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Sheldon L. Glashow

Publications and source records attributed to Sheldon L. Glashow.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2014

Lepton Flavor Violation in B Decays?

The LHCb Collaboration's measurement of R_K = B(B+ -> K+ mu+ mu-)/B(B+ -> K+ e+e-) lies 2.6 sigma below the Standard Model prediction. Several groups suggest this deficit to result from new lepton non-universal interactions of muons. But non-universal leptonic interactions imply lepton flavor violation in B decays at rates much larger than are expected in the Standard Model. A simple model shows that these rates could lie just below current limits. An interesting consequence of our model, that B(B_s -> mu+ mu-)_{exp}/B(B_s -> mu+ mu-)_{SM} = R_K = 0.75, is compatible with recent measurements of these rates. We stress the importance of searches for lepton flavor violations, especially for B -> K mu e, K mu tau and B_s -> mu e, mu tau.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

The Effect of Doppler Broadening on the $6.3 \ PeV$ $W^-$ Resonance in $\barν_e e^-$ Collisions

We calculate the Doppler broadening of the $W^-$ resonance produced in $\barν_e e^-$ collisions of cosmic anti-neutrinos with $E_ν\approx 6.3 \ PeV$ with electrons in atoms up to Iron. Revisiting this issue is prompted by recent observations of PeV neutrinos by Ice-Cube. Despite its poor energy resolution, the $20\%$ Doppler broadening of the resonance due to electronic motions can produce observable effects via non-linear neutrino absorption near the resonance. The attendant suppression of the peak cross section allows $\barν_e$ to travel correspondingly longer distances. While this effect is unlikely to be directly detected in the near future, it may facilitate terrestrial tomography at depths of $\sim 10 \ km$, complementing deeper explorations using the more frequent nuclear interactions at lower energies.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2011

New Constraints on Neutrino Velocities

The OPERA collaboration has claimed that muon neutrinos with mean energy of 17.5 GeV travel 730 km from CERN to the Gran Sasso at a speed exceeding that of light by about 7.5 km/s or 25 ppm. However, we show that such superluminal neutrinos would lose energy rapidly via the bremsstrahlung of electron-positron pairs ($ν\rightarrow ν+e^-+e^+$). For the claimed superluminal neutrino velocity and at the stated mean neutrino energy, we find that most of the neutrinos would have suffered several pair emissions en route, causing the beam to be depleted of higher energy neutrinos. Thus we refute the superluminal interpretation of the OPERA result. Furthermore, we appeal to Super-Kamiokande and IceCube data to establish strong new limits on the superluminal propagation of high-energy neutrinos.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Strangeness Violating Dibaryon Decay

Non-standard physics may induce detectable flavor-changing $ΔB=2$ interactions without inducing their flavor-conserving counterparts. Searches for $n$-$\overline n$ oscillations do not constrain such interactions, thereby motivating dedicated searches for $ΔB=2$ nuclear decays into strange final states. In particular, the simple model herein proposed enables dibaryon decay exclusively into states with $S=2$.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

Playing with Neutrino Masses

Most of what is known about neutrino masses and mixings results from studies of oscillation phenomena. We focus on those neutrino properties that are not amenable to such studies: $Σ$, the sum of the absolute values of the neutrino masses; $m_β$, the effective mass of the electron neutrino; and $m_{ββ} $, the parameter governing neutrinoless double beta decay. Each of these is the subject of ongoing experimental or observational studies. Here we deduce constraints on these observables resulting from any one of six {\it ad hoc\} hypotheses that involve the three complex mass parameters $m_i$: (1) Their product or (2) sum vanishes; (3) Their absolute values, like those of charged leptons or quarks of either charge, do not form a triangle; (4) The $e$-$e$ entry of the neutrino mass matrix vanishes; (5) Both the $μ$-$μ$ and $τ$-$τ$ entries vanish; (6) All three diagonal entries are equal in magnitude. The title of this note reflects the lack of any theoretical basis for any of these simple assertions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2009

Disentangling Neutrino Oscillations

The theory underlying neutrino oscillations has been described at length in the literature. The neutrino state produced by a weak decay is usually portrayed as a linear superposition of mass eigenstates with, variously, equal energies or equal momenta. We point out that such a description is incomplete, that in fact, the neutrino is entangled with the other particle or particles emerging from the decay. We offer an analysis of oscillation phenomena involving neutrinos (applying equally well to neutral mesons) that takes entanglement into account. Thereby we present a theoretically sound proof of the universal validity of the oscillation formulae ordinarily used. In so doing, we show that the departures from exponential decay reported by the GSI experiment cannot be attributed to neutrino mixing. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the `Mossbauer' neutrino oscillation experiment proposed by Raghavan, while technically challenging, is correctly and unambiguously describable by means of the usual oscillation formalae.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

A Lorentz-Violating Origin of Neutrino Mass?

We explore implications for neutrino physics of Very Special Relativity (VSR), wherein the symmetry group of nature includes only a 4-parameter subgroup of the Lorentz group. VSR can provide a natural origin to lepton-number conserving neutrino masses without need for sterile (right-handed) states. Neutrinoless double beta decay is forbidden if VSR is solely responsible for neutrino masses. For ultra-relativistic neutrinos, such as are ordinarily studied, VSR and conventional neutrino masses are indistinguishable. However, we show that VSR effects can be significant near the beta decay endpoint where neutrinos are not ultra-relativistic.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Very Special Relativity

By Very Special Relativity (VSR) we mean descriptions of nature whose space-time symmetries are certain proper subgroups of the Poincaré group. These subgroups contain space-time translations together with at least a 2-parameter subgroup of the Lorentz group isomorphic to that generated by $K_{x}+J_{y}$ and $K_{y}-J_{x}$. We find that VSR implies special relativity (SR) in the context of local quantum field theory or of CP conservation. Absent both of these added hypotheses, VSR provides a simulacrum of SR for which most of the consequences of Lorentz invariance remain wholly or essentially intact, and for which many sensitive searches for departures from Lorentz invariance must fail. Several feasible experiments are discussed for which Lorentz-violating effects in VSR may be detectable.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

A Sinister Extension of the Standard Model to SU(3)XSU(2)XSU(2)XU(1)

This paper describes work done in collaboration with Andy Cohen. In our model, ordinary fermions are accompanied by an equal number `terafermions.' These particles are linked to ordinary quarks and leptons by an unconventional CP' operation, whose soft breaking in the Higgs mass sector results in their acquiring large masses. The model leads to no detectable strong CP violating effects, produces small Dirac masses for neutrinos, and offers a novel alternative for dark matter as electromagnetically bound systems made of terafermions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2002

Zeroes of the Neutrino Mass Matrix

We assume there to be precisely three left-handed neutrino states whose Majorana masses are generated by an unspecified mechanism. Were CP conserved, the symmetric neutrino mass matrix M would be real and all six of its distinct entries could be experimentally determined. But CP is not conserved so that M is likely to be complex. As a result, not all nine of its convention-independent real parameters can be determined without an appeal to theory. Thus we examine the possibility that a restricted class of neutrino mass matrices may suffice to describe current data, namely those complex symmetric matrices several of whose entries vanish. We find that there are seven acceptable textures with two independent zeroes, and we explore their contrasting phenomenological implications. Textures with more than two independent zeroes appear to be excluded by experiment.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2001

Non-associative Loops for Holger Bech Nielsen

Finite groups are of the greatest importance in science. Loops are a simple generalization of finite groups: they share all the group axioms except for the requirement that the binary operation be associative. The least loops that are not themselves groups are those of order five. We offer a brief discussion of these loops and challenge the reader (especially Holger) to find useful applications for them in physics.

hep-th↗
arXiv2001

Model of Soft CP Violation

We propose a model of soft CP violation that evades the strong CP problem and can describe observed CP violation in the neutral kaon sector, both direct and indirect. Our model requires two ``duark'' mesons carrying quark number two that have complex (CP-violating) bare masses and are coupled to quark pairs. Aside from the existence of these potentially observable new particles with masses of several hundred GeV, we predict a flat unitarity triangle ({\it i.e.,} no observable direct CP violation in the $B$-meson sector) and a possibly anomalous branching ratio for the decay mode $K^+\to π^++\barν ν$.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

Terrestrial Neutrino Oscillations Illustrated

Observations of atmospheric neutrinos offer compelling evidence that neutrinos have mass and do oscillate. Preliminary data are compatible with maximal $ν_μ$--$ν_τ$ mixing, but not with pure $ν_μ$--$ν_e$ mixing. In a general three-family scenario with just one relevant squared-mass difference, atmospheric neutrino oscillations involve two mixing angles. The special cases mentioned above are not favored by convincing theoretical arguments. As more precise data are accumulated, both at Superkamiokande and at proposed or ongoing long-baseline experiments, it will become feasible and desirable to measure both angles. To this end, we offer a brief portfolio of illustrations from which the qualitative effects of the two mixing angles on various observable quantities can be discerned.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

Can the Zee ansatz for neutrino masses be correct?

Working in the framework of three chiral neutrinos with Majorana masses, we investigate a scenario first realized in an explicit model by Zee: that the neutrino mass matrix is strictly off-diagonal in the flavor basis, with all its diagonal entries precisely zero. This CP-conserving ansatz leads to two relations among the three mixing angles $(θ_1, θ_2, θ_3)$ and two squared mass differences. We impose the constraint $|m_3^2 - m_2^2| \gg |m^2_2 - m_1^2|$ to conform with experiment, which requires the $θ_i$ to lie nearby one of four 1-parameter domains in $θ$-space. We exhibit the implications for solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations in each of these cases. A unique version of the Zee {\it ansatz} survives confrontation with experimental data, one which necessarily involves maximal just-so vacuum oscillations of solar neutrinos.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

Soft Superweak CP Violation and the Strong CP Puzzle

We discuss a class of models in which CP is violated softly in a heavy sector adjoined to the standard model. Heavy-sector loops produce the observed CP violation in kaon physics, yielding a tiny and probably undetectable value for $ε^\prime$. All other CP-violating parameters in the effective low-energy standard model, including the area of the unitarity triangle and $\barθ$, are finite, calculable and can be made very small. The leading contribution to $\barθ$ comes from a four-loop graph. These models offer a natural realization of superweak CP violation and can resolve the strong CP puzzle. In one realization of this idea, CP is violated in the mass matrix of heavy majorana neutrinos.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

High-Energy Tests of Lorentz Invariance

We develop a perturbative framework with which to discuss departures from exact Lorentz invariance and explore their potentially observable ramifications. Tiny non-invariant terms introduced into the standard model Lagrangian are assumed to be renormalizable (dimension $\le 4$), invariant under $SU(3)\otimes SU(2)\otimes U(1)$ gauge transformations, and rotationally and translationally invariant in a preferred frame. There are a total of 46 independent TCP-even perturbations of this kind, all of which preserve anomaly cancellation. They define the energy-momentum eigenstates and their maximal attainable velocities in the high-energy limit. The effects of these perturbations increase rapidly with energy in the preferred frame, more rapidly than those of TCP-odd perturbations. Our analysis of Lorentz-violating kinematics reveals several striking new phenomena that are relevant both to cosmic-ray physics ({\it e.g.,} by undoing the GZK cutoff) and neutrino physics ({\it e.g.,} by generating novel types of neutrino oscillations). These may lead to new and sensitive high-energy tests of special relativity.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Beating the Standard Model

This report, adapted from my talk at the 1998 Ettore Majorana Subnuclear School at Erice, proffers speculative explanations of the strong CP problem and the existence of cosmic rays beyond the GZK bound. It is based on works done with Sidney Coleman and Howard Georgi.

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