arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Christopher D. Carone.
Motivated by a model of pseudo-Majoron dark matter, we show how the breaking of a global symmetry that acts nontrivially in lepton generation space can lead to a viable pseudo-familon dark matter candidate. Unlike the pseudo-Majoron, the pseudo-familon in our model decays primarily to charged leptons and can account for the excess observed in the cosmic ray electron and positron spectra.
We consider possible leptonic three-body decays of spin-1/2, charge-asymmetric dark matter. Assuming a general Dirac structure for the four-fermion contact interactions of interest, we study the cosmic-ray electron and positron spectra and show that good fits to the current data can be obtained for both charged-lepton-flavor-conserving and flavor-violating decay channels. We find that different choices for the Dirac structure of the underlying decay operator can be significantly compensated by different choices for the dark matter mass and lifetime. The decay modes we consider provide differing predictions for the cosmic-ray positron fraction at energies higher than those currently probed at the PAMELA experiment; these predictions might be tested at cosmic-ray detectors like AMS-02.
We construct a model of decaying, TeV-scale scalar dark matter motivated by data from the PAMELA and Fermi-LAT experiments. By introducing an appropriate Abelian discrete symmetry and an intermediate scale of vector-like states that are responsible for generating lepton Yukawa couplings, we show that Planck-suppressed corrections may lead to decaying dark matter that is leptophilic and has the desired lifetime. The dark matter candidate decays primarily to lepton/anti-lepton pairs, and at a subleading rate to final states with a lepton, anti-lepton and standard model Higgs boson. We show that the model can reproduce the observed positron flux and positron fraction while remaining consistent with the bounds on the cosmic ray antiproton flux.
Motivated by dimensional deconstruction, we propose a model of tribimaximal neutrino mixing based on A_4 x A_4 symmetry. In this model, the two triplet symmetry-breaking fields of conventional A_4 models are taken to transform under different A_4 group factors, but are not distinguished by any other quantum numbers. An additional bi-triplet flavon field breaks A_4 x A_4 to its diagonal subgroup. If the bi-triplet transforms under an additional Z_3 symmetry, we show that one can construct a general, renormalizable superpotential that yields the desired pattern of symmetry breaking. We identify the features that this model has in common with a deconstructed 5D theory in which A_4 is a subgroup of a continuous gauged flavor symmetry in the bulk.
We construct an explicit, TeV-scale model of decaying dark matter in which the approximate stability of the dark matter candidate is a consequence of a global symmetry that is broken only by instanton-induced operators generated by a non-Abelian dark gauge group. The dominant dark matter decay channels are to standard model leptons. Annihilation of the dark matter to standard model states occurs primarily through the Higgs portal. We show that the mass and lifetime of the dark matter candidate in this model can be chosen to be consistent with the values favored by fits to data from the PAMELA and Fermi LAT experiments.
We consider a model of strong electroweak symmetry breaking in which the expectation value of an additional, possibly composite, scalar field is responsible for the generation of fermion masses. The dynamics of the strongly coupled sector is defined and studied via its holographic dual, and does not correspond to a simple, scaled-up version of QCD. We consider the bounds from perturbative unitarity, the S parameter, and the mass of the Higgs-like scalar. We show that the combination of these constraints leaves a relatively limited region of parameter space viable, and suggests the qualitative features of the model that might be probed at the LHC.
We obtain a general parametrization for the neutrino Majorana mass matrix in which all possible deviations from tribimaximal mixing are given by three complex parameters, and the deviation from each tribimaximal mixing eigenvector is identified with precisely two of them. This parametrization provides a useful tool for classifying the corrections to exact tribimaximal mixing in flavor models.
Lee-Wick partners to the Standard Model Higgs doublet may appear at a mass scale that is significantly lower than that of the remaining Lee-Wick partner states. The relevant effective theory is a two-Higgs doublet model in which one doublet has wrong-sign kinetic and mass terms. We determine bounds on this effective theory, including those from neutral B-meson mixing, b --> X_s gamma, and Z --> b b-bar. The results differ from those of conventional two-Higgs doublet models and lead to meaningful constraints on the Lee-Wick Higgs sector.
We consider gauge coupling unification in Lee-Wick extensions of the Standard Model that include higher-derivative quadratic terms beyond the minimally required set. We determine how the beta functions are modified when some Standard Model particles have two Lee-Wick partners. We show that gauge coupling unification can be achieved in such models without requiring the introduction of additional fields in the higher-derivative theory and we comment on possible ultraviolet completions.
The Lee-Wick Standard Model assumes a minimal set of higher-derivative quadratic terms that produce a negative-norm partner for each Standard Model particle. Here we introduce additional terms of one higher order in the derivative expansion that give each Standard Model particle two Lee-Wick partners: one with negative and one with positive norm. These states collectively cancel unwanted quadratic divergences and resolve the hierarchy problem as in the minimal theory. We show how this next-to-minimal higher-derivative theory may be reformulated via an auxiliary field approach and written as a Lagrangian with interactions of dimension four or less. This mapping provides a convenient framework for studies of the formal and phenomenological properties of the theory.
We consider a minimal Lee-Wick (LW) extension to the Standard Model in which the fields providing the most important contributions to the cancellation of quadratic divergences are the lightest. Partners to the SU(2) gauge bosons, Higgs, top quark, and left-handed bottom quark are retained in the low-energy effective theory, which is valid up to approximately 10 TeV; the remaining LW partners appear above this cutoff and complete the theory in the ultraviolet. We determine the constraints on the low-energy spectrum from the electroweak parameters S and T, and find LW states within the kinematic reach of the LHC at the 95% confidence level.
We describe higher-dimensional theories whose low-energy 4D descriptions contain larger gauge or global symmetry groups. As an example, we construct a Higgsless SU(2) x U(1) model of electroweak symmetry breaking. The 5D SU(2) gauge invariance contains both the weak SU(2) gauge group and a custodial symmetry that protects the rho parameter. Fermions obtain isospin-violating masses while maintaining universal gauge couplings among all three generations. As a further example, we construct a model of chiral color based on a single SU(3).
We consider a gauge extension of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model based on the group G_2 x SU(2)x U(1). The exceptional group G_2 is the smallest rank two group that contains SU(3) as a subgroup; the SU(3) prediction sin^2 theta_w=1/4 follows approximately in this model if the couplings of the additional SU(2) and U(1) factors are sufficiently large. We study the symmetry breaking sector of the model, the bounds from precision electroweak constraints and the mass spectrum of exotic gauge bosons that may be produced at future colliders. We also discuss an SU(3) electroweak model in which a vector-like sector is included explicitly to facilitate the decays of otherwise stable exotic states. The models considered here represent plausible extensions of the minimal SU(3) electroweak model with potentially distinctive TeV-scale phenomenology.
We observe several interesting phenomena in a technicolor-like model of electroweak symmetry breaking based on the D4-D8-D8bar system of Sakai and Sugimoto. The benefit of holographic models based on D-brane configurations is that both sides of the holographic duality are well understood. We find that the lightest technicolor resonances contribute negatively to the Peskin-Takeuchi S-parameter, but heavy resonances do not decouple and lead generically to large, positive values of S, consistent with standard estimates in QCD-like theories. We study how the S parameter and the masses and decay constants of the vector and axial-vector techni-resonances vary over a one-parameter family of D8-brane configurations. We discuss possibilities for the consistent truncation of the theory to the first few resonances and suggest some generic predictions of stringy holographic technicolor models.
We consider a technicolor model in which the expectation value of an additional, possibly composite, scalar field is responsible for the generation of fermion masses. We define the dynamics of the strongly coupled sector by constructing its holographic dual. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study the S parameter and the phenomenology of the light technihadrons. We find that the S parameter is small over a significant region of the model's parameter space. The particle spectrum is distinctive and includes a nonstandard Higgs boson as well as heavier hadronic resonances. Technihadron masses and decay rates are calculated holographically, as a function of the model's parameters.
We study a supersymmetric deconstructed gauge theory in which a warp factor emerges dynamically, driven by Fayet-Iliopoulos terms. The model is peculiar in that it possesses a global supersymmetry that remains unbroken despite nonvanishing D-term vacuum expectation values. Inclusion of gravity and/or additional messenger fields leads to the collective breaking of supersymmetry and to an unusual phenomenology.
Violations of Lorentz invariance that appear via operators of dimension four or less are completely parameterized in the Standard Model Extension (SME). In the pure photonic sector of the SME, there are nineteen dimensionless, Lorentz-violating parameters. Eighteen of these have experimental upper bounds ranging between 10^{-11} and 10^{-32}; the remaining parameter, k_tr, is isotropic and has a much weaker bound of order 10^{-4}. In this Brief Report, we point out that k_tr gives a significant contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron and find a new upper bound of order 10^{-8}. With reasonable assumptions, we further show that this bound may be improved to 10^{-14} by considering the renormalization of other Lorentz-violating parameters that are more tightly constrained. Using similar renormalization arguments, we also estimate bounds on Lorentz violating parameters in the pure gluonic sector of QCD.
It has been suggested that one may construct a Lorentz-invariant noncommutative field theory by extending the coordinate algebra to additional, fictitious coordinates that transform nontrivially under the Lorentz group. Integration over these coordinates in the action produces a four-dimensional effective theory with Lorentz invariance intact. Previous applications of this approach, in particular to a specific construction of noncommutative QED, have been studied only in a low-momentum approximation. Here we discuss Lorentz-invariant field theories in which the relevant physics can be studied without requiring an expansion in the inverse scale of noncommutativity. Qualitatively, we find that tree-level scattering cross sections are dramatically suppressed as the center-of-mass energy exceeds the scale of noncommutativity, that cross sections that are isotropic in the commutative limit can develop a pronounced angular dependence, and that nonrelativistic potentials (for example, the Coloumb potential) become nonsingular at the origin. We consider a number of processes in noncommutative QED that may be studied at a future linear collider. We also give an example of scattering via a four-fermion operator in which the noncommutative modifications of the interaction can unitarize the tree-level amplitude, without requiring any other new physics in the ultraviolet.