arXiv subjects

Andrea Brignole

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Brignole.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

The supersymmetric Higgs boson with flavoured A-terms

We consider a supersymmetric scenario with large flavour violating A-terms in the stop/scharm sector and study their impact on the Higgs mass, the electroweak rho parameter and the effective Higgs couplings to gluons, photons and charm quarks. For each observable we present explicit analytical expressions which exhibit the relevant parametric dependences, both in the general case and in specific limits. We find significant effects and comment on phenomenological implications for the LHC and future colliders.

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arXiv2010

A common source for neutrino and sparticle masses

We discuss supersymmetric scenarios in which neutrino masses arise from effective d=6 operators in the Kahler potential (including SUSY-breaking insertions). Simple explicit realizations of those Kahler operators are presented in the context of the type II seesaw. An appealing scenario emerges upon identifying the seesaw mediators with SUSY-breaking messengers.

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arXiv2010

Beyond the standard seesaw: neutrino masses from Kahler operators and broken supersymmetry

We investigate supersymmetric scenarios in which neutrino masses are generated by effective d=6 operators in the Kahler potential, rather than by the standard d=5 superpotential operator. First, we discuss some general features of such effective operators, also including SUSY-breaking insertions, and compute the relevant renormalization group equations. Contributions to neutrino masses arise at low energy both at the tree level and through finite threshold corrections. In the second part we present simple explicit realizations in which those Kahler operators arise by integrating out heavy SU(2)_W triplets, as in the type II seesaw. Distinct scenarios emerge, depending on the mechanism and the scale of SUSY-breaking mediation. In particular, we propose an appealing and economical picture in which the heavy seesaw mediators are also messengers of SUSY breaking. In this case, strong correlations exist among neutrino parameters, sparticle and Higgs masses, as well as lepton flavour violating processes. Hence, this scenario can be tested at high-energy colliders, such as the LHC, and at lower energy experiments that measure neutrino parameters or search for rare lepton decays.

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arXiv2004

Anatomy and Phenomenology of mu-tau Lepton Flavour Violation in the MSSM

We perform a detailed analysis of several mu-tau lepton flavour violating (LFV) processes, namely tau --> mu X (X = gamma, e+ e-, mu+ mu-, rho, pi, eta, eta'), Z --> mu tau and Higgs boson decays into mu tau. First we present a model independent operator analysis relevant to such decays, then we explicitly compute the LFV operator coefficients [and (g_μ-2)] in a general unconstrained MSSM framework, allowing slepton mass matrices to have large mu-tau entries. We systematically study the role and the interplay of dipole and non-dipole operators, showing how the rates and the mutual correlations of those LFV decays change in different regions of the MSSM parameter space.Values of the LFV branching ratios in the experimentally interesting range 10^{-9}-10^{-7} can be achieved. For at least two MSSM Higgs bosons, the branching ratio of the LFV decay into mu tau can reach values of order 10^{-4}.

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arXiv2003

Lepton Flavour Violating Decays of Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons

We compute the lepton flavour violating couplings of Higgs bosons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and show that they can induce the decays (h,H,A) --> mu tau at non-negligible rates, for large tan(beta) and sizeable smuon-stau mixing. We also discuss the prospects for detecting such decays at LHC and other colliders, as well as the correlation with other flavour violating processes, such as tau --> mu gamma and tau --> 3 mu.

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arXiv2002

On the O(alpha_t^2) two-loop corrections to the neutral Higgs boson masses in the MSSM

We compute the O(alpha_t^2) two-loop corrections to the neutral CP-even Higgs boson mass matrix in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, for arbitrary values of mA and of the parameters in the stop sector, in the effective potential approach. In a large region of parameter space these corrections are sizeable, increasing the prediction for mh by several GeV. We present explicit analytical formulae for a simplified case. We discuss the inclusion of momentum-dependent corrections and some possible ways of assigning the input parameters.

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arXiv2000

Flavour non-conservation in goldstino interactions

We point out that the interactions of goldstinos with matter supermultiplets are a potential source of flavour violation, if fermion and sfermion mass matrices are not aligned and supersymmetry is spontaneously broken at a low scale. We study the impact of those couplings on low-energy processes such as μ\to e γ, μ\to eee, K \to μ^+ μ^-, K-\ov{K} transitions and analogous ones. Moreover, we address the issue of flavour violation in low-energy processes involving two goldstinos and two matter fermions, generalizing earlier results obtained in the flavour-conserving case.

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arXiv2000

One-loop Kahler potential in non-renormalizable theories

We consider a general d=4 N=1 globally supersymmetric lagrangian involving chiral and vector superfields, with arbitrary superpotential, Kahler potential and gauge kinetic function. We compute perturbative quantum corrections by employing a component field approach that respects supersymmetry and background gauge invariance. In particular, we obtain the full one-loop correction to the Kahler potential in supersymmetric Landau gauge. Two derivations of this result are described. The non-renormalization of the superpotential and the quadratic correction to the Fayet-Iliopoulos terms are further checks of our computations.

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arXiv1999

On the muon anomalous magnetic moment in models with a superlight gravitino

We perform a general analysis of the contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment in models with a superlight gravitino. We discuss the interpretation and the phenomenological implications of the results. We find that present constraints on the model parameters are comparable and complementary to the ones coming from collider searches and from perturbative unitarity. However, the Brookhaven E821 experiment will probe large unexplored regions of parameter space.

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arXiv1999

Signals of a superlight gravitino at e^+ e^- colliders when the other superparticles are heavy

If the gravitino G is very light and all the other supersymmetric particles are above threshold, supersymmetry may still be found at colliders, by looking at processes with only gravitinos and ordinary particles in the final state. We compute here the cross-section for the process e^+ e^- ==> G G gamma, whose final state can give rise to a distinctive photon plus missing energy signal at present and future e^+ e^- colliders. We describe how the present LEP data can be used to establish a lower bound on the gravitino mass of order 10^{-5} eV. We conclude with a critical discussion of our results, comparing them with related ones and outlining possible generalizations.

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arXiv1999

Aspects of spontaneously broken N = 1 global supersymmetry in the presence of gauge interactions

We discuss models where N=1 global supersymmetry is spontaneously broken, at the classical level, in the presence of non-anomalous gauge interactions. We take such models as effective theories, valid up to some suitable scale and arising from supergravity models with a light gravitino, and therefore we allow them to contain non-renormalizable interactions. First, we examine the case where the goldstino is a gauge singlet. We elucidate the model-independent relations between supersymmetry-breaking masses and some associated interactions, with special attention to the behaviour of some four-particle scattering amplitudes in the high- and low-energy limits. The former gives constraints from tree-level unitarity, the latter affects the phenomenological lower bounds on the gravitino mass. In particular, we give new results for the annihilation of photons into gravitinos, and discuss their implications. We then examine the case with no neutral chiral superfields, so that the goldstino is charged, and the gauge symmetry is also broken. In this context, we discuss the singularity structure and the associated unitarity constraints, relating the scales of supersymmetry and gauge symmetry breaking. We conclude by commenting on possible realistic examples, where the broken gauge symmetry is associated with grand or electroweak unification.

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arXiv1998

Four-fermion interactions and sgoldstino masses in models with a superlight gravitino

We discuss the role of the effective interactions among four matter fermions in supersymmetric models with a very light gravitino. We show that, from a field-theoretical viewpoint, no model-independent bound on the gravitino mass can be derived from such interactions. Making use of a naturalness criterion, however, we are able to derive some interesting but not very stringent bounds, complementary to those obtained from the direct production of supersymmetric particles. We also show that, generically, masses for the spin-0 partners of the goldstino (sgoldstinos) of the order of the gravitino mass and much smaller than squark and slepton masses do not obey a naturalness criterion.

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arXiv1997

On the effective interactions of a light gravitino with matter fermions

If the gravitino is light and all the other supersymmetric particles are heavy, we can consider the effective theory describing the interactions of its goldstino components with ordinary matter. To discuss the model-dependence of these interactions, we take the simple case of spontaneously broken supersymmetry and only two chiral superfields, associated with the goldstino and a massless matter fermion. We derive the four-point effective coupling involving two matter fermions and two goldstinos, by explicit integration of the heavy spin-0 degrees of freedom in the low-energy limit. Surprisingly, our result is not equivalent to the usual non-linear realization of supersymmetry, where a pair of goldstinos couples to the energy-momentum tensor of the matter fields. We solve the puzzle by enlarging the non-linear realization to include a second independent invariant coupling, and we show that there are no other independent couplings of this type up to this order in the low-energy expansion. We conclude by commenting on the interpretation of our results and on their possible phenomenological implications.

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arXiv1996

Phenomenological implications of light stop and higgsinos

We examine the phenomenological implications of light $\tilde{t}_R$ and higgsinos in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, assuming $\tan^2 β< m_t / m_b$ and heavy $\tilde{t}_L$ and gauginos. In this simplified setting, we study the contributions to $Δm_{B_d}$, $ε_K$, $BR(b \rightarrow s γ)$, $R_b \equiv Γ(Z \rightarrow b \overline{b}) / Γ( Z \to {\rm hadrons})$, $BR(t \to b W)$, and their interplay.

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arXiv1995

Higgs and super-Higgs effects with naturally vanishing vacuum energy

We construct $N=1$ supergravity models where the gauge symmetry and supersymmetry are both spontaneously broken, with naturally vanishing classical vacuum energy and unsuppressed Goldstino components along gauge non-singlet directions. We discuss some physically interesting situations where such a mechanism could play a role, and identify the breaking of a grand-unified gauge group as the most likely possibility. We show that, even when the gravitino mass is much smaller than the scale $m_X$ of gauge symmetry breaking, important features can be missed if we first naively integrate out the degrees of freedom of mass ${\cal O} (m_X)$, in the limit of unbroken supersymmetry, and then describe the super-Higgs effect in the resulting effective theory. We also comment on possible connections with extended supergravities and realistic four-dimensional string constructions.

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arXiv1994

Upper bound on Hot Dark Matter Density from $SO(10)$ Yukawa Unification

We study low-energy consequences of supersymmetric $SO(10)$ models with Yukawa unification $h_t = h_N$ and $h_b = h_τ$. We find that it is difficult to reproduce the observed $m_b/m_τ$ ratio when the third-generation right-handed neutrino is at an intermediate scale, especially for small $\tan β$. We obtain a conservative lower bound on the mass of the right-handed neutrino $M_N > 6 \times 10^{13}$~GeV for $\tan β< 10$. This bound translates into an upper bound on the $τ$-neutrino mass, and therefore on its contribution to the hot dark matter density of the present universe, $Ω_νh^2 < 0.004$. Our analysis is based on the full two-loop renormalization group equations with one-loop threshold effects. However, we also point out that physics above the GUT-scale could modify the Yukawa unification condition $h_b = h_τ$ for $\tan β\lsim 10$. This might affect the prediction of $m_b/m_τ$ and the constraint on $M_N$.

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