arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to João P. Silva.
We confront the most common version of the CP-conserving 2HDM with LHC data, taking into account all previously available experimental data. We also discuss the scenario where the 125 GeV Higgs discovered at the LHC is the lightest neutral scalar of a particular CP-violating 2HDM. In this scenario we focus on what data can already tell us about the amount of mixing between CP-even and CP-odd states.
In the Standard Model, the Higgs potential allows only one minimum at tree-level. But the open possibility that there might be two scalar doublets enriches the vacuum structure, allowing for the risk that we might now be in a metastable state, which we dub the panic vacuum. Current experiments at the LHC are probing the Higgs particle predicted as a result of the spontaneous symmetry breaking. Remarkably, in the two Higgs model with a softly broken U(1) symmetry, the LHC experiments already preclude panic vacuum solutions.
LHC has found hints for a Higgs particle of 125 GeV. We investigate the possibility that such a particle is a mixture of scalar and pseudoscalar states. For definiteness, we concentrate on a two Higgs doublet model with explicit CP violation and soft Z2 violation. Including all Higgs production mechanisms, we determine the current constraints obtained by comparing h -> gamma gamma with h -> V V*, and comment on the information which can be gained by measurements of h -> b \bar{b}. We find bounds |s_2| < 0.83 at one sigma, where |s_2|=0 (|s_2|=1) corresponds to a pure scalar (pure pseudoscalar) state.
We consider graviton-induced Bremsstrahlung at future e^+e^- colliders in both the ADD and RS models, with emphasis on the photon perpendicular momentum and angular distribution. The photon spectrum is shown to be harder than in the Standard Model, and there is an enhancement for photons making large angles with respect to the beam. In the ADD scenario, the excess at large photon perpendicular momenta should be measurable for values of the cut-off up to about twice times the c.m. energy. In the RS scenario, radiative return to graviton resonances below the c.m. energy can lead to large enhancements of the cross section.
In the extension of the Dimopoulos--Hall--Raby model of the fermion mass matrices to the neutrino sector, there is an entry in the up-quark and neutrino Dirac mass matrices which can be assumed to arise from the Yukawa coupling of a {\bf 120}, instead of a {\bf 10} or a {\bf 126}, of SO(10). Although this assumption leads to an extra undetermined complex parameter in the model, the resulting lepton mixing matrix exhibits the remarkable feature that the $ ν_τ $ does not mix with the other two neutrinos. Making a reasonable assumption about the extra parameter, we are able to fit the large-mixing-angle MSW solution of the solar-neutrino problem, and we obtain $ m_{ν_τ} \sim 10 $ eV, the right mass range to close the Universe. Other possibilities for explaining the solar-neutrino deficit are also discussed.
Approximate flavor symmetries in the quark sector have been used as a handle on physics beyond the Standard Model. Due to the great interest in neutrino masses and mixings and the wealth of existing and proposed neutrino experiments it is important to extend this analysis to the leptonic sector. We show that in the see-saw mechanism, the neutrino masses and mixing angles do not depend on the details of the right-handed neutrino flavor symmetry breaking, and are related by a simple formula. We propose several ansätze which relate different flavor symmetry breaking parameters and find that the MSW solution to the solar neutrino problem is always easily fit. Further, the $ν_μ- ν_τ$ oscillation is unlikely to solve the atmospheric neutrino problem and, if we fix the neutrino mass scale by the MSW solution, the neutrino masses are found to be too small to close the Universe.