arXiv subjects

Ana M. Teixeira

Publications and source records attributed to Ana M. Teixeira.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Enhanced di-Higgs production from TeV-scale heavy neutral leptons at future lepton colliders

Within the context of heavy neutral lepton extensions of the Standard Model, we consider the rare di-Higgs production mode $\ell^+\ell^-\to hh$ at future high-energy lepton colliders. As a concrete example, we study the impact of a low-scale Inverse Seesaw realisation on the prospects for di-Higgs production. Our results show that the presence of TeV-scale heavy neutral leptons can enhance the cross-section by up to factor 60. We further comment on the interplay with electroweak precision observables, showing that bounds on the di-Higgs production cross-section at future high-energy lepton colliders could serve as complementary probes of low-scale seesaw scenarios.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

Exploring asymmetries in three-body cLFV lepton decays: probing CP violation in HNL extensions of the SM

In the context of Standard Model extensions via Majorana sterile fermions, the presence of additional CP violating phases (Dirac and Majorana) has been shown to be at source of important effects in charged lepton flavour violating (cLFV) transitions and decays. Here we will consider further angular observables that can be studied for polarised $τ$ and $μ$ cLFV decays. These include, among others, parity asymmetries and time-reversal asymmetries for generic cLFV 3-body decays, $\ell_α^+ \to \ell_β^+ \ell_γ^+ \ell_δ^-$. We address relevant correlations between the different classes of observables, and show that one can have sizeable asymmetries, which can be used to further probe this interesting class of SM extensions. Our study leads to the prediction of particular patterns of angular observables, which would allow to potentially falsify the model, should a cLFV signal be observed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2025

French HEP community input to the European Strategy for Particle Physics

In view of the European Strategy for Particle Physics process, the French HEP community has organized a national process of collecting written contributions and has pursued a series of workshops culminating with a national symposium held in Paris on January 20-21, 2025 that involved over 280 scientists https://indico.in2p3.fr/event/34662/. The present document summarises the main conclusions of this bottom-up approach centred on the physics and technology motivations.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2025

Taming flavour violation in the Inverse Seesaw

The Inverse Seesaw mechanism remains one of the most attractive explanations for the lightness of neutrino masses, allowing for natural low-scale realisations. We consider the prospects of a simple extension via 3 generations of sterile fermions - the so called ISS(3,3) - in what concerns numerous lepton flavour observables. In order to facilitate a connection between the Lagrangian parameters and low-energy data, we systematically develop new parametrisations of the Yukawa couplings. Relying on these new parametrisations to explore the parameter space, we discuss the complementary role of charged lepton flavour violation searches in dedicated facilities, as well as in lepton colliders (FCC-ee and $μ$TRISTAN). Our results reveal the strong synergy of the different indirect searches in probing the distinct flavour sectors of the model. In particular, we show that in the absence of radiative decays $\ell_α\to\ell_βγ$, sizeable rates for $Z$-penguin dominated observables could hint at a non-trivially mixed and non-degenerate heavy spectrum.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2023

Charged lepton flavour violation in muons: theory overview

We briefly overview some theoretical aspects of charged lepton flavour violation in rare muon transitions and decays. Relying on the effective field theory approach (model-independent), we discuss the probing power of charged lepton flavour violation processes regarding the new physics scale, especially in what concerns muon-electron conversion in nuclei. We then illustrate how these processes can provide valuable information (allowing to constrain, falsify - or conversely to learn about the underlying new physics properties) for a few examples of well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. We finally comment on how leptonic CP violation should be carefully considered upon studies of charged lepton flavour violation in extensions of the Standard Model featuring heavy sterile fermions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Heavy neutral leptons and high-intensity observables

New Physics models in which the Standard Model particle content is enlarged via the addition of sterile fermions remain among the most minimal and yet most appealing constructions, particularly since these states are present as building blocks of numerous mechanisms of neutrino mass generation. Should the new sterile states have non-negligible mixings to the active (light) neutrinos, and if they are not excessively heavy, one expects important contributions to numerous high-intensity observables, among them charged lepton flavour violating muon decays and transitions, and lepton electric dipole moments. We briefly review the prospects of these minimal SM extensions to several of the latter observables, considering both simple extensions and complete models of neutrino mass generation. We emphasise the existing synergy between different observables at the Intensity Frontier, which will be crucial in unveiling the new model at work.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Reconciling $B$-meson Anomalies, Neutrino Masses and Dark Matter

We explore the connection of the leptoquark solution to the recently reported $B$-meson anomalies with a mechanism of neutrino mass generation and a viable dark matter candidate. We consider a model consisting of two scalar leptoquarks and three generations of triplet fermions: neutrino masses are radiatively generated at the 3-loop level and, by imposing a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry, one can obtain a viable dark matter candidate. We discuss the constraints on the flavour structure of this model arising from numerous flavour observables. The rare decay $K\to π^+ν\barν$ and charged lepton flavour violating $μ-e$ conversion in nuclei are found to provide the most stringent constraint on this class of models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Effective Majorana mass matrix from tau and pseudoscalar meson lepton number violating decays

An observation of any lepton number violating process will undoubtedly point towards the existence of new physics and indirectly to the clear Majorana nature of the exchanged fermion. In this work, we explore the potential of a minimal extension of the Standard Model via heavy sterile fermions with masses in the $[ 0.1 - 10]$ GeV range concerning an extensive array of "neutrinoless" meson and tau decay processes. We assume that the Majorana neutrinos are produced on-shell, and focus on three-body decays. We conduct an update on the bounds on the active-sterile mixing elements, $|U_{\ell_α4} U_{\ell_β4}|$, taking into account the most recent experimental bounds (and constraints) and new theoretical inputs, as well as the effects of a finite detector, imposing that the heavy neutrino decay within the detector. This allows to establish up-to-date comprehensive constraints on the sterile fermion parameter space. Our results suggest that the branching fractions of several decays are close to current sensitivities (likely within reach of future facilities), some being already in conflict with current data (as is the case of $K^+ \to \ell_α^+ \ell_β^+ π^-$, and $τ^- \to μ^+ π^- π^-$). We use these processes to extract constraints on all entries of an enlarged definition of a $3\times 3$ "effective" Majorana neutrino mass matrix $m_ν^{αβ}$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Reconciling $B$-decay anomalies with neutrino masses, dark matter and constraints from flavour violation

Motivated by an explanation of the $R_{K^{(*)}}$ anomalies, we propose a Standard Model extension via two scalar SU(2)$_L$ triplet leptoquarks and three generations of triplet Majorana fermions. The gauge group is reinforced by a $Z_2$ symmetry, ensuring the stability of the lightest $Z_2$-odd particle, which is a potentially viable dark matter candidate. Neutrino mass generation occurs radiatively (at the three-loop level), and leads to important constraints on the leptoquark couplings to leptons. We consider very generic textures for the flavour structure of the $h_1$ leptoquark Yukawa couplings, identifying classes of textures which succeed in saturating the $R_{K^{(*)}}$ anomalies. We subsequently carry a comprehensive analysis of the model's contributions to numerous high-intensity observables such as meson oscillations and decays, as well as charged lepton flavour violating processes, which put severe constraints on the flavour structure of these leptoquark extensions. Our findings suggest that the most constraining observables are $K^+ \to π^+ ν\bar ν$ decays, and charged lepton flavour violating $μ-e$ conversion in nuclei (among others). Nevertheless, for several classes of flavour textures and for wide mass regimes of the new mediators (within collider reach), this Standard Model extension successfully addresses neutrino mass generation, explains the current $R_{K^{(*)}}$ tensions, and offers a viable dark matter candidate.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Synergy and complementarity between neutrino physics and low-energy intensity frontiers

Massive neutrinos and leptonic mixings have provided the first evidence of flavour violation in the lepton sector, opening a unique gateway to many new phenomena. Among the latter, one finds processes violating lepton number, charged lepton flavours, or even the universality of lepton flavours. These very rare transitions can be studied in high-intensity facilities, and if observed, constitute a clear sign of New Physics. After a brief review of the experimental status of dedicated searches, we comment on the prospects of several well-motivated models of neutrino mass generation to several of the above mentioned observables, also discussing how the interplay of high-intensity observables and neutrino data can shed light on the underlying New Physics model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Lepton flavour violation and neutrino physics: beyond the Standard Model

If observed, charged lepton flavour violation is a clear sign of new physics - beyond the Standard Model minimally extended to accommodate neutrino oscillation data. After a brief review of several charged lepton flavour violation observables and their current experimental status, we consider distinct extensions of the Standard Model which could potentially give rise to observable signals, focusing on the case of models in which the mechanism of neutrino mass generation is the common source of neutral and charged lepton flavour violation.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2016

Theoretical aspects of charged Lepton Flavour Violation

If observed, charged lepton flavour violation is a clear sign of new physics - beyond the Standard Model minimally extended to accommodate neutrino oscillation data. We briefly review several extensions of the Standard Model which could potentially give rise to observable signals, also emphasising the rôle of charged lepton flavour violation in probing such new physics models.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Indirect searches for sterile neutrinos at a high-luminosity Z-factory

A future high-luminosity $Z$-factory has the potential to investigate lepton flavour violation. Rare decays such as $Z \to \ell_1^\mp \ell_2^\pm$ can be complementary to low-energy (high-intensity) observables of lepton flavour violation. Here we consider two extensions of the Standard Model which add to its particle content one or more sterile neutrinos. We address the impact of the sterile fermions on lepton flavour violating $Z$ decays, focusing on potential searches at FCC-ee (TLEP), and taking into account experimental and observational constraints. We show that sterile neutrinos can give rise to contributions to BR($Z \to \ell_1^\mp \ell_2^\pm$) within reach of the FCC-ee. We discuss the complementarity between a high-luminosity $Z$-factory and low-energy charged lepton flavour violation facilities.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Excessive Higgs pair production with little MET from squarks and gluinos in the NMSSM

In the presence of a light singlino-like LSP in the NMSSM, the missing transverse energy - MET - signature of squark/gluino production can be considerably reduced. Instead, a pair of Higgs bosons is produced in each event. We propose benchmark points for such scenarios, which differ in the squark and gluino masses, and in their decay cascades. Events for these points are simulated for the run II of the LHC at 13 TeV centre of mass energy. After cuts on the transverse momenta of at least four jets, and requiring two tau-leptons from one Higgs decay, we find that the invariant mass of two b-jets from the other Higgs decay shows clear peaks above the background. Despite the reduced MET, this search strategy allows to see signals for sufficiently large integrated luminosities, depending on the squark/gluino masses.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

NMSSM with a singlino LSP: possible challenges for searches for supersymmetry at the LHC

A light singlino in the NMSSM can reduce considerably the missing transverse energy at the end of sparticle decay cascades; instead, light NMSSM-specific Higgs bosons can be produced. Such scenarios can be consistent with present constraints from the LHC with all sparticle masses below ~1 TeV. We discuss search strategies, which do not rely on missing transverse energy, for such scenarios at the next run of the LHC near 14 TeV.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

LHC constraints on M_1/2 and m_0 in the semi-constrained NMSSM

Constraints from searches for squarks and gluinos at the LHC at sqrt{s}=8 TeV are applied to the parameter space of the NMSSM with universal squark/slepton and gaugino masses at the GUT scale, but allowing for non-universal soft Higgs mass parameters (the sNMSSM). We confine ourselves to regions of the parameter space compatible with a 125 GeV Higgs boson with diphoton signal rates at least as large as the Standard Model ones, and a dark matter candidate compatible with WMAP and XENON100 constraints. Following the simulation of numerous points in the m_0-M_{1/2} plane, we compare the constraints on the sNMSSM from 3-5 jets + missing E_T channels as well as from multijet + missing E_T channels with the corresponding cMSSM constraints. Due to the longer squark decay cascades, lower bounds on M_{1/2} are alleviated by up to 50 GeV. For heavy squarks at large m_0, the dominant constraints originate from multijet + missing E_T channels due to gluino decays via stop pairs.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Modified Signals for Supersymmetry in the NMSSM with a Singlino-like LSP

In the framework of the NMSSM with a singlino-like LSP, we study quantitatively the impact of the additional bino -> singlino cascade on the efficiencies in several search channels for supersymmetry of the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. Compared to the MSSM, the additional cascade reduces the missing transverse energy, but leads to additional jets or leptons. For the NMSSM benchmark lines which generalize cMSSM benchmark points, the efficiencies in the most relevant 2/3 jet + missing energy search channels can drop by factors ~1/3 to ~1/7, and can reduce the present lower bounds on M_{1/2} by as much as ~0.9 - 0.75 in the NMSSM for large bino-singlino mass differences. The larger efficiencies in multijet or multilepton search channels are not strong enough to affect this conclusion. In the fully constrained cNMSSM, sparticle decay cascades via the lightest stau can lead to signal cross sections in multilepton and 2tau search channels which are potentially visible at the LHC with 7 TeV center of mass energy.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

The Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We review the theoretical and phenomenological aspects of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model: the Higgs sector including radiative corrections and the 2-loop beta-functions for all parameters of the general NMSSM; the tadpole and domain wall problems, baryogenesis; NMSSM phenomenology at colliders, B physics and dark matter; specific scenarios as the constrained NMSSM, Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking, U(1)'-extensions, CP and R-parity violation.

hep-ph↗