arXiv subjects

K. Tamvakis

Publications and source records attributed to K. Tamvakis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Rescuing Quartic and Natural Inflation in the Palatini Formalism

When considered in the Palatini formalism, the Starobinsky model does not provide us with a mechanism for inflation due to the absence of a propagating scalar degree of freedom. By (non)--minimally coupling scalar fields to the Starobinsky model in the Palatini formalism we can in principle describe the inflationary epoch. In this article, we focus on the minimally coupled quartic and natural inflation models. Both theories are excluded in their simplest realization since they predict values for the inflationary observables that are outside the limits set by the Planck data. However, with the addition of the $R^2$ term and the use of the Palatini formalism, we show that these models can be rendered viable.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Palatini inflation in models with an $R^2$ term

The Starobinsky model, considered in the framework of the Palatini formalism, in contrast to the metric formulation, does not provide us with a model for inflation, due to the absence of a propagating scalar degree of freedom that can play the role of the inflaton. In the present article we study the Palatini formulation of the Starobinsky model coupled, in general nonminimally, to scalar fields and analyze its inflationary behavior. We consider scalars, minimally or nonminimally coupled to the Starobinsky model, such as a quadratic model, the induced gravity model or the standard Higgs-like inflation model and analyze the corresponding modifications favorable to inflation. In addition we examine the case of a classically scale-invariant model driven by the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism. In the slow-roll approximation, we analyze the inflationary predictions of these models and compare them to the latest constraints from the Planck collaboration. In all cases, we find that the effect of the $R^2$ term is to lower the value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Towards a formulation of $f(R)$ supergravity

The supersymmetric completion of $R+R^2$ gravity is known to be equivalent to standard supergravity coupled to two chiral supermultiples with a Kähler potential of the no-scale type. The generalization of this programme to $f(R)$ gravity can be carried out in an analogous framework in terms of four chiral multiplets with appropriately chosen superpotential and Kähler potential. Although the construction strategy has been known for sometime, we carry out this programme further by setting these theories in a closed form. The general framework considered can accommodate supergravity actions local in the scalar curvature, dual to ordinary $N = 1$ supergravities. Although these are in general plagued by ghosts, the framework studied in this work offers a possibility that these can decouple as can be seen in specific examples.

hep-th↗

arXiv2015

Mass Insertions vs. Mass Eigenstates calculations in Flavour Physics

We present and prove a theorem of matrix analysis, the Flavour Expansion Theorem (or FET), according to which, an analytic function of a Hermitian matrix can be expanded polynomially in terms of its off-diagonal elements with coefficients being the divided differences of the analytic function and arguments the diagonal elements of the Hermitian matrix. The theorem is applicable in case of flavour changing amplitudes. At one-loop level this procedure is particularly natural due to the observation that every loop function in the Passarino-Veltman basis can be recursively expressed in terms of divided differences. FET helps to algebraically translate an amplitude written in mass eigenbasis into flavour mass insertions, without performing diagrammatic calculations in flavour basis. As a non-trivial application of FET up to a third order, we demonstrate its use in calculating strong bounds on the real parts of flavour changing mass insertions in the up- squark sector of the MSSM from neutron Electric Dipole Moment (nEDM) measurements, assuming that CP-violation arises only from the CKM matrix.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

Inflation in no-scale supergravity

$R+R^2$ Supergravity is known to be equivalent to standard Supergravity coupled to two chiral supermultiples with a no-scale Kähler potential. Within this framework, that can accomodate vanishing vacuum energy and spontaneous supersymmetry breaking, we consider modifications of the associated superpotential and study the resulting models, which, viewed as generalizations of the Starobinsky model, for a range of the superpotential parameters, describe viable single-field slow-roll inflation. In all models studied in this work the tensor to scalar ratio is found to be small, well below the upper bound established by the very recent PLANCK and BICEP2 data.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Inflationary behavior of $R^2$ gravity in a conformal framework

Models of inflation are tightly constrained by the PLANCK satellite data. Among them, Starobinsky's model with an exponential type potential seems to be challenged by the recent BICEP2 results. The model is based on the existence of $\,~ R^2$ terms in the Einstein-Hilbert action, which have their origin in the conformal-anomaly. Conformal (or Weyl) gravitational theories are relevant when matter fields become effectively massless; i.e. their masses are negligible in comparison with the spacetime curvature. These theories may include other, additional scalar fields. We show that their presence under general conditions does not destabilize the inflationary behaviour encountered in the Starobinsky model, although the issue of the exact quantitative agreement with existing data, like the tensor to scalar ratio, rests on the choice of parameters.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Rare Top-quark Decays to Higgs boson in MSSM

In full one-loop generality and in next-to-leading order in QCD, we study rare top to Higgs boson flavour changing decay processes $t\to q h$ with $q=u,c$ quarks, in the general MSSM with R-parity conservation. Our primary goal is to search for enhanced effects on $Br(t\to q h)$ that could be visible at current and high luminosity LHC running. To this end, we perform an analytical expansion of the amplitude in terms of flavour changing squark mass insertions that treats both cases of hierarchical and degenerate squark masses in a unified way. We identify two enhanced effects allowed by various constraints: one from holomorphic trilinear soft SUSY breaking terms and/or right handed up squark mass insertions and another from non-holomorphic trilinear soft SUSY breaking terms and light Higgs boson masses. Interestingly, even with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ flavour violating effects in the, presently unconstrained, up-squark sector, SUSY effects on $Br(t\to q h)$ come out to be unobservable at LHC mainly due to leading order cancellations between penguin and self energy diagrams and the constraints from charge- and colour-breaking minima (CCB) of the MSSM vacuum. An exception to this conclusion may be effects arising from non-holomorphic soft SUSY breaking terms in the region where the CP-odd Higgs mass is smaller than the top-quark mass but this scenario is disfavoured by recent LHC searches. Our calculations for $t\to q h$ decay are made available in SUSY_FLAVOR numerical library.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2014

Proton Stability in $SU(5)\times U(1)$ and $SU(6)\times SU(2)$ GUTs

We consider explicit unified models based on the flipped ${SU(5)\times U(1)}$ and $SU(6)\times SU(2)$ gauge groups in which gauge mediated proton decay operators are suppressed at leading order due to the special placement of matter fields in unified multiplets. We discuss both the theoretical structure and phenomenological implications of these models. For the latter, we examine the viability of the physical spectrum in each scenario and focus on the possible presence of other operators that could also contribute significantly to the proton decay rate.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

On Discrete R-Symmetries in MSSM and its Extensions

We study possible anomaly-free discrete R-symmetries that avoid the μ-problem and the dangerous D\leq 5 operators considering charge assignments that do not commute with the traditional grand unifying simple groups, such as SU(5) or SO(10), but commute instead with the so-called flipped-SU(5), with or without the operation of the GS mechanism. We find Z_N symmetries with N = 3, 6 in the anomaly-free case or N = 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 in the case of anomaly cancellation through the Green-Schwartz mechanism. Non-unified cases (Z_5) have also been discussed. We also confront the construction of a 4D grand unified flipped-SU(5) model endowed with Z_N and find phenomenologically acceptable solutions with N = 2k+7 and N = 2k+10.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Bimaximal mixing from lopsided neutrinos

We consider the problem of neutrino masses and mixing within the general framework of standard (type-I) seesaw models leading to three light neutrinos. Under the assumption of a hierarchical neutrino mass spectrum λ^4: λ: 1, consistent with present data, we examine possible lopsided patterns for the neutrino Yukawa couplings that can account for the observed mixing angles, including a small but non-vanishing |U_{e3}|. An embedding of the above within a general class of SO(10) models is also considered.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Hierarchical neutrino masses and mixing in non minimal-SU(5)

We consider the problem of neutrino masses and mixing within the framework of a non-minimal supersymmetric SU(5) model extended by adding a set of 1,24 chiral superfields accommodating three right-handed neutrinos. A Type I+III see-saw mechanism can then be realized giving rise to a hierarchical mass spectrum for the light neutrinos of the form m_3> m_2>> m_1 consistent with present data. The extra colored states are pushed to the unification scale by proton stability constraints, while the intermediate see-saw energy scale and the unification scale are maintained in phenomenologically acceptable ranges. We also examine the issue of large neutrino mixing hierarchy θ_{23}> θ_{12}>> θ_{13} in the above framework of hierarchical neutrino masses.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2010

Supersymmetric Inflation with the Ordinary Higgs?

We consider a model of D-term inflation in which the inflaton coincides with the standard Higgs doublet. Non-renormalizable terms are controlled by a discrete R-symmetry of the superpotential. We consider radiative corrections to the scalar potential and find that Higgs inflation in the slow-roll approximation is viable and consistent with CMB data, although with a rather large value of the non-renormalizable coupling involved.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Hierarchical Neutrino Masses and Mixing in Flipped-SU(5)

We consider the problem of neutrino masses and mixing in the framework of flipped SU(5). The right-handed neutrino mass, generated through the operation of a seesaw mechanism by a sector of gauge singlets, leads naturally, at a subsequent level, to the standard seesaw mechanism resulting into three light neutrino states with masses of the desired phenomenological order of magnitude. In this framework we study simple Ansatze for the singlet couplings for which hierarchical neutrino masses emerge naturally, parametrized in terms of the Cabbibo parameter. The resulting neutrino mixing matrices are characterized by a hierarchical structure, in which theta-(13) is always predicted to be the smallest. Finally, we discuss a possible factorized parametrization of the neutrino mass that, in addition to Cabbibo mixing, encodes also mixing due to the singlet sector.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Inflation with the right-handed sneutrino revisited

We consider an extension of nuMSSM with an extra U(1) that realizes D-term inflation driven by the right-handed sneutrino. Non-renormalizable terms in the Kahler potential and the superpotential are considered, the latter controlled by a suitable discrete R-symmetry. We find that, for subplanckian inflaton values, the predictions of inflationary parameters are compatible with observations, establishing the right-handed sneutrino driven inflation as a viable scenario.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Synergistic Gravity and the Role of Resonances in GRS-Inspired Braneworlds

We consider 5D braneworld models of quasi-localized gravity in which 4D gravity is reproduced at intermediate scales while the extra dimension opens up at both the very short and the very long distances, where the geometry is flat. Our main interest is the interplay between the zero mode of these models, whenever a normalizable zero mode exists, and the effects of zero energy graviton resonant modes coming from the contributions of massive KK modes. We first consider a compactified version of the GRS model and find that quasi-localized gravity is characterized by a scale for which both the resonance and the zero mode have significant contribution to 4D gravity. Above this scale, gravity is primarily mediated by the zero mode, while the resonance gives only minor corrections. Next, we consider an asymmetric version of the standard non-compact GRS model, characterized by different cosmological constants on each AdS side. We show that a resonance is present but the asymmetry, through the form of the localizing potential, can weaken it, resulting in a shorter lifetime and, thus, in a shorter distance scale for 4D gravity. As a third model exhibiting quasi-localization, we consider a version of the GRS model in which the central positive tension brane has been replaced by a configuration of a scalar field propagating in the bulk.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Scalar Emission in the Bulk in a Rotating Black Hole Background

We study the emission of scalars into the bulk from a higher-dimensional rotating black hole. We obtain an analytic solution to the field equation by employing matching techniques on expressions valid in the near-horizon and far-field regimes. Both analytic and numerical results for the absorption probability, in the low-energy and low-angular momentum limit, are derived and found to be in excellent agreement. We also compute the energy emission rate, and show that the brane-to-bulk ratio of the energy emission rates for scalar fields remains always larger than unity in the aforementioned regime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Greybody factors in a rotating black-hole background-II : fermions and gauge bosons

We study the emission of fermion and gauge boson degrees of freedom on the brane by a rotating higher-dimensional black hole. Using matching techniques, for the near-horizon and far-field regime solutions, we solve analytically the corresponding field equations of motion. From this, we derive analytical results for the absorption probabilities and Hawking radiation emission rates, in the low-energy and low-rotation case, for both species of fields. We produce plots of these, comparing them to existing exact numerical results with very good agreement. We also study the total absorption cross-section and demonstrate that, as in the non-rotating case, it has a different behaviour for fermions and gauge bosons in the low-energy limit, while it follows a universal behaviour -- reaching a constant, spin-independent, asymptotic value -- in the high-energy regime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Pseudo-3-Branes in a Curved 6D Bulk

We consider a model involving a 4-brane in a 6D bulk which carries sigma model fields. An axion field on the 4-brane cancels the pressure along one direction leading to an effective codimension-2 3-brane. For a range of parameters of the theory, we get a transverse space which is non-compact, providing a possible solution to the cosmological constant problem. A setup with two branes in a compact space is also treated. In this case, a mild fine-tuning between the radii of the two 4-branes is necessary. Finally, we explore the 4-brane problem in the Gauss-Codazzi formulation and we discuss general aspects of gravity in the presence of additional brane sources.

hep-th↗