arXiv subjects

Ferruccio Feruglio

Publications and source records attributed to Ferruccio Feruglio.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

On the decay of a light spinless particle into two photons

We analyze the effective couplings of a light, spinless, gauge-singlet particle $ϕ$ to on-shell photons. Starting from the most general theory at the electroweak scale, which allows for CP-violating interactions suppressed by inverse powers of an ultraviolet scale $Λ$, we derive the corresponding low-energy effective theory valid below the GeV scale. Within this framework, we systematically expand the effective couplings of $ϕ$ to on-shell photons in powers of small parameters. Working at the one-loop level, we retain terms at first order in $1/Λ$. We incorporate both isospin-breaking effects and $η$-$η'$ mixing, and provide explicit expressions for the couplings up to first order in $m_ϕ^2/m_η^2$ and $m_π^2/m_η^2$. As applications, we compute the decay rate of $ϕ$ into two photons and illustrate our results in several physically motivated scenarios.

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arXiv2025

Solving the strong CP problem in string-inspired theories with modular invariance

We show that solutions to the strong CP problem based on modular invariance can be extended to incorporate features that appear in string compactifications: quarks with mostly positive modular weights and non-trivial gauge kinetic functions. This requires assuming that singularities and zeroes only appear at special points, such as decompactification limits. We discuss the impact of these assumptions on string gauge unification.

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arXiv2025

Quark and lepton masses

Quarks and leptons, the fundamental building blocks of the subatomic world, manifest in three families - replicas with identical quantum numbers that differ only in their masses. After summarizing the present data, an overview is presented of the main attempts to explain the origin of the observed patterns and trace it back to an as-yet-unknown fundamental principle.

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arXiv2025

CPon Dark Matter

We study a class of supersymmetric models where the strong CP problem is solved through spontaneous CP violation, carried out by a complex scalar field that determines the Yukawa couplings of the theory. Assuming that one real component of this field - the CPon - is light, we examine the conditions under which it provides a viable Dark Matter candidate. The CPon couplings to fermions are largely determined by the field-dependent Yukawa interactions, and induce couplings to gauge bosons at 1-loop. All couplings are suppressed by an undetermined UV scale, which needs to exceed $10^{12}$ GeV in order to satisfy constraints on excessive stellar cooling and rare kaon decays. The CPon mass is limited from below by 5th force experiments and from above by X-ray telescopes looking for CPon decays to photons, leaving a range roughly between 10 meV and 1 MeV. Everywhere in the allowed parameter space the CPon can saturate the observed Dark Matter abundance through an appropriate balance of misalignment and freeze-in production from heavy SM fermions.

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arXiv2025

Family Matters

Quarks and leptons, the fundamental building blocks of the subatomic world, manifest in three families - replicas with identical quantum numbers that differ only in their masses. After revisiting the key milestones that led to the discovery of this peculiar structure, a non-technical overview is presented of the main attempts to explain its origin and trace it back to an as-yet-unknown fundamental principle.

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arXiv2024

Solving the strong CP problem without axions

We formulate general conditions under which the strong CP problem is solved by spontaneous CP violation. Quark-mass matrix elements are polynomials in the CP-breaking order parameters, engineered such that their determinant is a real constant. This scheme permits only a limited number of textures. These conditions can be realized in supersymmetric theories with CP as an anomaly-free local flavour symmetry, suggesting a unified solution to the strong CP problem and the flavour puzzle. Our solution can be implemented using either modular invariance or a local U(1) symmetry. We present modular-invariant realizations where matter fields are assigned small modular weights $\pm2$ ($\pm1$), utilising higher levels $N=2$ ($N=3$). Heavy quarks are in general not required, but their presence allows for models where colored particles fill non-singlet representations of the flavour group.

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arXiv2024

Universal predictions of Siegel modular invariant theories near the fixed points

We analyze a general class of locally supersymmetric, CP and modular invariant models of lepton masses depending on two complex moduli taking values in the vicinity of a fixed point, where the theory enjoys a residual symmetry under a finite group. Like in models that depend on a single modulus, we find that all physical quantities exhibit a universal scaling with the distance from the fixed point. There is no dependence on the level of the construction, the weights of matter multiplets and their representations, with the only restriction that electroweak lepton doublets transform as irreducible triplets of the finite modular group. Also the form of the kinetic terms, which here are assumed to be neither minimal nor flavor blind, is irrelevant to the outcome. The result is remarkably simple and the whole class of examined theories gives rise to five independent patterns of neutrino mass matrices. Only in one of them, the predicted scaling agrees with the observed neutrino mass ratios and lepton mixing angles, exactly as in single modulus theories living close to $τ=i$.

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arXiv2023

Modular invariance and the QCD angle

String compactifications on an orbi-folded torus with complex structure give rise to chiral fermions, spontaneously broken CP, modular invariance. We show that this allows simple effective theories of flavour and CP where: i) the QCD angle vanishes; ii) the CKM phase is large; iii) quark and lepton masses and mixings can be reproduced up to order one coefficients. We implement such general paradigm in supersymmetry or supergravity, with modular forms or functions, with or without heavy colored states.

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arXiv2023

Fermion masses, critical behavior and universality

We look for signals of critical behavior in the Yukawa sector. By reviewing a set of models for the fermion masses, we select those where a symmetry-breaking order parameter sits at a transition point between a disordered phase and an ordered one. Many models based on ordinary flavor symmetries are formulated in terms of small corrections to a symmetric limit, which can hardly be interpreted unambiguously as a sign of near-criticality. Different is the case of nonlinearly realized flavor symmetries when the system is always in the broken phase. By inspecting a large number of modular and CP invariant models of lepton masses, we find that most of them cluster around the fixed point $τ= i$, where the system enjoys enhanced symmetry. Since a priori all values of the modulus $τ$ are equally acceptable to describe the fermion spectrum, we regard this preference as a hint of near-criticality. We analyze in detail these models in the vicinity of all fixed points, showing that only one possibility provides a good description of neutrino masses and mixing angles. Near the fixed points the models exhibit a universal behavior. Mass ratios and mixing angles scale with appropriate powers of the order parameter, independently of the details of the theory, a feature reminiscent of systems belonging to the same universality class in second-order phase transitions. The observations of this work are inspired by the role near-criticality might play in solving the naturalness problem and are motivated by the fascinating possibility that most of the free parameters of the Standard Model could find a common explanation.

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arXiv2022

The irresistible call of $τ=i$

We analyze a large set of modular invariant models of lepton masses and mixing angles, pointing out that many of them prefer to live close to the self-dual point $τ=i$. We show that in the vicinity of this point a universal behavior naturally emerges, independently from details of the theory such as the finite modular group acting on the lepton multiplets, the weights of the matter multiplets and even the form of the kinetic terms, which are not required to be neither minimal nor flavour blind. The neutrino mass spectrum is normally ordered and universal relations describe the scaling of the physical observables in terms of the parameter $|τ-i|$.

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arXiv2022

Gauge Invariance and Finite Counterterms in Chiral Gauge Theories

We derive the finite one-loop counterterm required to restore the Ward Identities broken by the regularization scheme in chiral gauge theories. Our result is an analytic expression applicable to a wide class of regularizations satisfying a few general properties. We adopt the background field method, which ensures background gauge invariance in the quantized theory, and focus on renormalizable chiral theories with arbitrary gauge group and fermions in general representations. Our approach can be extended to theories involving scalars, such as the Standard Model, or to non-renormalizable theories, such as the SMEFT. As a concrete application, we work out the finite counterterm at one loop in the Standard Model, within dimensional regularization and the Breitenlohner-Maison-'t Hooft-Veltman prescription for $γ_5$.

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arXiv2021

Modular Invariant Dynamics and Fermion Mass Hierarchies around $τ= i$

We discuss fermion mass hierarchies within modular invariant flavour models. We analyse the neighbourhood of the self-dual point $τ=i$, where modular invariant theories possess a residual $Z_4$ invariance. In this region the breaking of $Z_4$ can be fully described by the spurion $ε\approx τ- i$, that flips its sign under $Z_4$. Degeneracies or vanishing eigenvalues of fermion mass matrices, forced by the $Z_4$ symmetry at $τ=i$, are removed by slightly deviating from the self-dual point. Relevant mass ratios are controlled by powers of $|ε|$. We present examples where this mechanism is a key ingredient to successfully implement an hierarchical spectrum in the lepton sector, even in the presence of a non-minimal Kähler potential.

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arXiv2021

A Note on Gauge Anomaly Cancellation in Effective Field Theories

The conditions for the absence of gauge anomalies in effective field theories (EFT) are rivisited. General results from the cohomology of the BRST operator do not prevent potential anomalies arising from the non-renormalizable sector, when the gauge group is not semi-simple, like in the Standard Model EFT (SMEFT). By considering a simple explicit model that mimics the SMEFT properties, we compute the anomaly in the regularized theory, including a complete set of dimension six operators. We show that the dependence of the anomaly on the non-renormalizable part can be removed by adding a local counterterm to the theory. As a result the condition for gauge anomaly cancellation is completely controlled by the charge assignment of the fermion sector, as in the renormalizable theory.

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arXiv2021

Lepton Flavour Symmetries

We provide a general classification of flavour symmetries according to their interplay with the proper Poincare' and gauge groups and to their linear or nonlinear action in field space. We focus on the lepton sector and we review the different types of symmetries describing neutrino masses and the lepton mixing matrix. For each type of symmetry we present several illustrative examples and we discuss specific strengths and limitations.

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arXiv2021

CP Symmetry and Symplectic Modular Invariance

We analyze CP symmetry in symplectic modular-invariant supersymmetric theories. We show that for genus $g\ge 3$ the definition of CP is unique, while two independent possibilities are allowed when $g\le 2$. We discuss the transformation properties of moduli, matter multiplets and modular forms in the Siegel upper half plane, as well as in invariant subspaces. We identify CP-conserving surfaces in the fundamental domain of moduli space. We make use of all these elements to build a CP and symplectic invariant model of lepton masses and mixing angles, where known data are well reproduced and observable phases are predicted in terms of a minimum number of parameters.

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arXiv2020

Automorphic Forms and Fermion Masses

We extend the framework of modular invariant supersymmetric theories to encompass invariance under more general discrete groups $Γ$, that allow the presence of several moduli and make connection with the theory of automorphic forms. Moduli span a coset space $G/K$, where $G$ is a Lie group and $K$ is a compact subgroup of $G$, modded out by $Γ$. For a general choice of $G$, $K$, $Γ$ and a generic matter content, we explicitly construct a minimal Kähler potential and a general superpotential, for both rigid and local $N=1$ supersymmetric theories. We also specialize our construction to the case $G=Sp(2g,R)$, $K=U(g)$ and $Γ=Sp(2g,Z)$, whose automorphic forms are Siegel modular forms. We show how our general theory can be consistently restricted to multi-dimensional regions of the moduli space enjoying residual symmetries. After choosing $g=2$, we present several examples of models for lepton and quark masses where Yukawa couplings are Siegel modular forms of level 2.

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arXiv2020

Testing Moduli and Flavon Dynamics with Neutrino Oscillations

We study scalar Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions (NSI) induced by moduli or flavon exchange between electrons and neutrinos. In a region with non-vanishing electron number density, they are known to determine a shift of the neutrino mass matrix. We review and extend the relevant formalism, and we update the existing limits on electron and neutrino scalar couplings. We explore the observability of scalar NSI in models of lepton masses based on flavour symmetries. We analyze models where the scalar couplings are constrained either by abelian symmetries or by modular invariance. We highlight regions of the parameter space where observable effects can occur.

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arXiv2019

Modular Invariant Models of Lepton Masses at Levels 4 and 5

We explore alternative descriptions of the charged lepton sector in modular invariant models of lepton masses and mixing angles. In addition to the modulus, the symmetry breaking sector of our models includes ordinary flavons. Neutrino mass terms depend only on the modulus and are tailored to minimize the number of free parameters. The charged lepton Yukawa couplings rely upon the flavons alone. We build modular invariant models at levels 4 and 5, where neutrino masses are described both in terms of the Weinberg operator or through a type I seesaw mechanism. At level 4, our models reproduce the hierarchy among electron, muon and tau masses by letting the weights play the role of Froggatt-Nielsen charges. At level 5, our setup allows the treatment of left and right handed charged leptons on the same footing. We have optimized the free parameters of our models in order to match the experimental data, obtaining a good degree of compatibility and predictions for the absolute neutrino masses and the $CP$ violating phases. At a more fundamental level, the whole lepton sector could be correctly described by the simultaneous presence of several moduli. Our examples are meant to make a first step in this direction.

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