arXiv subjects

Julian Heeck

Publications and source records attributed to Julian Heeck.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Large $h\to b s$ in generic two-Higgs-doublet models

We investigate the possible size of $h\to bs$ in two-Higgs-doublet models with generic Yukawa couplings. Even though the corresponding rates are in general expected to be small due to the indirect constraints from $B_s\toμ^{+}μ^{-}$ and $B_s$--$\overline{B}_s$ mixing, we find regions in parameter space where $h\to bs$ can have a sizable branching ratio well above 10\%. This requires a tuning of the neutral scalar masses and their couplings to muons, but then all additional constraints such as $B\to X_s γ$, $(g-2)_μ$, and $h\toμ^{+}μ^{-}$ are satisfied. In this case, $h\to bs$ can be a relevant background in $h\to b\bar{b}$ searches and vice versa due to the imperfect $b$-tagging purity. Furthermore, if $h\to bs$ is sizeable, one expects two more scalar resonances in the proximity of $m_h$. We briefly comment on other flavour violating Higgs decays and on the 95 GeV $γγ$ resonance within generic two-Higgs-doublet models.

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arXiv2017

Lepton Flavor Violation with Displaced Vertices

If light new physics with lepton-flavor-violating couplings exists, the prime discovery channel might not be $\ell\to\ell'γ$ but rather $\ell\to\ell' X$, where the new boson $X$ could be an axion, majoron, familon or Z' gauge boson. The most conservative bound then comes from $\ell\to\ell'+\mathrm{inv}$, but if the on-shell $X$ can decay back into leptons or photons, displaced-vertex searches could give much better limits. We show that only a narrow region in parameter space allows for displaced vertices in muon decays, $μ\to e X, X\to γγ, ee$, whereas tauon decays can have much more interesting signatures.

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arXiv2017

Phenomenology of Majorons

Majorons are the Goldstone bosons associated to lepton number and thus closely connected to Majorana neutrino masses. Couplings to charged fermions arise at one-loop level, including lepton-flavor-violating ones that lead to decays $\ell\to \ell' J$, whereas a coupling to photons is generated at two loops. The typically small couplings make massive majorons a prime candidate for long-lived dark matter. Its signature decay into two mono-energetic neutrinos is potentially detectable for majoron masses above MeV.

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arXiv2017

Cold keV dark matter from decays and scatterings

We explore ways of creating cold keV-scale dark matter by means of decays and scatterings. The main observation is that certain thermal freeze-in processes can lead to a cold dark matter distribution in regions with small available phase space. In this way the free-streaming length of keV particles can be suppressed without decoupling them too much from the Standard Model. In all cases, dark matter needs to be produced together with a heavy particle that carries away most of the initial momentum. For decays, this simply requires an off-diagonal DM coupling to two heavy particles; for scatterings, the coupling of soft DM to two heavy particles needs to be diagonal, in particular in spin space. Decays can thus lead to cold light DM of any spin, while scatterings only work for bosons with specific couplings. We explore a number of simple models and also comment on the connection to the tentative 3.5 keV line.

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arXiv2017

Neutrino Lines from Majoron Dark Matter

Models with spontaneously broken global lepton number can lead to a pseudo-Goldstone boson as a long-lived dark matter candidate. Here we revisit the case of singlet majoron dark matter and discuss multiple constraints. For masses above MeV, this model could lead to a detectable flux of monochromatic mass-eigenstate neutrinos, which have flavor ratios that depend strongly on the neutrino mass hierarchy. We provide a convenient parametrization for the loop-induced majoron couplings to charged fermions that allows us to discuss three-generation effects such as lepton flavor violation. These couplings are independent of the low-energy neutrino parameters but can be constrained by the majoron decays into charged fermions.

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arXiv2017

Interpretation of Lepton Flavor Violation

The observation of a charged-lepton flavor violating process would be a definite sign for physics beyond the Standard Model, but would actually only prove that one particular linear combination of lepton numbers is violated. We categorize lepton-flavor-violating processes by their quantum numbers and show how their discovery can be interpreted model independently, studying in particular which processes are required to establish that the entire flavor group is broken. We also comment on total lepton number, seeing as lepton number violation practically implies lepton flavor violation as well.

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arXiv2016

Leptogenesis and neutral gauge bosons

We consider low-scale leptogenesis via right-handed neutrinos $N$ coupled to a $Z'$ boson, with gauged $U(1)_{B-L}$ as a simple realization. Keeping the neutrinos sufficiently out of equilibrium puts strong bounds on the $Z'$ coupling strength and mass, our focus being on light $Z'$ and $N$, testable in the near future by SHiP, HPS, Belle II, and at the LHC. We show that leptogenesis could be robustly falsified in a large region of parameter space by the double observation of $Z'$ and $N$, e.g. in the channel $pp\to Z' \to NN$ with displaced $N$-decay vertex, and by several experiments searching for light $Z'$, according to the mass of $N$.

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arXiv2016

Neutrinophilic Non-Standard Interactions

We construct UV-complete models for non-standard neutrino interactions mediated by a sub-GeV gauge boson Z' coupled to baryon number $B$ or $B-L$. A flavor-dependent Z' coupling to neutrinos is induced by mixing a U(1)'-charged Dirac fermion with the active neutrinos, naturally suppressing flavor violation or non-universality of the charged leptons to the loop level. We show that these models can give rise to large flavor-conserving as well as flavor-violating non-standard neutral-current neutrino interactions potentially observable in current or future oscillation experiments such as DUNE without being in conflict with other constraints such as neutrino scattering or lepton-flavor-violating decays. In particular, the LMA-Dark solution to the solar-neutrino anomaly can be obtained for $U(1)_B$, but not for $U(1)_{B-L}$.

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arXiv2016

Indirect searches of dark matter via polynomial spectral features

We derive the spectra arising from non-relativistic dark matter annihilations or decays into intermediary particles with arbitrary spin, which subsequently produce neutrinos or photons via two-body decays. Our approach is model independent and predicts spectral features restricted to a kinematic box. The overall shape within that box is a polynomial determined by the polarization of the decaying particle. We illustrate our findings with two examples. First, with the neutrino spectra arising from dark matter annihilations into the massive Standard Model gauge bosons. Second, with the gamma-ray and neutrino spectra generated by dark matter annihilations into hypothetical massive spin-2 particles. Our results are in particular applicable to the 750 GeV diphoton excess observed at the LHC if interpreted as a spin-0 or spin-2 particle coupled to dark matter. We also derive limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section into this resonance from the non-observation of the associated gamma-ray spectral features by the H.E.S.S. telescope.

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arXiv2016

Lepton flavor violation with light vector bosons

New sub-GeV vector bosons with couplings to muons but not electrons have been discussed in order to explain the muon's magnetic moment, the gap of high-energy neutrinos in IceCube or the proton radius puzzle. If such a light Z' not only violates lepton universality but also lepton flavor, as expected for example from the recent hint for $h\toμτ$ at CMS, the two-body decay mode $τ\to μZ'$ opens up and for $M_{Z'} < 2 m_μ$ gives better constraints than $τ\to 3μ$ already with 20-year-old ARGUS limits. We discuss the general prospects and motivation of light vector bosons with lepton-flavor-violating couplings.

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arXiv2016

Phenomenology of left-right symmetric dark matter

We present a detailed study of dark matter phenomenology in low-scale left-right symmetric models. Stability of new fermion or scalar multiplets is ensured by an accidental matter parity that survives the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the gauge group by scalar triplets. The relic abundance of these particles is set by gauge interactions and gives rise to dark matter candidates with masses above the electroweak scale. Dark matter annihilations are thus modified by the Sommerfeld effect, not only in the early Universe, but also today, for instance, in the Center of the Galaxy. Majorana candidates - triplet, quintuplet, bi-doublet, and bi-triplet - bring only one new parameter to the model, their mass, and are hence highly testable at colliders and through astrophysical observations. Scalar candidates - doublet and 7-plet, the latter being only stable at the renormalizable level - have additional scalar-scalar interactions that give rise to rich phenomenology. The particles under discussion share many features with the well-known candidates wino, Higgsino, inert doublet scalar, sneutrino, and Minimal Dark Matter. In particular, they all predict a large gamma-ray flux from dark matter annihilations, which can be searched for with Cherenkov telescopes. We furthermore discuss models with unequal left-right gauge couplings, $g_R \neq g_L$, taking the recent experimental hints for a charged gauge boson with 2 TeV mass as a benchmark point. In this case, the dark matter mass is determined by the observed relic density.

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arXiv2015

Scalar glueballs: Constraints from the decays into $η$ or $η'$

We study the mixing of the scalar glueball into the isosinglet mesons $f_0 (1370)$, $f_0(1500)$, and $f_0(1710)$ to describe the two-body decays to pseudoscalars. We use an effective Hamiltonian and employ the two-angle mixing scheme for $η$ and $η'$. In this framework, we analyse existing data and look forward to new data into $η$ and $η'$ channels. For now, the $f_0 (1710)$ has the largest glueball component and a sizable branching ratio into $ηη'$, testable at BESIII.

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arXiv2015

Minimal Left-Right Symmetric Dark Matter

We show that left-right symmetric models can easily accommodate stable TeV-scale dark matter particles without the need for an ad-hoc stabilizing symmetry. The stability of a newly introduced multiplet arises either accidentally as in the Minimal Dark Matter framework or comes courtesy of the remaining unbroken $\mathbb{Z}_2$ subgroup of $B-L$. Only one new parameter is introduced: the mass of the new multiplet. As minimal examples we study left-right fermion triplets and quintuplets and show that they can form viable two-component dark matter. This approach is in particular valid for $SU(2)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ models that explain the recent diboson excess at ATLAS in terms of a new charged gauge boson of mass 2 TeV.

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arXiv2015

Triangle Inequalities for Majorana-Neutrino Magnetic Moments

Electromagnetic properties of neutrinos, if ever observed, could help to decide the Dirac versus Majorana nature of neutrinos. We show that the magnetic moments of Majorana neutrinos have to fulfill triangle inequalities, $|μ_{ν_τ}|^2 \leq |μ_{ν_μ}|^2 +|μ_{ν_e}|^2$ and cyclic permutations, which do not hold for Dirac neutrinos. Observing a violation of these inequalities, e.g. by measuring the magnetic moment of $ν_τ$ at SHiP, would thus strongly hint either at the Dirac nature of neutrinos or at the presence of at least one extra light sterile mode.

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arXiv2015

A perturbed lepton-specific two-Higgs-doublet model facing experimental hints for physics beyond the Standard Model

The BaBar, Belle, and LHCb collaborations have reported evidence for new physics in $B\to Dτν$ and $B\to D^*τν$ of approximately $3.8σ$. There is also the long lasting discrepancy of about $3σ$ in the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, and the branching ratio for $τ\toμνν$ is $1.8σ$ ($2.4σ$) above the Standard Model expectation using the HFAG (PDG) values. Furthermore, CMS found hints for a non-zero decay rate of $h\toμτ$. Interestingly, all these observations can be explained by introducing new scalars. In this article we consider these processes within a lepton-specific two-Higgs doublet model (i.e. of type X) with additional non-standard Yukawa couplings. It is found that one can accommodate $τ\toμνν$ with modified Higgs--$τ$ couplings. The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can be explained if the additional neutral CP-even Higgs $H$ is light (below 100 GeV). Also $R(D)$ and $R(D^*)$ can be easily explained by additional $t$--$c$--Higgs couplings. Combining these $t$--$c$ couplings with a light $H$ the decay rate for $t\to H c$ can be in a testable range for the LHC. Effects in $h\toμτ$ are also possible, but in this case a simultaneous explanation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is difficult due to the unavoidable $τ\toμγ$ decay.

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arXiv2015

Explaining the LHC flavour anomalies

The LHC observed deviations from the Standard Model (SM) in the flavour sector: LHCb found a $4.3\,σ$ discrepancy compared to the SM in $b\to sμμ$ transitions and CMS reported a non-zero measurement of $h\toμτ$ with a significance of $2.4\,σ$. Here we discuss how these deviations from the SM can be explained, focusing on two models with gauged $L_μ-L_τ$ symmetry. The first model contains two scalar doublets and vector-like quarks while the second one employs three scalar doublets but does not require vector-like fermions. In both models, interesting correlations between $b\to sμμ$ transitions, $h\toμτ$, and $τ\to3μ$ arise.

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arXiv2015

Higgs $\to μτ$ in Abelian and Non-Abelian Flavor Symmetry Models

We study lepton flavor violating Higgs decays in two models, with the recently found hint for Higgs $\to μτ$ at CMS as a benchmark value for the branching ratio. The first model uses the discrete flavor symmetry group $A_4$, broken at the electroweak scale, while the second is renormalizable and based on the Abelian gauge group $L_μ- L_τ$. Within the models we find characteristic predictions for other non-standard Higgs decay modes, charged lepton flavor violating decays and correlations of the branching ratios with neutrino oscillation parameters.

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arXiv2015

Addressing the LHC flavour anomalies with horizontal gauge symmetries

We study the impact of an additional $U(1)'$ gauge symmetry with flavour-dependent charges for quarks and leptons on the LHC flavour anomalies observed in $B \to K^* μ^+μ^-$, $R(K) = B \to K μ^+μ^-/B \to K e^+e^-$, and $h \to μτ$. In its minimal version with two scalar doublets, the resulting model naturally explains the deviations from the Standard Model observed in $B \to K^* μ^+μ^-$ and $R(K)$. The CMS access in $h \to μτ$ can be explained by introducing a third scalar doublet, which gives rise to a prediction for $τ\to 3μ$. We investigate constraints from flavour observables and direct LHC searches for $pp \to Z' \to μ^+μ^-$. Our model successfully generates the measured fermion-mixing matrices and does not require vector-like fermions, unlike previous attempts to explain these anomalies.

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