arXiv subjects

Graham G. Ross

Publications and source records attributed to Graham G. Ross.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Discrete family symmetry, Higgs mediators and theta_{13}

We present a new (supersymmetric) framework for obtaining an excellent description of quark, charged lepton and neutrino masses and mixings from a Delta(6n^2) family symmetry with multiplet assignments consistent with an underlying SO(10) Grand Unification. It employs a Higgs mediator sector in place of the usual Froggatt-Nielsen messengers, with quark and lepton messengers, and provides significant improvements over existing models of this type having unsuppressed Yukawa couplings to the third generation and a simplified vacuum alignment mechanism. The neutrino mass differences are naturally less hierarchical than those of the quarks and charged leptons. Similarly the lepton mixing angles are much larger than those in the quark sector and have an approximate tri-bi-maximal (TB) mixing form for theta_{12} and theta_{23}. However the mixing angle theta_{13} is naturally much larger than in pure TB mixing and can be consistent with the value found in recent experiments. The magnitude of theta_{13} is correlated with a the predicted deviation of theta_{23} from bi-maximal mixing. The model has light familon fields that can significantly modify the associated SUSY phenomenology.

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arXiv2012

The generalised NMSSM at one loop: fine tuning and phenomenology

We determine the degree of fine tuning needed in a generalised version of the NMSSM that follows from an underlying Z4 or Z8 R symmetry. We find that it is significantly less than is found in the MSSM or NMSSM and extends the range of Higgs mass that have acceptable fine tuning up to Higgs masses of mh ~ 130 GeV. For universal boundary conditions analogous to the CMSSM the phenomenology is rather MSSM like with the singlet states typically rather heavy. For more general boundary conditions the singlet states can be light, leading to interesting signatures at the LHC and direct detection experiments.

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arXiv2012

The fine-tuning of the generalised NMSSM

We determine the degree of fine-tuning needed in a generalised version of the NMSSM that follows from an underlying Z4 or Z8 R-symmetry. We find that it is significantly less than is found in the MSSM or NMSSM and extends the range of Higgs mass that have acceptable fine-tuning. Remarkably the minimal fine-tuning is achieved for Higgs masses of around 130 GeV.

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arXiv2011

Towards a Realistic F-theory GUT

We consider semi-local F-theory GUTs arising from a single E_8 point of local enhancement, leading to simple GUT groups based on E_6, SO(10) and SU(5) with SU(3), SU(4) and SU(5) spectral covers, respectively. Assuming the minimal Z_2 monodromy, we determine the homology classes and the associated spectra after flux breaking for each case. Our analysis includes the GUT singlets which have hitherto been ignored but which play a crucial role in phenomenology. Using these results we construct an E_6 based model that demonstrates, for the first time, that it is possible to construct a phenomenologically viable model which leads to the MSSM at low energies. The exotics that result from flux breaking all get a large mass when singlet fields acquire vacuum expectation values driven by D- and F-flatness. Due to the underlying GUT symmetry and the U(1)s descending from E_8, bare baryon- and lepton-number violating terms are forbidden up to and including dimension 5. As a result nucleon decay is naturally suppressed below present bounds. The mu-term is forbidden by the U(1) but is generated at the SUSY breaking scale when a further singlet field acquires a TeV scale vacuum expectation value, driven by the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry. After including the effect of flux and instanton corrections acceptable quark and charged lepton masses and mixing angles can be obtained. Neutrinos get a mass from the see-saw mechanism through their coupling to singlet neutrinos that acquire large Majorana mass as a result of the monodromy.

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arXiv2011

Discrete R symmetries for the MSSM and its singlet extensions

We determine the anomaly free discrete R symmetries, consistent with the MSSM, that commute with SU(5) and suppress the $μ$ parameter and nucleon decay. We show that the order M of such $Z_M^R$ symmetries has to divide 24 and identify 5 viable symmetries. The simplest possibility is a $Z_4^R$ symmetry which commutes with SO(10). We present a string-derived model with this $Z_4^R$ symmetry and the exact MSSM spectrum below the GUT scale; in this model $Z_4^R$ originates from the Lorentz symmetry of compactified dimensions. We extend the discussion to include the singlet extensions of the MSSM and find $Z_4^R$ and $Z_8^R$ are the only possible symmetries capable of solving the $μ$ problem in the NMSSM. We also show that a singlet extension of the MSSM based on a $Z_{24}^R$ symmetry can provide a simultaneous solution to the $μ$ and strong CP problem with the axion coupling in the favoured window.

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arXiv2010

A unique Z_4^R symmetry for the MSSM

We consider the possible anomaly free Abelian discrete symmetries of the MSSM that forbid the mu-term at perturbative order. Allowing for anomaly cancellation via the Green-Schwarz mechanism we identify discrete R-symmetries as the only possibility and prove that there is a unique Z_4^R symmetry that commutes with SO(10). We argue that non-perturbative effects will generate a mu-term of electroweak order thus solving the mu-problem. The non-perturbative effects break the Z_4^R symmetry leaving an exact Z_2 matter parity. As a result dimension four baryon- and lepton-number violating operators are absent while, at the non-perturbative level, dimension five baryon- and lepton-number violating operators get induced but are highly suppressed so that the nucleon decay rate is well within present bounds.

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arXiv2008

Quasi-degenerate neutrinos and tri-bi-maximal mixing

We consider how, for quasi-degenerate neutrinos with tri-bi-maximal mixing at a high-energy scale, the mixing angles are affected by radiative running from high to low-energy scales in a supersymmetric theory. The limits on the high-energy scale that follow from consistency with the observed mixing are determined. We construct a model in which a non-Abelian discrete family symmetry leads both to a quasi-degenerate neutrino mass spectrum and to near tri-bi-maximal mixing.

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arXiv2008

Solving the SUSY Flavour and CP Problems with Non-Abelian Family Symmetry and Supergravity

Can a theory of flavour capable of describing the spectrum of fermion (including neutrino) masses and mixings also contain within it the seeds for a solution of the SUSY flavour and CP problems? We argue that supergravity together with a non-Abelian family symmetry can completely resolve the SUSY flavour and CP problems in a broad class of theories in which family symmetry and CP is spontaneously broken in the flavon sector. We show that a simple superpotential structure can suppresses the F-terms of the flavons and GUT scale Higgs fields and that, if this mechanism is implemented, the resulting flavour and CP violation is suppressed and comfortably within the experimental limits. For illustration, we study a specific model based on SU(3) family symmetry, but similar models based on non-Abelian (continuous or discrete) family symmetry will lead to similar results.

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arXiv2008

Mass Determination of New States at Hadron Colliders

We propose an improved method for hadron-collider mass determination of new states that decay to a massive, long-lived state like the LSP in the MSSM. We focus on pair produced new states which undergo three-body decay to a pair of visible particles and the new invisible long-lived state. Our approach is to construct a kinematic quantity which enforces all known physical constraints on the system. The distribution of this quantity calculated for the observed events has an endpoint that determines the mass of the new states. However we find it much more efficient to determine the masses by fitting to the entire distribution and not just the end point. We consider the application of the method at the LHC for various models and demonstrate that the method can determine the masses within about 6 GeV using only 250 events. This implies the method is viable even for relatively rare processes at the LHC such as neutralino pair production.

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arXiv2008

The Precision Determination of Invisible-Particle Masses at the LHC

We develop techniques to determine the mass scale of invisible particles pair-produced at hadron colliders. We employ the constrained mass variable m_2C, which provides an event-by-event lower-bound to the mass scale given a mass difference. We complement this variable with a new variable m_2C,UB which provides an additional upper bound to the mass scale, and demonstrate its utility with a realistic case study of a supersymmetry model. These variables together effectively quantify the `kink' in the function Max m_T2 which has been proposed as a mass-determination technique for collider-produced dark matter. An important advantage of the m_2C method is that it does not rely simply on the position at the endpoint, but it uses the additional information contained in events which lie far from the endpoint. We found the mass by comparing the HERWIG generated m_2C distribution to ideal distributions for different masses. We find that for the case studied, with 100 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity (about 400 signal events), the invisible particle's mass can be measured to a precision of 4.1 GeV. We conclude that this technique's precision and accuracy is as good as, if not better than, the best known techniques for invisible-particle mass-determination at hadron colliders.

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arXiv2006

Racetrack inflation and assisted moduli stabilisation

We present a model of inflation based on a racetrack model without flux stabilization. The initial conditions are set automatically through topological inflation. This ensures that the dilaton is not swept to weak coupling through either thermal effects or fast roll. Including the effect of non-dilaton fields we find that moduli provide natural candidates for the inflaton. The resulting potential generates slow-roll inflation without the need to fine tune parameters. The energy scale of inflation must be near the GUT scale and the scalar density perturbation generated has a spectrum consistent with WMAP data.

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arXiv2005

SU(3) family symmetry and neutrino bi-tri-maximal mixing

The observed large mixing angles in the lepton sector may be the first signal for the presence of a non-Abelian family symmetry. However, to obtain the significant differences between the mixing of the neutrino and charged fermion sectors, the vacuum expectation values involved in the breaking of such a symmetry in the two sectors must be misaligned. We investigate how this can be achieved in models with an SU(3) family symmetry consistent with an underlying GUT. We show that such misalignment can be achieved naturally via the see-saw mechanism. We construct a specific example in which the vacuum (mis)alignment is guaranteed by additional symmetries. This model generates a fermion mass structure consistent with all quark and lepton masses and mixing angles. Neutrino mixing is close to bi-tri-maximal mixing.

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arXiv2005

Kahler corrections and softly broken family symmetries

Spontaneously broken family symmetry provides a promising origin for the observed quark and lepton mass and mixing angle structure. In a supersymmetric theory such structure comes from a combination of the contributions from the superpotential and the Kähler potential. The superpotential effects have been widely studied but relatively little attention has been given to the effects of the Kähler sector. In this paper we develop techniques to simplify the analysis of such Kähler effects. Using them we show that in the class of theories with an hierarchical structure for the Yukawa couplings the Kähler corrections to both the masses and mixing angles are subdominant. This is true even in cases that texture zeros are filled in by the terms coming from the Kähler potential.

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arXiv2004

Spontaneous CP violation and Non-Abelian Family Symmetry in SUSY

We analyse the properties of generic models based on an SU(3) family symmetry providing a full description of quark charged lepton and neutrino masses and mixing angles. We show that a precise fit of the resulting fermion textures is consistent with CP being spontaneously broken in the flavour sector. The CP violating phases are determined by the scalar potential and we discuss how symmetries readily lead to a maximal phase controlling CP violation in the quark sector. In a specific model the CP violation to be expected in the neutrino sector is related to that in the quark sector and we determine this relation for two viable models. In addition to giving rise to the observed structure of quark and lepton masses this class of model solves both the CP and flavour problems normally associated with supersymmetric models. The flavour structure of the soft supersymmetry breaking terms is controlled by the family symmetry and we analyse some of the related phenomenological implications.

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arXiv2001

Multi-Localization in Multi-Brane Worlds

We study bulk fields in various multi-brane models with localized gravity. In the case of spin 0, 1/2 and 3/2 fields, the non-trivial background geometry itself can induce (multi-) localization of the zero modes along the extra dimension. The addition of appropriate mass terms controls the strength or/and the position of this localization and can induce (multi-) localization of spin 1 fields as well. We show that multi-brane models may also give rise to anomalously light KK modes which are also localized. The possibility of multi-localization in the context of supersymmetric brane world models in AdS_5 spacetime is also discussed.

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arXiv2001

Multigravity in six dimensions: Generating bounces with flat positive tension branes

We present a generalization of the five dimensional multigravity models to six dimensions. The key characteristic of these constructions is that that we obtain solutions which do not have any negative tension branes while at the same time the branes are kept flat. This is due to the fact that in six dimensions the internal space is not trivial and its curvature allows bounce configurations with the above feature. These constructions give for the first time a theoretically and phenomenologically viable realization of multigravity.

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arXiv2001

Precision prediction of gauge couplings and the profile of a string theory

We estimate the significance of the prediction for the gauge couplings in the MSSM with an underlying unification. The correlation between the couplings covers only (0.2-2)% of the a priori reasonable region of the parameter space, while the prediction for $\sin ^{2}θ_{W}$ is accurate to 1.3%. Given that agreement with experiment to such precision is unlikely to be fortuitous, we discuss the profile of a string theory capable of preserving this level of accuracy. We argue that models with a low scale of unification involving power law running in the gauge couplings do not. Even theories with a high scale of unification are strongly constrained, requiring the compactification scale of new space dimensions in which states transforming under the Standard Model propagate to be very close to the string cut-off scale. As a result {\it no} new space dimensions can be larger than $10^{-14}fm.$

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arXiv2000

Neutrino Masses and Mixing in Brane-World Theories

We present a comprehensive study of five-dimensional brane-world models for neutrino physics based on flat compactifications. Particular emphasis is put on the inclusion of bulk mass terms. We derive a number of general results for such brane-world models with bulk mass terms. In particular, in the limit of small brane-bulk couplings, the electroweak eigenstates are predominantly given as a superposition of three light states with non-trivial small admixtures of bulk states. As a consequence, neutrinos can undergo standard oscillations as well as oscillation into bulk Kaluza-Klein states. We use this structure to construct a specific model based on Z_2 orbifolding and bulk Majorana masses which is compatible with all observed oscillation phenomena. The solar neutrino deficit is explained by oscillations into sterile bulk states while the atmospheric neutrino deficit is due to mu - tau oscillations with naturally maximal mixing. In addition, the model can accommodate the LSND result and a significant neutrino dark matter component. We also analyze the constraints from supernova energy loss on neutrino brane-world theories and show that our specific model is consistent with these constraints.

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