little Higgs model provides an alternative to traditional candidates for new physics at the TeV scale. The new heavy gauge bosons predicted by this model should be observable at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We discuss how the LHC experiments could test the little Higgs model by studying the production and decay of these particles.
`Little Higgs' models, in which the Higgs particle arises as a pseudo-Goldstone boson, have a natural mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking associated with the large value of the top quark Yukawa coupling. The mechanism typically involves a new heavy SU(2)_{L} singlet top quark, T. We discuss the relationship of the Higgs boson and the two top quarks. We suggest experimental tests of the Little Higgs mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking using the production and decay of the T at the Large Hadron Collider.
Recent data from from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) place important bounds on the neutrino sector. The precise determination of the baryon number in the universe puts a strong constraint on the number of relativistic species during Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis. WMAP data, when combined with the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), also directly constrain the absolute mass scale of neutrinos. These results impinge upon a neutrino oscillation interpretation of the result from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND). We also note that the Heidelberg--Moscow evidence for neutrinoless double beta decay is only consistent with the WMAP+2dFGRS data for the largest values of the nuclear matrix element.
The large observed mixing angle in atmospheric neutrinos, coupled with Grand Unification, motivates the search for a large mixing between right-handed strange and bottom squarks. Such mixing does not appear in the standard CKM phenomenology, but may induce significant b to s transitions through gluino diagrams. Working in the mass eigenbasis, we show quantitatively that an order one effect on CP violation in B_d to phi+K_S is possible due to a large mixing between right-handed b and s squarks, while still satisfying constraints from b to s + gamma. We also include the effect of right- and left-handed bottom squark mixing proportional to m_b*mu*tan(beta). For small mu*tan(beta) there may also be a large effect in B_s mixing correlated with a large effect in B_d to phi+K_S, typically mixing effects are greater than 100 ps^{-1}, an unambiguous signal of new physics at Tevatron Run II.
We present a model of leptogenesis that preserves lepton number. The model maintains the important feature of more traditional leptogenesis scenarios: the decaying particles that provide the CP violation necessary for baryogenesis also provide the explanation for the smallness of the neutrino Yukawa couplings. This model clearly demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, neutrinos need not be Majorana in nature in order to help explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe.
Anomaly mediation of supersymmetry breaking solves the supersymmetric flavor problem thanks to its ultraviolet-insensitivity. However, it suffers from two problems: sleptons have negative masses-squared, and there are likely bulk moduli that spoil the framework. Here, we present the first fully ultraviolet-insensitive model of anomaly mediation with positive slepton masses-squared in a purely four-dimensional framework. Our model is based on the additional D-term contributions to the sparticle masses, and the conformal sequestering mechanism.
A natural origin for the mu and B parameters of weak scale supersymmetric theories is proposed, applicable to any supersymmetry breaking messenger scale between the weak and Planck scales. Although quite general, it requires supersymmetric interactions to respect an R symmetry with definite quantum numbers, and it requires some new scale of symmetry breaking. The required R symmetry distinguishes the Higgs boson from the sneutrino, preserves baryon number in operators of dimension four and five, and contains R parity so that the lightest superpartner is stable. This origin for mu works for a variety of mediation mechanisms, including gauge mediation, gaugino mediation, and boundary condition breaking of supersymmetry. In any of these mediation schemes, our mechanism leads to a real B parameter, and the supersymmetric CP problem is solved. This R symmetry may naturally arise from supersymmetric theories in higher dimensions.
We offer a guide to dimensional reduction (DRED) in theories with anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. Evanescent operators proportional to epsilon arise in the bare Lagrangian when it is reduced from d=4 to d= (4-2 epsilon) dimensions. In the course of a detailed diagrammatic calculation, we show that inclusion of these operators is crucial. The evanescent operators conspire to drive the supersymmetry-breaking parameters along anomaly-mediation trajectories across heavy particle thresholds, guaranteeing the ultraviolet insensitivity.
We make explicit the statement that Minimal Supersymmetric SU(5) has been excluded by the Super-Kamiokande search for the process $p \to K^{+} \overlineν$. This exclusion is made by first placing limits on the colored Higgs triplet mass, by forcing the gauge couplings to unify. We also show that taking the superpartners of the first two generations to be very heavy in order to avoid flavor changing neutral currents, the so-called ``decoupling'' idea, is insufficient to resurrect the Minimal SUSY SU(5). We comment on various mechanisms to further suppress proton decay in SUSY SU(5). Finally, we address the contributions to proton decay from gauge boson exchange in the Minimal SUSY SU(5) and flipped SU(5) models.
We investigate three different possibilities for improving the fermion mass relations that arise in grand unified theories (GUTs). Each scenario relies on supersymmetric loop effects alone, without modifying the naive Yukawa unification. First, we consider A-terms that follow the usual proportionality condition. In this case SUSY effects can improve the mass relations, but not completely. Interestingly, imposing Yukawa coupling unification for two families greatly constrains the range of parameters in the MSSM. Secondly, we employ a new ansatz for the tri-linear A-terms that satisfies all experimental and vacuum stability bounds, and can successfully modify the mass relations. Finally, we investigate the use of general (non-proportional) A-terms, with large off-diagonal entries. In this case flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) data present an important constraint. We do not pretend to present a complete, motivated theory of fermion masses. Rather this paper can be viewed as an existence proof, serving to show that Yukawa coupling unification can occur even within the framework of minimal GUTs.