Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

W. Grimus

Publications and source records attributed to W. Grimus.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2020

Radiative seesaw corrections and charged-lepton decays in a model with soft flavour violation

We consider the one-loop radiative corrections to the light-neutrino mass matrix and their consequences for the predicted branching ratios of the five lepton-flavour-violating decays $\ell_1^- \to \ell_2^- \ell_3^+ \ell_3^-$ in a two-Higgs-doublet model furnished with the type-I seesaw mechanism and soft lepton-flavour violation. We find that the radiative corrections are very significant; they may alter the predicted branching ratios by several orders of magnitude and, in particular, they may help explain why $\mbox{BR}(μ^- \to e^- e^+ e^-)$ is strongly suppressed relative to the branching ratios of the decays of the $τ^-$. We conclude that, in any serious numerical assessment of the predictions of this model, it is absolutely necessary to take into account the one-loop radiative corrections to the light-neutrino mass matrix.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2017

Renormalization and radiative corrections to masses in a general Yukawa model

We consider a model with arbitrary numbers of Majorana fermion fields and real scalar fields $φ_a$, general Yukawa couplings and a $\mathbb{Z}_4$ symmetry that forbids linear and trilinear terms in the scalar potential. Moreover, fermions become massive only after spontaneous symmetry breaking of the $\mathbb{Z}_4$ symmetry by vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the $φ_a$. Introducing the shifted fields $h_a$ whose VEVs vanish, $\overline{\mbox{MS}}$ renormalization of the parameters of the unbroken theory suffices to make the theory finite. However, in this way, beyond tree level it is necessary to perform finite shifts of the tree-level VEVs, induced by the finite parts of the tadpole diagrams, in order to ensure vanishing one-point functions of the $h_a$. Moreover, adapting the renormalization scheme to a situation with many scalars and VEVs, we consider the physical fermion and scalar masses as derived quantities, $\textit{i.e.}$ as functions of the coupling constants and VEVs. Consequently, the masses have to be computed order by order in a perturbative expansion. In this scheme we compute the selfenergies of fermions and bosons and show how to obtain the respective one-loop contributions to the tree-level masses. Furthermore, we discuss the modification of our results in the case of Dirac fermions and investigate, by way of an example, the effects of a flavour symmetry group.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2017

Cobimaximal lepton mixing from soft symmetry breaking

Cobimaximal lepton mixing, i.e. $θ_{23} = 45^\circ$ and $δ= \pm 90^\circ$ in the lepton mixing matrix $V$, arises as a consequence of $S V = V^\ast \mathcal{P}$, where $S$ is the permutation matrix that interchanges the second and third rows of $V$ and $\mathcal{P}$ is a diagonal matrix of phase factors. We prove that any such $V$ may be written in the form $V = U R P$, where $U$ is any predefined unitary matrix satisfying $S U = U^\ast$, $R$ is an orthogonal, i.e. real, matrix, and $P$ is a diagonal matrix satisfying $P^2 = \mathcal{P}$. Using this theorem, we demonstrate the equivalence of two ways of constructing models for cobimaximal mixing---one way that uses a standard $CP$ symmetry and a different way that uses a $CP$ symmetry including $μ$--$τ$ interchange. We also present two simple seesaw models to illustrate this equivalence; those models have, in addition to the $CP$ symmetry, flavour symmetries broken softly by the Majorana mass terms of the right-handed neutrino singlets. Since each of the two models needs four scalar doublets, we investigate how to accommodate the Standard Model Higgs particle in them.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2017

Mass renormalization in a toy model with spontaneously broken symmetry

We discuss renormalization in a toy model with one fermion field and one real scalar field phi, featuring a spontaneously broken discrete symmetry which forbids a fermion mass term and a phi^3 term in the Lagrangian. We employ a renormalization scheme which uses the MSbar scheme for the Yukawa and quartic scalar couplings and renormalizes the vacuum expectation value of phi by requiring that the one-point function of the shifted field is zero. In this scheme, the tadpole contributions to the fermion and scalar selfenergies are canceled by choice of the renormalization parameter delta_v of the vacuum expectation value. However, delta_v and, therefore, the tadpole contributions reenter the scheme via the mass renormalization of the scalar, in which place they are indispensable for obtaining finiteness. We emphasize that the above renormalization scheme provides a clear formulation of the hierarchy problem and allows a straightforward generalization to an arbitrary number of fermion and scalar fields.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2017

Revisiting on-shell renormalization conditions in theories with flavour mixing

In this review, we present a derivation of the on-shell renormalization conditions for scalar and fermionic fields in theories with and without parity conservation. We also discuss the specifics of Majorana fermions. Our approach only assumes a canonical form for the renormalized propagators and exploits the fact that the inverse propagators are non-singular in $\varepsilon = p^2 - m_n^2$, where $p$ is the external four-momentum and $m_n$ is a pole mass. In this way, we obtain full agreement with commonly used on-shell conditions. We also discuss how they are implemented in renormalization.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2017

Charged-lepton decays from soft flavour violation

We consider a two-Higgs-doublet extension of the Standard Model, with three right-handed neutrino singlets and the seesaw mechanism, wherein all the Yukawa-coupling matrices are lepton flavour-diagonal and lepton flavour violation is soft, originating solely in the non-flavour-diagonal Majorana mass matrix of the right-handed neutrinos. We consider the limit $m_R \to \infty$ of this model, where $m_R$ is the seesaw scale. We demonstrate that there is a region in parameter space where the branching ratios of all five charged-lepton decays $\ell_1^- \to \ell_2^- \ell_3^+ \ell_3^-$ are close to their experimental upper bounds, while the radiative decays $\ell_1^- \to \ell_2^- γ$ are invisible because their branching ratios are suppressed by $m_R^{-4}$. We also consider the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and show that in our model the contributions from the extra scalars, both charged and neutral, can remove the discrepancy between its experimental and theoretical values.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2016

Scotogenic model for co-bimaximal mixing

We present a scotogenic model, i.e. a one-loop neutrino mass model with dark right-handed neutrino gauge singlets and one inert dark scalar gauge doublet $η$, which has symmetries that lead to co-bimaximal mixing, i.e. to an atmospheric mixing angle $θ_{23} = 45^\circ$ and to a $CP$-violating phase $δ= \pm π/2$, while the mixing angle $θ_{13}$ remains arbitrary. The symmetries consist of softly broken lepton numbers $L_α$ ($α= e,μ,τ$), a non-standard $CP$ symmetry, and three $Z_2$ symmetries. We indicate two possibilities for extending the model to the quark sector. Since the model has, besides $η$, three scalar gauge doublets, we perform a thorough discussion of its scalar sector. We demonstrate that it can accommodate a Standard Model-like scalar with mass $125\, \mathrm{GeV}$, with all the other charged and neutral scalars having much higher masses.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2016

Flavour symmetries in a renormalizable SO(10) model

In the context of a renormalizable supersymmetric SO(10) Grand Unified Theory, we consider the fermion mass matrices generated by the Yukawa couplings to a $\mathbf{10} \oplus \mathbf{120} \oplus \bar{\mathbf{126}}$ representation of scalars. We perform a complete investigation of the possibilities of imposing flavour symmetries in this scenario; the purpose is to reduce the number of Yukawa coupling constants in order to identify potentially predictive models. We have found that there are only 14 inequivalent cases of Yukawa coupling matrices, out of which 13 cases are generated by $Z_n$ symmetries, with suitable $n$, and one case is generated by a $Z_2 \times Z_2$ symmetry. A numerical analysis of the 14 cases reveals that only two of them---dubbed A and B in the present paper---allow good fits to the experimentally known fermion masses and mixings.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2014

Double seesaw mechanism and lepton mixing

We present a general framework for models in which the lepton mixing matrix is the product of the maximal mixing matrix U_ω times a matrix constrained by a well-defined Z_2 symmetry. Our framework relies on neither supersymmetry nor non-renormalizable Lagrangians nor higher dimensions; it relies instead on the double seesaw mechanism and on the soft breaking of symmetries. The framework may be used to construct models for virtually all the lepton mixing matrices of the type mentioned above which have been proposed in the literature.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2013

Two-parameter neutrino mass matrices with two texture zeros

We reanalyse Majorana-neutrino mass matrices M_nu with two texture zeros, by searching for viable hybrid textures in which the non-zero matrix elements of M_nu have simple ratios. Referring to the classification scheme of Frampton, Glashow and Marfatia, we find that the mass matrix denoted by A1 allows the ratios (M_nu)_{mu mu} : (Mnu)_{tau tau} = 1:1 and (M_nu)_{e tau} : (Mnu)_{mu tau} = 1:2. There are analogous ratios for texture A2. With these two hybrid textures, one obtains, for instance, good agreement with the data if one computes the three mixing angles in terms of the experimentally determined mass-squared differences Delta m^2_21 and Delta m^2_31. We could not find viable hybrid textures based on mass matrices different from those of cases A1 and A2.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2013

On the 100th anniversary of the Sackur-Tetrode equation

In 1912, Otto Sackur and Hugo Tetrode independently put forward an equation for the absolute entropy of a monoatomic ideal gas and published it in "Annalen der Physik." The grand achievement in the derivation of this equation was the discretization of phase space for massive particles, expressed as δq δp = h, where q and p are conjugate variables and h is Planck's constant. Due to the dependence of the absolute entropy on Planck's constant, Sackur and Tetrode were able to devise a test of their equation by applying it to the monoatomic vapor of mercury; from the satisfactory numerical comparison of h obtained from thermodynamic data on mercury with Planck's value from black-body radiation, they inferred the correctness of their equation. In this review we highlight this almost forgotten episode of physics, discuss the arguments leading to the derivation of the Sackur--Tetrode equation and outline the method how this equation was tested with thermodynamic data.

physics.hist-ph↗
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.

hep-ph↗
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.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Proceedings of the first workshop on Flavor Symmetries and consequences in Accelerators and Cosmology (FLASY2011)

The main goals of the first "Workshop on FLAvor SYmmetries and consequences in accelerators and cosmology" (FLASY) was to summarize the theoretical status of flavor symmetries, bringing together young researchers in the field to stimulate discussions and new collaborations, with the aim of investigating possible new physics scenarios to be tested at the LHC, as well as in future neutrino, cosmology experiments and dark matter searches.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2011

Maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing from texture zeros and quasi-degenerate neutrino masses

It is well-known that, in the basis where the charged-lepton mass matrix is diagonal, there are seven cases of two texture zeros in Majorana neutrino mass matrices that are compatible with all experimental data. We show that two of these cases, namely B3 and B4 in the classification of Frampton, Glashow and Marfatia, are special in the sense that they automatically lead to near-maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing in the limit of a quasi-degenerate neutrino mass spectrum. This property holds true irrespective of the values of the solar and reactor mixing angles because, for these two cases, in the limit of a quasi-degenerate spectrum, the second and third row of the lepton mixing matrix are, up to signs, approximately complex-conjugate to each other. Moreover, in the same limit the aforementioned cases also develop a maximal CP-violating CKM-type phase, provided the reactor mixing angle is not too small.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2010

Principal series of finite subgroups of SU(3)

We attempt to give a complete description of the "exceptional" finite subgroups Sigma(36x3), Sigma(72x3) and Sigma(216x3) of SU(3), with the aim to make them amenable to model building for fermion masses and mixing. The information on these groups which we derive contains conjugacy classes, proper normal subgroups, irreducible representations, character tables and tensor products of their three-dimensional irreducible representations. We show that, for these three exceptional groups, usage of their principal series, i.e. ascending chains of normal subgroups, greatly facilitates the computations and illuminates the relationship between the groups. As a preparation and testing ground for the usage of principal series, we study first the dihedral-like groups Delta(27) and Delta(54) because both are members of the principal series of the three groups discussed in the paper.

hep-ph↗
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.

hep-ph↗