arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R. Gonzalez Felipe.
We study a possible mechanism for astrophysical jet production from a neutron star composed by a partially bosonized npe-gas. We obtain that the expulsion of a stable stream of matter might be triggered by the quantum magnetic collapse of one or various components of the gas, while its collimation is due to the formation of a strong self-generated magnetic field.
The implementation of maximally restrictive texture zeros in the leptonic sector is investigated in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models with Majorana neutrinos. After analyzing all maximally restrictive pairs of leptonic mass matrices with zero entries, we conclude that there are only four texture combinations that are compatible with observations at 3 sigma confidence level and can be implemented through Abelian symmetries in a two-Higgs-doublet model. The compatibility of these textures with current constraints on lepton-flavor-violating processes is also studied. The ultraviolet completion of these models is discussed in the framework of the seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses.
According to the braneworld idea, ordinary matter is confined on a 3-dimensional space (brane) that is embedded in a higher-dimensional space-time where gravity propagates. In this work, after reviewing the limits coming from general relativity, finiteness of pressure and causality on the brane, we derive observational constraints on the braneworld parameters from the existence of stable compact stars. The analysis is carried out by solving numerically the brane-modified Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations, using different representative equations of state to describe matter in the star interior. The cases of normal dense matter, pure quark matter and hybrid matter are considered.
We look for minimal chiral sets of fermions beyond the standard model that are anomaly free and, simultaneously, vectorlike particles with respect to colour SU(3) and electromagnetic U(1). We then study whether the addition of such particles to the standard model particle content allows for the unification of gauge couplings at a high energy scale, above $5.0 \times 10^{15}$ GeV so as to be safely consistent with proton decay bounds. The possibility to have unification at the string scale is also considered. Inspired in grand unified theories, we also search for minimal chiral fermion sets that belong to SU(5) multiplets. Restricting to representations up to dimension 50, we show that some of these sets can lead to gauge unification at the GUT and/or string scales.
To study a flavour model with a non-minimal Higgs sector one must first define the symmetries of the fields; then identify what types of vacua exist and how they may break the symmetries; and finally determine whether the remnant symmetries are compatible with the experimental data. Here we address all these issues in the context of flavour models with any number of Higgs doublets. We stress the importance of analysing the Higgs vacuum expectation values that are pseudo-invariant under the generators of all subgroups. It is shown that the only way of obtaining a physical CKM mixing matrix and, simultaneously, non-degenerate and non-zero quark masses is requiring the vacuum expectation values of the Higgs fields to break completely the full flavour group, except possibly for some symmetry belonging to baryon number. The application of this technique to some illustrative examples, such as the flavour groups Delta(27), A4 and S3, is also presented.
In an attempt at explaining the observed neutrino mass-squared differences and leptonic mixing, lepton mass matrices with zero textures have been widely studied. In the weak basis where the charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal, various neutrino mass matrices with two zeros have been shown to be consistent with the current experimental data. Using the canonical and Smith normal form methods, we construct the minimal Abelian symmetry realizations of these phenomenological two-zero neutrino textures. The implementation of these symmetries in the context of the seesaw mechanism for Majorana neutrino masses is also discussed.
A novel contribution to the leptonic CP asymmetries in type II seesaw leptogenesis scenarios is obtained for the cases in which flavor effects are relevant for the dynamics of leptogenesis. In the so-called flavoured leptogenesis regime, the interference between the tree-level amplitude of the scalar triplet decaying into two leptons and the one-loop wave-function correction with leptons in the loop, leads to a new nonvanishing CP asymmetry contribution. The latter conserves total lepton number but violates lepton flavour. Cases in which this novel contribution may be dominant in the generation of the baryon asymmetry are briefly discussed.
We study neutrino masses and mixing in the context of flavor models with A4 symmetry, three scalar doublets in the triplet representation, and three lepton families. We show that there is no representation assignment that yields a dimension-five mass operator consistent with experiment. We then consider a type-I seesaw with three heavy right-handed neutrinos, explaining in detail why it fails, and showing with a numerical example that agreement with the present neutrino oscillation data can be recovered with the inclusion of dimension-three heavy neutrino mass terms that break softly the A4 symmetry.
We consider the quark sector of theories containing three scalar SU(2)_L doublets in the triplet representation of A4 (or of S4) and three generations of quarks in arbitrary A4 (or S4) representations. We show that, for all possible choices of quark field representations and for all possible alignments of the Higgs vacuum expectation values that can constitute global minima of the scalar potential, it is not possible to obtain simultaneously non-vanishing quark masses and a non-vanishing CP-violating phase in the CKM quark mixing matrix. As a result, in this minimal form, models with three scalar fields in the triplet representation of A4 or of S4 cannot be extended to the quark sector in a way consistent with experiment.
We consider a simple extension of the Standard Model by adding two Higgs triplets and a complex scalar singlet to its particle content. In this framework, the CP symmetry is spontaneously broken at high energies by the complex vacuum expectation value of the scalar singlet. Such a breaking leads to leptonic CP violation at low energies. The model also exhibits an $A_4\times Z_4$ flavour symmetry which, after being spontaneously broken at a high-energy scale, yields a tribimaximal pattern in the lepton sector. We consider small perturbations around the tribimaximal vacuum alignment condition in order to generate nonzero values of $θ_{13}$, as required by the latest neutrino oscillation data. It is shown that the value of $θ_{13}$ recently measured by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment can be accommodated in our framework together with large Dirac-type CP violation. We also address the viability of leptogenesis in our model through the out-of-equilibrium decays of the Higgs triplets. In particular, the CP asymmetries in the triplet decays into two leptons are computed and it is shown that the effective leptogenesis and low-energy CP-violating phases are directly linked.
Several topics on CP violation in the lepton sector are reviewed. A few theoretical aspects concerning neutrino masses, leptonic mixing, and CP violation will be covered, with special emphasis on seesaw models. A discussion is provided on observable effects which are manifest in the presence of CP violation, particularly, in neutrino oscillations and neutrinoless double beta decay processes, and their possible implications in collider experiments such as the LHC. The role that leptonic CP violation may have played in the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through the mechanism of leptogenesis is also discussed.
The main properties of magnetized strangelets, namely, their energy per baryon, radius and electric charge, are studied. Temperature effects are also taken into account in order to study their stability compared to the 56Fe isotope and non-magnetized strangelets using the liquid drop model. Massive quarks are considered with the aim to have a more realistic description for strangelets in the astrophysical context and the environment of heavy ion colliders, playing also an important role in the thermodynamical quantities of the quark gas. It is concluded that the presence of a magnetic field tends to stabilize more the strangelets, even when temperature effects are taken into account. Magnetized strangelets in a paired superconductor phase (magnetized color flavor locked phase) are also discussed. It is shown that they are more stable than ordinary magnetized strangelets for typical gap values of the order of O(100) MeV.
The discovery of neutrino oscillations provides a solid evidence for nonzero neutrino masses and leptonic mixing. The fact that neutrino masses are so tiny constitutes a puzzling problem in particle physics. From the theoretical viewpoint, the smallness of neutrino masses can be elegantly explained through the seesaw mechanism. Another challenging issue for particle physics and cosmology is the explanation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry observed in Nature. Among the viable mechanisms, leptogenesis is a simple and well-motivated framework. In this talk we briefly review these aspects, making emphasis on the possibility of linking neutrino physics to the cosmological baryon asymmetry originated from leptogenesis.
Tribimaximal leptonic mixing is a mass-independent mixing scheme consistent with the present solar and atmospheric neutrino data. By conveniently decomposing the effective neutrino mass matrix associated to it, we derive generic predictions in terms of the parameters governing the neutrino masses. We extend this phenomenological analysis to other mass-independent mixing schemes which are related to the tribimaximal form by a unitary transformation. We classify models that produce tribimaximal leptonic mixing through the group structure of their family symmetries in order to point out that there is often a direct connection between the group structure and the phenomenological analysis. The type of seesaw mechanism responsible for neutrino masses plays a role here, as it restricts the choices of family representations and affects the viability of leptogenesis. We also present a recipe to generalize a given tribimaximal model to an associated model with a different mass-independent mixing scheme, which preserves the connection between the group structure and phenomenology as in the original model. This procedure is explicitly illustrated by constructing toy models with the transpose tribimaximal, bimaximal, golden ratio, and hexagonal leptonic mixing patterns.
The stability of the color flavor locked phase in the presence of a strong magnetic field is investigated within the phenomenological MIT bag model, taking into account the variation of the strange quark mass, the baryon density, the magnetic field, as well as the bag and gap parameters. It is found that the minimum value of the energy per baryon in a color flavor locked state at vanishing pressure is lower than the corresponding one for unpaired magnetized strange quark matter and, as the magnetic field increases, the energy per baryon decreases. This implies that magnetized color flavor locked matter is more stable and could become the ground state inside neutron stars. The mass-radius relation for such stars is also studied.
We review the stability of magnetized strange quark matter (MSQM) within the phenomenological MIT bag model, taking into account the variation of the relevant input parameters, namely, the strange quark mass, baryon density, magnetic field and bag parameter. A comparison with magnetized asymmetric quark matter in $β$-equilibrium as well as with strange quark matter (SQM) is presented. We obtain that the energy per baryon for MSQM decreases as the magnetic field increases, and its minimum value at vanishing pressure is lower than the value found for SQM, which implies that MSQM is more stable than non-magnetized SQM. The mass-radius relation for magnetized strange quark stars is also obtained in this framework.
It is shown that type I seesaw models based on the standard model Lagrangian extended with three heavy Majorana right-handed fields do not have leptogenesis in leading order, if the symmetries of mass matrices are also the residual symmetry of the Lagrangian. In particular, flavor models that lead to a mass-independent leptonic mixing have a vanishing leptogenesis CP asymmetry. Based on symmetry arguments, we prove that in these models the Dirac-neutrino Yukawa coupling combinations relevant for leptogenesis are diagonal in the physical basis where the charged leptons and heavy Majorana neutrinos are diagonal.
The implementation of seesaw mechanisms to give mass to neutrinos in the presence of an anomaly-free U(1)_X gauge symmetry is discussed in the context of minimal extensions of the standard model. It is shown that type-I and type-III seesaw mechanisms cannot be simultaneously implemented with an anomaly-free local U(1)_X, unless the symmetry is a replica of the well-known hypercharge. For combined type-I/II or type-III/II seesaw models it is always possible to find nontrivial anomaly-free charge assignments, which are however tightly constrained, if the new neutral gauge boson is kinematically accessible at LHC. The discovery of the latter and the measurement of its decays into third-generation quarks, as well as its mixing with the standard Z boson, would allow one to discriminate among different seesaw realizations.