arXiv subjects

M. Pietroni

Publications and source records attributed to M. Pietroni.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv1999

The Sphaleron in a Magnetic Field and Electroweak Baryogenesis

The presence of a primordial magnetic field in the early universe affects the dynamic of the electroweak phase transition enhancing its strength. This effect may enlarge the window for electroweak baryogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model or even resurrect the electroweak baryogenesis scenario in the standard model. We compute the sphaleron energy in the background of the magnetic field and show that, due to the sphaleron dipole moment, the barrier between topologically inequivalent vacua is lowered. Therefore, the preservation of the baryon asymmetry calls for a much stronger phase transition than required in the absence of a magnetic field. We show that this effect overwhelms the gain in the phase transition strength, and conclude that magnetic fields do not help electroweak baryogenesis.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1996

Inverse Symmetry Breaking and the Exact Renormalization Group

We discuss the question of inverse symmetry breaking at non-zero temperature using the exact renormalization group. We study a two-scalar theory and concentrate on the nature of the phase transition during which the symmetry is broken. We also examine the persistence of symmetry breaking at temperatures higher than the critical one.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1995

Particle Currents in a Space-Time dependent and CP-violating Higgs Background: a Field Theory Approach

Motivated by cosmological applications like electroweak baryogenesis, we develop a field theoretic approach to the computation of particle currents on a space-time dependent and CP-violating Higgs background. We consider the Standard Model model with two Higgs doublets and CP violation in the scalar sector, and compute both fermionic and Higgs currents by means of an expansion in the background fields. We discuss the gauge dependence of the results and the renormalization of the current operators, showing that in the limit of local equilibrium, no extra renormalization conditions are needed in order to specify the system completely.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1995

Particle Currents on a CP Violating Higgs Background and the Spontaneous Baryogenesis Mechanism

We compute the particle currents induced on a bubble wall background at finite temperature in a model with CP violation in the Higgs sector. Using a field theory approach we show that fermionic currents arise at one loop, so that a suppression factor ${\cal O}(h_t ϕ/πT)^2$ with respect to previous computations is found. The contributions to the Higgs currents are also derived and their relevancy for the spontaneous baryogenesis mechanism is discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1994

Implications of a light stop for the spontaneous CP breaking at finite temperature in a nonminimal supersymmetric standard model

We study the implications of a light stop for the spontaneous CP breaking at finite temperature in the Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with a gauge singlet. Assuming CP conservation at zero temperature, we show that the presence of a large mixing between the left- and the right-handed stops can trigger easily the spontaneous breaking of CP inside the bubbles nucleated during the electroweak phase transition. This allows to avoid the fine-tuning among the vacuum expectation values in the region of interest for the generation of the baryon asymmetry, namely the bubble walls, which has been recently analized.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1994

On Spontaneous Baryogenesis and Transport Phenomena

The spontaneous baryogenesis mechanism by Cohen, Kaplan and Nelson is reconsidered taking into account the transport of particles inside the electroweak bubble walls. Using linear response theory, we calculate the modifications on the thermal averages of the charges of the system due to the presence of a space time dependent `charge potential' for a quantum number not orthogonal to baryon number. The local equilibrium configuration is discussed, showing that, as a consequence of non zero densities for conserved charges, the $B+L$ density is driven to non zero values by sphaleronic processes. Solving a rate equation for the baryon number generation, we obtain an expression for the final baryon asymmetry of the Universe containing the relevant parameters of the bubble wall, {\it i.e.} its velocity, its width, and the width of the region in which sphalerons are active. Compared to previous estimates in which transport effects were not taken into account, we find an enhancement of nearly three orders of magnitude in the baryon asymmetry. Finally, the role of QCD sphalerons in cooperation with transport effects is analyzed, showing that the net result depends crucially on the particle species which enter into the charge potential.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1994

On the Spontaneous CP Breaking at Finite Temperature in a Nonminimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We study the spontaneous CP breaking at finite temperature in the Higgs sector in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with a gauge singlet. We consider the contribution of the standard model particles and that of stops, charginos, neutralinos, charged and neutral Higgs boson to the one-loop effective potential. Plasma effects for all bosons are also included. Assuming CP conservation at zero temperature, so that experimental constraints coming from, {\it e.g.}, the electric dipole moment of the neutron are avoided, and the electroweak phase transition to be of the first order and proceeding via bubble nucleation, we show that spontaneous CP breaking cannot occur inside the bubble mainly due to large effects coming from the Higgs sector. However, spontaneous CP breaking can be present in the region of interest for the generation of the baryon asymmetry, namely inside the bubble wall. The important presence of very tiny explicit CP violating phases is also commented.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1993

Spontaneous Breaking of R parity in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model Revisited

We reconsider the possibility of spontaneous breaking of $R$ parity in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. By a renormalization group analysis we find the parameter space in which a sneutrino gets a vacuum expectation value, leading to the spontaneous breaking of the lepton number and to the appearance of a phenomenologically unacceptable massless Goldstone boson. We then analyze the effect of operators giving rise to a tiny amount of explicit violation of lepton number, which could emerge as remnants of physics at some superheavy (Planck or GUT) scale in the low energy effective theory. We show that the conspiracy between the spontaneous and the explicit breaking scales can provide a mass to the Goldstone boson larger than the ${\rm Z}^0$ boson mass, hence allowing for a non vanishing sneutrino vacuum expectation value without increasing the invisible width of the ${\rm Z}^0$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1993

Electromagnetic properties of the neutrinos and the pion radiative decay

We investigate the implications of neutrino electromagnetic dipole moments for the radiative decay $π\rightarrow e νγ$. We show that the dominant new effect comes from the interference between the amplitude of the process with the photon emitted by the neutrino and the structure dependent standard amplitude. Such interference takes place only if the massive neutrino is a Majorana fermion. Moreover, since electric and magnetic dipole moments give rise to contributions with opposite signs, future experiments might be able to distinguish between them.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1993

Spontaneous CP Violation and Baryogenesis in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We investigate the effects of the spontaneous CP violation at finite temperature in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model on the baryogenesis at the weak scale. After a brief discussion of the case in which the electroweak phase transition is of the second order, we study in details the baryogenesis scenario when the transition proceeds via bubble nucleation. We show that the space-time dependent phase for the Higgs vacuum expectation values coming from the spontaneous CP violation can give rise to a efficient generation of baryon number inside the bubble walls if the superpotential parameters and the soft supersymmetry breaking ones are complex. However we find that in order to get the observed value for the baryon asymmetry of the universe the phases of such parameters can be as small as $10^{-5}$, giving rise to an electron dipole moment of the neutron well below the current experimental limit. Moreover a light Higgs pseudoscalar is needed, and an upper bound on its mass is obtained.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1993

Spontaneous CP Violation in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at Finite Temperature

We show that in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model one--loop effects at finite temperature may lead to a spontaneous breaking of CP invariance in the scalar sector. Requiring that the breaking takes place at the critical temperature for the electroweak phase transition, we find that the parameters space is compatible with a mass of the Higgs pseudoscalar in agreement with the present experimental lower bounds. Possible implications for baryogenesis are discussed.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1992

The Supersymmetric Singlet Majoron

We study the supersymmetrized version of the singlet majoron model and, performing an analysis of the renormalization group equation improved potential, we find that a spontaneous breaking of $R$-parity can be achieved for a wide range of the parameters. Studying the finite temperature effective potential, we show that the phase transition leading to $R$-parity breaking can be of the first order and can occur at temperatures below the weak scale, thus avoiding any constraint coming from the requirement of the preservation of the baryon asymmetry in the early Universe.

hep-ph↗

arXiv1992

The Electroweak Phase Transition in a Nonminimal Supersymmetric Model

We study the electroweak phase transition in a supersymmetric version of the Standard Model, in which a gauge singlet superfield is added to the Higgs sector. We show that the order of the transition is determined by the trilinear soft supersymmetry breaking terms rather than by the $O ( m^{3} T )$ term in the 1-loop, $T\neq0$ corrections. This fact removes the Standard Model upper bound on the Higgs mass, $ m_{H} < 55 GeV$, coming from the requirement that baryon asymmetry is not washed out by anomalous electroweak processes. We perform a numerical analysis of parameter space including in the effective potential top-stop contribution to 1-loop radiative corrections. We find that this model is compatible with the preservation of baryon asymmetry for masses of the lightest scalar up to about 170 GeV.

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