arXiv subjects

Apostolos Pilaftsis

Publications and source records attributed to Apostolos Pilaftsis.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Natural Standard Model Alignment in the Two Higgs Doublet Model

The current LHC Higgs data provide strong constraints on possible deviations of the couplings of the observed 125 GeV Higgs boson from the Standard Model (SM) expectations. Therefore, it now becomes compelling that any extended Higgs sector must comply with the so-called SM alignment limit. In the context of the Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM), this alignment is often associated with either decoupling of the heavy Higgs sector or accidental cancellations in the 2HDM potential. Here we present a new solution realizing natural alignment based on symmetries, without decoupling or fine-tuning. In particular, we show that in 2HDMs where both Higgs doublets acquire vacuum expectation values, there exist only three different symmetry realizations leading to natural alignment. We discuss some phenomenological implications of the Maximally-Symmetric 2HDM based on SO(5) symmetry group and analyze new collider signals for the heavy Higgs sector, involving third-generation quarks, which can be a useful observational tool during the Run-II phase of the LHC.

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arXiv2015

Symmetry Improved 2PI Effective Action and the Infrared Divergences of the Standard Model

Resummations of infinite sets of higher-order perturbative contributions are often needed both in thermal field theory and at zero temperature. For instance, the behaviour of the Standard Model (SM) effective potential extrapolated to very high energies is known to be extremely sensitive to higher-order effects. The 2PI effective action provides a systematic approach to consistently perform such resummations. However, one of its major limitations was that its loopwise expansion introduces residual violations of possible global symmetries, thus giving rise to massive Goldstone bosons in the spontaneously broken phase of the theory. We review the recently developed symmetry-improved 2PI formalism for consistently encoding global symmetries in the 2PI approach, and discuss its satisfactory field-theoretical properties. We then apply the formalism to study the infrared divergences of the SM effective potential due to Goldstone bosons, which may affect the stability analyses of the SM. We present quantitative comparisons, for the scalar sector of the SM, with the approximate partial resummation procedure recently developed to address this problem, and show the quantitative discrepancy of the latter with the more complete 2PI approach, thus motivating further studies in this direction.

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arXiv2015

Matter Quantum Corrections to the Graviton Self-Energy and the Newtonian Potential

We revisit the calculation of matter quantum effects on the graviton self-energy on a flat Minkowski background, with the aim to acquire a deeper understanding of the mechanism that renders the graviton massless. To this end, we derive a low-energy theorem which directly relates the radiative corrections of the cosmological constant to those of the graviton mass to all orders in perturbation theory. As an illustrative example, we consider an Abelian Higgs model with minimal coupling to gravity and show explicitly how a suitable renormalization of the cosmological constant leads to the vanishing of the graviton mass at the one-loop level. In the same Abelian Higgs model, we also calculate the matter quantum corrections to the Newtonian potential and present analytical formulae in terms of modified Bessel and Struve functions of the particle masses in the loop. We show that the correction to the Newtonian potential exhibits an exponential fall-off dependence on the distance $r$, once the non-relativistic limit with respect to the non-zero loop mass is carefully considered. For massless scalars, fermions and gauge bosons in the loops, we recover the well-known results presented in the literature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Kadanoff-Baym Approach to Flavour Mixing and Oscillations in Resonant Leptogenesis

We describe a loopwise perturbative truncation scheme for quantum transport equations in the Kadanoff-Baym formalism, which does not necessitate the use of the so-called Kadanoff-Baym or quasi-particle ansaetze for dressed propagators. This truncation scheme is used to study flavour effects in the context of Resonant Leptogenesis (RL), showing explicitly that, in the weakly-resonant regime, there exist two distinct and pertinent flavour effects in the heavy-neutrino sector: (i) the resonant mixing and (ii) the oscillations between different heavy-neutrino flavours. Moreover, we illustrate that Kadanoff-Baym and quasi-particle ansaetze, whilst appropriate for the flavour-singlet dressed charged-lepton and Higgs propagators of the RL scenario, should not be applied to the dressed heavy-neutrino propagators. The use of these approximations for the latter is shown to capture only flavour oscillations, whilst discarding the separate phenomenon of flavour mixing.

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arXiv2014

Flavour Covariant Transport Equations: an Application to Resonant Leptogenesis

We present a fully flavour-covariant formalism for transport phenomena, by deriving Markovian master equations that describe the time-evolution of particle number densities in a statistical ensemble with arbitrary flavour content. As an application of this general formalism, we study flavour effects in a scenario of resonant leptogenesis (RL) and obtain the flavour-covariant evolution equations for heavy-neutrino and lepton number densities. This provides a complete and unified description of RL, capturing three distinct physical phenomena: (i) the resonant mixing between the heavy-neutrino states, (ii) coherent oscillations between different heavy-neutrino flavours, and (iii) quantum decoherence effects in the charged-lepton sector. To illustrate the importance of this formalism, we numerically solve the flavour-covariant rate equations for a minimal RL model and show that the total lepton asymmetry can be enhanced by up to one order of magnitude, as compared to that obtained from flavour-diagonal or partially flavour off-diagonal rate equations. Thus, the viable RL model parameter space is enlarged, thereby enhancing further the prospects of probing a common origin of neutrino masses and the baryon asymmetry in the Universe at the LHC, as well as in low-energy experiments searching for lepton flavour and number violation. The key new ingredients in our flavour-covariant formalism are rank-4 rate tensors, which are required for the consistency of our flavour-mixing treatment, as shown by an explicit calculation of the relevant transition amplitudes by generalizing the optical theorem. We also provide a geometric and physical interpretation of the heavy-neutrino degeneracy limits in the minimal RL scenario. Finally, we comment on the consistency of various suggested forms for the heavy-neutrino self-energy regulator in the lepton-number conserving limit.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Comment on "the decoupling of heavy sneutrinos in low-scale seesaw models"

The authors of a recent communication [arXiv:1312.5318] claim to have traced an error in the existing literature regarding the evaluation of the one-loop right-handed sneutrino contributions to lepton-flavour-violating observables in supersymmetric low-scale seesaw models. In this short note, we emphasize that contrary to those authors' claim, our paper [arXiv:1212.5939] contains no such a flaw, and both our analytical and numerical results exhibit the expected decoupling property of the heavy sneutrinos in the Z-penguin graphs.

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arXiv2014

New Production Mechanism for Heavy Neutrinos at the LHC

We study a new production mechanism for heavy neutrinos at the LHC, which dominates over the usually considered $s$-channel $W$-exchange diagram for heavy-neutrino masses larger than 100 - 200 GeV. The new mechanism is infrared-enhanced by $t$-channel $Wγ$-fusion processes. This has important implications for experimental tests of the seesaw mechanism of neutrino masses, and in particular, for the ongoing heavy neutrino searches at the LHC. We find that the direct collider limits on the light-to-heavy neutrino mixing can be significantly improved, when this new production channel is properly taken into account. The scope of this new mechanism can equally well be extended to other exotic searches at the LHC.

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arXiv2013

Lepton Dipole Moments in Supersymmetric Low-Scale Seesaw Models

We study the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of charged leptons in supersymmetric low-scale seesaw models with right-handed neutrino superfields. We consider a minimally extended framework of minimal supergravity, by assuming that CP violation originates from complex soft SUSY-breaking bilinear and trilinear couplings associated with the right-handed sneutrino sector. We present numerical estimates of the muon anomalous magnetic moment and the electron electric dipole moment (EDM), as functions of key model parameters, such as the Majorana mass scale mN and tan(β). In particular, we find that the contributions of the singlet heavy neutrinos and sneutrinos to the electron EDM are naturally small in this model, of order 10^{-27} - 10^{-28} e cm, and can be probed in the present and future experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Perturbative Non-Equilibrium Thermal Field Theory

We present a new perturbative formulation of non-equilibrium thermal field theory, based upon non-homogeneous free propagators and time-dependent vertices. Our approach to non-equilibrium dynamics yields time-dependent diagrammatic perturbation series that are free of pinch singularities, without the need to resort to quasi-particle approximation or effective resummations of finite widths. In our formalism, the avoidance of pinch singularities is a consequence of the consistent inclusion of finite-time effects and the proper consideration of the time of observation. After introducing a physically meaningful definition of particle number densities, we derive master time evolution equations for statistical distribution functions, which are valid to all orders in perturbation theory. The resulting equations do not rely upon a gradient expansion of Wigner transforms or involve any separation of time scales. To illustrate the key features of our formalism, we study out-of-equilibrium decay dynamics of unstable particles in a simple scalar model. In particular, we show how finite-time effects remove the pinch singularities and lead to violation of energy conservation at early times, giving rise to otherwise kinematically forbidden processes. The non-Markovian nature of the memory effects as predicted in our formalism is explicitly demonstrated.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Symmetry Improved CJT Effective Action

The formalism introduced by Cornwall, Jackiw and Tomboulis (CJT) provides a systematic approach to consistently resumming non-perturbative effects in Quantum Thermal Field Theory. One major limitation of the CJT effective action is that its loopwise expansion introduces residual violations of possible global symmetries, thus giving rise to massive Goldstone bosons in the spontaneously broken phase of the theory. In this paper we develop a novel symmetry-improved CJT formalism for consistently encoding global symmetries in a loopwise expansion. In our formalism, the extremal solutions of the fields and propagators to a loopwise truncated CJT effective action are subject to additional constraints given by the Ward identities due to global symmetries. By considering a simple O(2) scalar model, we show that, unlike other methods, our approach satisfies a number of important field-theoretic properties. In particular, we find that the Goldstone boson resulting from spontaneous symmetry breaking of O(2) is massless and the phase transition is a second order one, already in the Hartree-Fock approximation. After taking the sunset diagrams into account, we show how our approach properly describes the threshold properties of the massless Goldstone boson and the Higgs particle in the loops. Finally, assuming minimal modifications to the Hartree-Fock approximated CJT effective action, we calculate the corresponding symmetry-improved CJT effective potential and discuss the conditions for its uniqueness for scalar-field values away from its minimum.

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arXiv2013

Anomalous Fermion Mass Generation at Three Loops

We present a novel mechanism for generating gauge-invariant fermion masses through global anomalies at the three loop level. In a gauge theory, global anomalies are triggered by the possible existence of scalar or pseudoscalar states and heavy fermions, whose masses may not necessarily result from spontaneous symmetry breaking. The implications of this mass-generating mechanism for model building are discussed, including the possibility of creating low-scale fermion masses by quantum gravity effects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Perturbative Non-Equilibrium Thermal Field Theory to all Orders in Gradient Expansion

We present a new perturbative formulation of non-equilibrium thermal field theory, based upon non-homogeneous free propagators and time-dependent vertices. The resulting time-dependent diagrammatic perturbation series are free of pinch singularities without the need for quasi-particle approximation or effective resummation of finite widths. After arriving at a physically meaningful definition of particle number densities, we derive master time evolution equations for statistical distribution functions, which are valid to all orders in perturbation theory and to all orders in a gradient expansion. For a scalar model, we perform a perturbative loopwise truncation of these evolution equations, whilst still capturing fast transient behaviour, which is found to be dominated by energy-violating processes, leading to the non-Markovian evolution of memory effects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Light and Superlight Sterile Neutrinos in the Minimal Radiative Inverse Seesaw Model

We explore the possibility of light and superlight sterile neutrinos in the recently proposed Minimal Radiative Inverse Seesaw extension of the Standard Model for neutrino masses, in which all existing neutrino data can be explained. In particular, we discuss two benchmark scenarios with one of the three sterile neutrino states in the keV-range, having very small mixing with the active neutrinos to account for the Dark Matter in the Universe, while (i) the other two light sterile neutrino states could be in the eV-range, possessing a nonzero mixing with the active states as required to explain the LSND+MiniBooNE+reactor neutrino data, or (ii) one of the light sterile states is in the eV-range, whereas the second one could be superlight and almost mass-degenerate with the solar neutrinos. Such superlight sterile neutrinos could give rise to potentially observable effects in future neutrino oscillation experiments and may also offer a possible explanation for the extra radiation observed in the Universe.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Charged Lepton Flavour Violation in Supersymmetric Low-Scale Seesaw Models

We study charged lepton flavour violation in low-scale seesaw models of minimal supergravity, which realize large neutrino Yukawa couplings thanks to approximate lepton-number symmetries. There are two dominant sources of lepton flavour violation in such models. The first source originates from the usual soft supersymmetry-breaking sector, whilst the second one is entirely supersymmetric and comes from the supersymmetric neutrino Yukawa sector. Within the framework of minimal supergravity, we consider both sources of lepton flavour violation, soft and supersymmetric, and calculate a number of possible lepton-flavour-violating transitions, such as the photonic decays of muons and taus, mu -> e gamma, tau -> e gamma and tau -> mu gamma, their neutrinoless three-body decays, mu -> e e e, tau -> e e e, tau -> mu mu mu, tau -> e e mu and tau -> e mu mu, and the coherent mu -> e conversion in nuclei. After taking into account the exclusion bounds placed by present experiments of lepton flavour violation, we derive combined theoretical limits on the universal heavy Majorana mass scale mN and the light-to-heavy neutrino mixings. Supersymmetric low-scale seesaw models offer distinct correlated predictions for lepton-flavour-violating signatures, which might be discovered in current and projected experiments, such as MEG, COMET/PRISM, Mu2e, super-BELLE and LHCb.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2013

Thermal field theory to all orders in gradient expansion

We present a new perturbative formulation of non-equilibrium thermal field theory, based upon non-homogeneous free propagators and time-dependent vertices. The resulting time-dependent diagrammatic perturbation series are free of pinch singularities without the need for quasi-particle approximation or effective resummation of finite widths. After arriving at a physically meaningful definition of particle number densities, we derive master time evolution equations for statistical distribution functions, which are valid to all orders in perturbation theory and all orders in a gradient expansion. For a scalar model, we make a loopwise truncation of these evolution equations, whilst still capturing fast transient behaviour, which is found to be dominated by energy-violating processes, leading to non-Markovian evolution of memory effects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Anomalous Majorana Neutrino Masses from Torsionful Quantum Gravity

The effect of quantum torsion in theories of quantum gravity is usually described by an axion-like field which couples to matter and to gravitation and radiation gauge fields. In perturbation theory, the couplings of this torsion-descent axion field are of derivative type and so preserve a shift symmetry. This shift symmetry may be broken, if the torsion-descent axion field mixes with other axions, which could be related to moduli fields in string-inspired effective theories. In particular, the shift symmetry may break explicitly via non-perturbative effects, when these axions couple to fermions via chirality changing Yukawa couplings with appropriately suppressed coefficients. We show, how in such theories an effective right-handed Majorana neutrino mass can be generated at two loops by gravitational interactions that involve global anomalies related to quantum torsion. We estimate the magnitude of the gravitationally induced Majorana mass and find that it is highly model dependent, ranging from multi-TeV to keV scale.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Minimal Radiative Neutrino Mass Mechanism for Inverse Seesaw Models

We study a minimal one-loop radiative mechanism for generating small Majorana neutrino masses in inverse seesaw extensions of the Standard Model with two singlet fermions per family. The new feature of this radiative mechanism is that the one-loop induced left-handed neutrino mass matrix is directly proportional to the Majorana mass matrix of the right-handed neutrinos. This is a very economical scenario without necessitating the existence of non-standard scalar or gauge fields.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Radiative Corrections to Scalar Masses and Mixing in a Scale Invariant Two Higgs Doublet Model

We study the Higgs-boson mass spectrum of a classical scale-invariant realization of the two-Higgs-doublet model (SI-2HDM). The classical scale symmetry of the theory is explicitly broken by quantum loop effects due to gauge interactions, Higgs self-couplings and top-quark Yukawa couplings. We determine the allowed parameter space compatible with perturbative unitarity and electroweak precision data. Taking into account the LEP and the recent LHC exclusion limits on a Standard-Model-like Higgs boson H_SM, we obtain rather strict constraints on the mass spectrum of the heavy Higgs sector of the SI-2HDM. In particular, if M_{H_SM} \sim 125 GeV, the SI-2HDM strongly favours scenarios, in which at least one of the non-standard neutral Higgs bosons has a mass close to 400 GeV and is generically degenerate with the charged Higgs boson, whilst the third neutral Higgs scalar is lighter than ~ 500 GeV.

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