arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L. Lavoura.
We consider trimaximal lepton mixing, defined by |U_{alpha 2}|^2 = 1/3 for all alpha = e, mu, tau. This corresponds to a two-parameter lepton mixing matrix U. We present a model for the lepton sector in which trimaximal mixing is enforced by softly broken discrete symmetries; one version of the model is based on the group Delta(27). A salient feature of our model is that no vacuum alignment is required.
We discuss a realization of the non-abelian group O(2) as a family symmetry for the lepton sector. The reflection contained in O(2) acts as a mu-tau interchange symmetry, enforcing--at tree level--maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing and a vanishing mixing angle theta_13. The small ratio m_mu/m_tau (muon over tau mass) gives rise to a suppression factor in the mass of one of the pseudoscalars of the model. We argue that such a light pseudoscalar does not violate any experimental constraint.
We derive a general expression for Delta rho (or, equivalently, for the oblique parameter T) in the SU(2) x U(1) electroweak model with an arbitrary number of scalar SU(2) doublets, with hypercharge +-1/2, and an arbitrary number of scalar SU(2) singlets. The experimental bound on Delta rho constitutes a strong constraint on the masses and mixings of the scalar particles in that model.
We present general expressions for the oblique parameters S, T, U, V, W, and X in the SU(2)xU(1) electroweak model with an arbitrary number of scalar SU(2) doublets, with hypercharge 1/2, and an arbitrary number of scalar SU(2) singlets.
We propose a model for the quark masses and mixings based on an A_4 family symmetry. Three scalar SU(2) doublets form a triplet of A_4. The three left-handed-quark SU(2) doublets are also united in a triplet of A_4. The right-handed quarks are singlets of A_4. The A_4-symmetric scalar potential leads to a vacuum in which two of the three scalar SU(2) doublets have expectation values with equal moduli. Our model makes an excellent fit of the observed |V_ub/V_cb|. The symmetry CP is respected in the charged gauge interactions of the quarks.
Using the type-II seesaw mechanism with three Higgs doublets phi_alpha (alpha = e, mu, tau) and four Higgs triplets, we build a model for lepton mixing based on a 384-element horizontal symmetry group, generated by the permutation group S_3 and by six Z_2 transformations. The charged-lepton mass matrix is diagonal; the symmetries of the model would require all the three masses m_alpha to be equal, but different vacuum expectation values of the phi_alpha allow the m_alpha to split. The number of parameters in the Majorana neutrino mass matrix m_nu depends on two options: full breaking of the permutation group S_3, or leaving a mu--tau interchange symmetry intact; and hard or spontaneous violation of CP. We discuss in detail the case with the minimal number of three parameters, wherein m_nu is real, symmetric under mu--tau interchange, and has equal diagonal elements. In that case, CP is conserved in lepton mixing, atmospheric neutrino mixing is maximal, and theta_{13} = 0; moreover, the type of neutrino mass spectrum and the absolute neutrino mass scale are sensitive functions of the solar mixing angle.
We consider a model with an A_4 flavour symmetry, recently proposed by E. Ma, and make a numerical study, through scatter plots, of its neutrino mass matrix.
We consider the scenario in which the mass matrices of the charged fermions in the SO(10) Grand Unified Theory are generated exclusively by renormalizable Yukawa couplings to one $\mathbf{10} \oplus \mathbf{120}$ representation of scalars. We analyze, partly analytically and partly numerically, this scenario in the three-generations case. We demonstrate that it leads to unification of the $b$ and $τ$ masses at the GUT scale. Testing this scenario against the mass values at the GUT scale, obtained from the renormalization-group evolution in the minimal SUSY extension of the Standard Model, we find that it is not viable: either the down-quark mass or the top-quark mass must be unrealistically low. If we include the CKM mixing angles in the test, then, in order that the mixing angles are well reproduced, either the top-quark mass or the strange-quark mass together with the down-quark mass must be very low. We conclude that, assuming a SUSY SO(10) scenario, charged-fermion mass generation based exclusively on one $\mathbf{10} \oplus \mathbf{120}$ representation of scalars is in contradiction with experiment.
We present a supersymmetric model in which the lepton mixing matrix $U$ obeys, at the seesaw scale, the Harrison--Perkins--Scott \textit{Ansatz}--vanishing $U_{e3}$, maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing, and $\sin^2{θ_\odot} = 1/3$ ($θ_\odot$ is the solar mixing angle). The model features a permutation symmetry $S_3$ among the three lepton multiplets of each type--left-handed doublets, right-handed charged leptons, and right-handed neutrinos--and among three Higgs doublets and three zero-hypercharge scalar singlets; a fourth right-handed neutrino, a fourth Higgs doublet, and a fourth scalar singlet are invariant under $S_3$. In addition, the model has seven $\mathbbm{Z}_2$ symmetries, out of which six do not commute with $S_3$. Supersymmetry is needed in order to eliminate some quartic terms from the scalar potential, quartic terms which would make impossible to obtain the required vacuum expectation values of the three Higgs doublets and three scalar singlets. The Yukawa couplings to the charged leptons are flavour diagonal, so that flavour-changing neutral Yukawa interactions only arise at loop level.
We propose a model for lepton mass matrices based on the seesaw mechanism, a complex scalar gauge singlet and a horizontal symmetry $S_3 \times \mathbbm{Z}_2$. In a suitable weak basis, the charged-lepton mass matrix and the neutrino Dirac mass matrix are diagonal, but the vacuum expectation value of the scalar gauge singlet renders the Majorana mass matrix of the right-handed neutrinos non-diagonal, thereby generating lepton mixing. When the symmetry $S_3$ is not broken in the scalar potential, the effective light-neutrino Majorana mass matrix enjoys $μ$--$τ$ interchange symmetry, thus predicting maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing together with $U_{e3} = 0$. A partial and less predictive form of $μ$--$τ$ interchange symmetry is obtained when the symmetry $S_3$ is softly broken in the scalar potential. Enlarging the symmetry group $S_3 \times \mathbbm{Z}_2$ by an additional discrete electron-number symmetry $\mathbbm{Z}_2^{(e)}$, a more predicitive model is obtained, which is in practice indistinguishable from a previous one based on the group $D_4$.
We consider a Majorana neutrino mass matrix $\mathcal{M}_ν$ with $(\mathcal{M}_ν)_{μμ} = (\mathcal{M}_ν)_{ττ} = 0$, in the basis where the charged-lepton mass matrix is diagonal. We show that this pattern for the lepton mass matrices can be enforced by extending the Standard Model with three scalar SU(2) triplets and by using a horizontal symmetry group $\mathbbm{Z}_4$. The Ma--Sarkar (type-II seesaw) mechanism leads to very small vacuum expectation values for the triplets, thus explaining the smallness of the neutrino masses; at the same time, that mechanism renders the physical scalars originating in the triplets very heavy. We show that the conditions $(\mathcal{M}_ν)_{μμ} = (\mathcal{M}_ν)_{ττ} = 0$ allow both for a normal neutrino mass spectrum and for an inverted one. In the first case, the neutrino masses must be larger than $0.1 {eV}$ and the atmospheric mixing angle $θ_{23}$ must be practically equal to $45^\circ$. In the second case, the product $\sin{θ_{13}} | \tan{2 θ_{23}} |$ must be of order one or larger, thus correlating the large or maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing with the smallness of the mixing angle $θ_{13}$.
I investigate viable textures with two texture zeros for the inverted neutrino mass matrix, and present the predictions of those textures for the neutrino masses and for lepton mixing. By using an Abelian symmetry and one or two heavy scalar singlets, I construct realizations of those textures in the context of seesaw models.
We consider the most general neutrino mass matrix which leads to $θ_{13} = 0$, and present the formulae needed for obtaining the neutrino masses and mixing parameters in that case. We apply this formalism to a model based on the lepton number $\bar L = L_e - L_μ- L_τ$ and on the seesaw mechanism. This model needs only one Higgs doublet and has only two right-handed neutrino singlets. Soft $\bar L$ breaking is accomplished by the Majorana mass terms of the right-handed neutrinos; if the $\bar L$-conserving and $\bar L$-breaking mass terms are of the same order of magnitude, then it is possible to obtain a consistent $\bar L$ model with a solar mixing angle significantly smaller than $45^\circ$. We show that the predictions of this model, $m_3 = 0$ and $θ_{13} = 0$, are invariant under the renormalization-group running of the neutrino mass matrix.
We derive the renormalization group equations (RGE) for the flavour coupling matrices of the effective dimension-five operators which yield Majorana neutrino masses in the multi-Higgs-doublet Standard Model; in particular, we consider the case where two different scalar doublets occur in those operators. We also write down the RGE for the scalar-potential quartic couplings and for the Yukawa couplings of that model, in the absence of quarks. As an application of the RGE, we consider two models which, based on a mu-tau interchange symmetry, predict maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing, together with U_{e3} = 0, at the seesaw scale. We estimate the change of those predictions due to the evolution of the coupling matrices of the effective mass operators from the seesaw scale down to the electroweak scale. We derive an upper bound on that change, thereby finding that the radiative corrections to those predictions are in general negligible.
We discuss a model for the lepton sector based on the seesaw mechanism and on a $D_4$ family symmetry. The model predicts the mixing angle $θ_{13}$ to vanish. The solar mixing angle $θ_{12}$ is free--it will in general be large if one does not invoke finetuning. The model has an enlarged scalar sector with three Higgs doublets, together with two real scalar gauge singlets $χ_i$ ($ i = 1, 2$) which have vacuum expectation values < χ_i >_0$ at the seesaw scale. The atmospheric mixing angle $θ_{23}$ is given by $\tan θ_{23} = <χ_2>_0$ /<χ_1>_0$, and it is maximal if the Lagrangian is $D_4$-invariant; but $D_4$ may be broken softly, by a term of dimension two in the scalar potential, and then < χ_2_0$ becomes different from < χ_1_0$. Thus, the strength of the soft $D_4$ breaking controls the deviation of $θ_{23}$ from $π/ 4$. The model predicts a normal neutrino mass spectrum ($m_3 > m_2 > m_1$) and allows successful leptogenesis if $m_1 \sim 4 \times 10^{-3} \mathrm{eV}$; these properties of the model are independent of the presence and strength of the soft $D_4$ breaking.
We show that it is possible to enforce texture zeros in arbitrary entries of the fermion mass matrices by means of Abelian symmetries; in this way, many popular mass-matrix textures find a symmetry justification. We propose two alternative methods which allow to place zeros in any number of elements of the mass matrices that one wants. They are applicable simultaneously in the quark and lepton sectors. They are also applicable in Grand Unified Theories. The number of scalar fields required by our methods may be large; still, in many interesting cases this number can be reduced considerably. The larger the desired number of texture zeros is, the simpler are the models which reproduce the texture.
We discuss two extensions of the Standard Model based on the seesaw mechanism and on non-abelian family symmetry groups O(2) and $D_4$, respectively. Both models have a twofold-degenerate neutrino Dirac mass matrix $M_D$, a Majorana mass matrix invariant under a $μ$--$τ$ interchange symmetry and the predictions of maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing and vanishing mixing angle $θ_{13}$. Leptogenesis can naturally be incorporated if $10^{-3} \lesssim m_1 \lesssim 10^{-2}$ eV where $m_1$ the mass of the lightest neutrino and if the relevant heavy neutrinos are in the range $10^{11}$ to $10^{12}$ GeV. The $D_4$ model is more constrained and leptogenesis requires $m_1$ to be in the vicinity of $4 \times 10^{-3}$ eV.
We study leptogenesis in two seesaw models where maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing and $U_{e3} = 0$ result from symmetries. Salient features of those models are the existence of three Higgs doublets and a twofold degeneracy of the neutrino Dirac mass matrix. We find that in those models both leptogenesis and neutrinoless double beta decay depend on the same unique Majorana phase. Leptogenesis can produce a baryon asymmetry of the universe of the right size provided the mass of the heavy neutrino whose decays generate the lepton asymmetry is in the range $10^{11}$--$10^{12} \mathrm{GeV}$. Moreover, in these models, leptogenesis precludes an inverted neutrino mass spectrum since it requires the mass of the lightest neutrino to be in the range $10^{-3}$--$10^{-2} \mathrm{eV}$.