arXiv subjects

L. Lavoura

Publications and source records attributed to L. Lavoura.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Geometrical CP violation in the N-Higgs-doublet model

Geometrical CP violation is a particular type of spontaneous CP violation in which the vacuum expectation values have phases which are calculable, i.e. stable against the variation of the free parameters of the scalar potential. Although originally suggested within a specific version of the three-Higgs-doublet model, it is a generic phenomenon. We investigate its viability and characteristic features in models with several Higgs doublets. Our work contains both general results and illustrative examples.

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arXiv2013

Five models for lepton mixing

We produce five flavour models for the lepton sector. All five models fit perfectly well---at the one-sigma level---the existing data on the neutrino mass-squared differences and on the lepton mixing angles. The models are based on the type-I seesaw mechanism, on a Z_2 symmetry for each lepton flavour, and either on a (spontaneously broken) symmetry under the interchange of two lepton flavours or on a (spontaneously broken) CP symmetry incorporating that interchange---or on both symmetries simultaneously. Each model makes definite predictions both for the scale of the neutrino masses and for the phase delta in lepton mixing; the fifth model also predicts a correlation between the lepton mixing angles theta_12 and theta_23.

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arXiv2013

Accidental stability of dark matter

We propose that dark matter is stable as a consequence of an accidental Z2 that results from a flavour-symmetry group which is the double-cover group of the symmetry group of one of the regular geometric solids. Although model-dependent, the phenomenology resembles that of a generic Higgs portal dark matter scheme.

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arXiv2012

Texture-zero model for the lepton mass matrices

We suggest a simple model, based on the type-I seesaw mechanism, for the lepton mass matrices. The model hinges on an Abelian symmetry which leads to mass matrices with some vanishing matrix elements. The model predicts one massless neutrino and $M_{eμ} = 0$ ($M$ is the effective light-neutrino Majorana mass matrix). We show that these predictions perfectly agree with the present experimental data if the neutrino mass spectrum is inverted, i.e. if $m_3 = 0$, provided the Dirac phase $δ$ is very close to maximal ($\pm π/ 2$). In the case of a normal neutrino mass spectrum, i.e. when $m_1 = 0$, the agreement of our model with the data is less than optimal---the reactor mixing angle $θ_{13}$ is too small in our model. Minimal leptogenesis is not an option in our model due to the vanishing elements in the Yukawa-coupling matrices.

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arXiv2012

Maximal CP violation in lepton mixing from a model with Delta(27) flavour symmetry

We propose a simple mechanism which enforces |U_{mu j}| = | U_{tau j}| forall j = 1,2,3 in the lepton mixing matrix U. This implies maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing and a maximal CP-violating phase but does not constrain the reactor mixing angle theta_{13}. We implement the proposed mechanism in two renormalizable seesaw models which have features strongly resembling those of models based on a flavour symmetry group Delta(27). Among the predictions of the models, there is a determination, although ambiguous, of the absolute neutrino mass scale, and a stringent correlation between the absolute neutrino mass scale and the effective Majorana mass in neutrinoless double-beta decay.

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arXiv2012

mu-tau Interchange symmetry and lepton mixing

We focus on the use of a mu-tau interchange symmetry to explain features of lepton mixing, especially maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing. We review two models which achieve this goal and are based on the seesaw mechanism and on the soft breaking of the family-lepton-number symmetries. We also note that that symmetry may be embedded in a generalized CP symmetry. We show that, in the context of some of our models, arguments of naturalness may be used for explaining the smallness of the mass ratio m_mu / m_tau.

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arXiv2012

Seesaw neutrino masses from an $A_4$ model with two equal vacuum expectation values

We present a model for the lepton sector, with $A_4$ horizontal-symmetry group, in which two of the Higgs doublets in an $A_4$ triplet of Higgs doublets have equal vacuum expectation values. The model makes well-defined predictions for the effective light-neutrino Majorana mass matrix. We show that those predictions are compatible with the experimental data.

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arXiv2011

Theory and phenomenology of two-Higgs-doublet models

We discuss theoretical and phenomenological aspects of two-Higgs-doublet extensions of the Standard Model. In general, these extensions have scalar mediated flavour changing neutral currents which are strongly constrained by experiment. Various strategies are discussed to control these flavour changing scalar currents and their phenomenological consequences are analysed. In particular, scenarios with natural flavour conservation are investigated, including the so-called type I and type II models as well as lepton-specific and inert models. Type III models are then discussed, where scalar flavour changing neutral currents are present at tree level, but are suppressed by either specific ansatze for the Yukawa couplings or by the introduction of family symmetries. We also consider the phenomenology of charged scalars in these models. Next we turn to the role of symmetries in the scalar sector. We discuss the six symmetry-constrained scalar potentials and their extension into the fermion sector. The vacuum structure of the scalar potential is analysed, including a study of the vacuum stability conditions on the potential and its renormalization-group improvement. The stability of the tree level minimum of the scalar potential in connection with electric charge conservation and its behaviour under CP is analysed. The question of CP violation is addressed in detail, including the cases of explicit CP violation and spontaneous CP violation. We present a detailed study of weak basis invariants which are odd under CP. A careful study of spontaneous CP violation is presented, including an analysis of the conditions which have to be satisfied in order for a vacuum to violate CP. We present minimal models of CP violation where the vacuum phase is sufficient to generate a complex CKM matrix, which is at present a requirement for any realistic model of spontaneous CP violation.

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arXiv2011

A soft origin for CKM-type CP violation

We present a two-Higgs-doublet model, with a $\mathbbm{Z}_3$ symmetry, in which CP violation originates solely in a soft (dimension-2) coupling in the scalar potential, and reveals itself solely in the CKM (quark mixing) matrix. In particular, in the mass basis the Yukawa interactions of the neutral scalars are all real. The model has only eleven parameters to fit the six quark masses and the four independent CKM-matrix observables. We find regions of parameter space in which the flavour-changing neutral couplings are so suppressed that they allow the scalars to be no heavier than a few hundred GeV.

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arXiv2011

On a possible relationship between lepton mixing and the stability of dark matter

I comment on the proposal that the stability of dark matter may be due to an unbroken Z_2 symmetry contained in the partially broken lepton flavour symmetry group. I remark that (1) there is no Z_2 symmetry apparent in the lepton mass spectrum and in lepton mixing, (2) predictive models of this type may be constructed by using a lepton flavour symmetry group with three inequivalent singlets, to which the three left-handed-lepton gauge-SU(2) doublets are assigned, and (3) some predictions for the lepton masses and mixings are likely to be altered by radiative contributions to the neutrino mass matrix. I construct two models of this type in which the conserved Z_2 originates in a lepton flavour symmetry group D_4.

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arXiv2010

TeV-scale seesaw mechanism catalyzed by the electron mass

We construct a model in which the neutrino Dirac mass terms are of order the electron mass and the seesaw mechanism proceeds via right-handed neutrinos with masses of order TeV. In our model the spectra of the three light and of the three heavy neutrinos are closely related. Since the mixing between light and heavy neutrinos is small, the model predicts no effects in pp and p \bar p colliders. Possible signatures of the model are the lepton-number-violating process e- e- --> H- H-, where H- is a charged scalar particle, lepton-flavour-violating decays like mu- --> e- e+ e-, or a sizable contribution to the anomalous magnetic dipole moment of the muon.

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arXiv2010

Trimaximal lepton mixing with a trivial Dirac phase

We present a model which employs the seesaw mechanism with five right-handed neutrinos, leading to trimaximal and CP-conserving lepton mixing. Tri-bimaximal mixing is a natural limiting case of our model which occurs when one particular vacuum expectation value is real and preserves the mu-tau interchange symmetry of the Lagrangian. Our model allows for leptogenesis even in the case of exact tri-bimaximal mixing.

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arXiv2010

The Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider presents an unprecedented opportunity to probe the realm of new physics in the TeV region and shed light on some of the core unresolved issues of particle physics. These include the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking, the origin of mass, the possible constituent of cold dark matter, new sources of CP violation needed to explain the baryon excess in the universe, the possible existence of extra gauge groups and extra matter, and importantly the path Nature chooses to resolve the hierarchy problem - is it supersymmetry or extra dimensions. Many models of new physics beyond the standard model contain a hidden sector which can be probed at the LHC. Additionally, the LHC will be a top factory and accurate measurements of the properties of the top and its rare decays will provide a window to new physics. Further, the LHC could shed light on the origin of neutralino masses if the new physics associated with their generation lies in the TeV region. Finally, the LHC is also a laboratory to test the hypothesis of TeV scale strings and D-brane models. An overview of these possibilities is presented in the spirit that it will serve as a companion to the Technical Design Reports (TDRs) by the particle detector groups ATLAS and CMS to facilitate the test of the new theoretical ideas at the LHC. Which of these ideas stands the test of the LHC data will govern the course of particle physics in the subsequent decades.

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arXiv2010

Renormalization-group constraints on Yukawa alignment in multi-Higgs-doublet models

We write down the renormalization-group equations for the Yukawa-coupling matrices in a general multi-Higgs-doublet model. We then assume that the matrices of the Yukawa couplings of the various Higgs doublets to right-handed fermions of fixed quantum numbers are all proportional to each other. We demonstrate that, in the case of the two-Higgs-doublet model, this proportionality is preserved by the renormalization-group running only in the cases of the standard type-I, II, X, and Y models. We furthermore show that a similar result holds even when there are more than two Higgs doublets: the Yukawa-coupling matrices to fermions of a given electric charge remain proportional under the renormalization-group running if and only if there is a basis for the Higgs doublets in which all the fermions of a given electric charge couple to only one Higgs doublet.

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arXiv2009

Is S4 the horizontal symmetry of tri-bimaximal lepton mixing?

We determine the symmetry groups under which the charged-lepton and the Majorana-neutrino mass terms are invariant. We note that those two groups always exist trivially, i.e. independently of the presence of any symmetries in the Lagrangian, and that they always have the same form. Using this insight, we re-evaluate the recent claim that, whenever lepton mixing is tri-bimaximal, S_4 is the minimal unique horizontal-symmetry group of the Lagrangian of the lepton sector, with S_4 being determined by the symmetries of the lepton mass matrices. We discuss two models for tri-bimaximal mixing which serve as counterexamples to this claim. With these two models and some group-theoretical arguments we illustrate that there is no compelling reason for the uniqueness of S_4.

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arXiv2009

Type II seesaw mechanism for Higgs doublets and the scale of new physics

We elaborate on an earlier proposal by Ernest Ma of a type II seesaw mechanism for suppressing the vacuum expectation values of some Higgs doublets. We emphasize that, by nesting this form of seesaw mechanism into various other seesaw mechanisms, one may obtain light neutrino masses in such a way that the new-physics scale present in the seesaw mechanism - the masses of scalar gauge-SU(2) triplets, scalar SU(2) doublets, or right-handed neutrinos - does not need to be higher than a few 10 TeV. We also investigate other usages of the type II seesaw mechanism for Higgs doublets. For instance, the suppression of the vacuum expectation values of Higgs doublets may realize Froggatt-Nielsen suppression factors in some entries of the fermion mass matrices.

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arXiv2009

Tri-bimaximal lepton mixing from symmetry only

We construct a model for tri-bimaximal lepton mixing which employs only family symmetries and their soft breaking; neither vacuum alignment nor supersymmetry, extra dimensions, or non-renormalizable terms are used in our model. It is an extension of the Standard Model making use of the seesaw mechanism with five right-handed neutrino singlets. The scalar sector comprises four Higgs doublets and one complex gauge singlet. The horizontal symmetry of our model is based on the permutation group S_3 of the lepton families together with the three family lepton numbers--united this constitutes a symmetry group Delta(6\infty^2). The model makes no predictions for the neutrino masses.

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arXiv2008

A three-parameter neutrino mass matrix with maximal CP violation

Using the seesaw mechanism, we construct a model for the light-neutrino Majorana mass matrix which yields trimaximal lepton mixing together with maximal CP violation and maximal atmospheric-neutrino mixing. We demonstrate that, in our model, the light-neutrino mass matrix retains its form under the one-loop renormalization-group evolution. With our neutrino mass matrix, the absolute neutrino mass scale is a function of |U_e3| and of the atmospheric mass-squared difference. We study the effective mass in neutrinoless double beta-decay as a function of |U_e3|, showing that it contains a fourfold ambiguity.

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