arXiv subjects

Yasaman Farzan

Publications and source records attributed to Yasaman Farzan.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Neutrinophilic Non-Standard Interactions

We construct UV-complete models for non-standard neutrino interactions mediated by a sub-GeV gauge boson Z' coupled to baryon number $B$ or $B-L$. A flavor-dependent Z' coupling to neutrinos is induced by mixing a U(1)'-charged Dirac fermion with the active neutrinos, naturally suppressing flavor violation or non-universality of the charged leptons to the loop level. We show that these models can give rise to large flavor-conserving as well as flavor-violating non-standard neutral-current neutrino interactions potentially observable in current or future oscillation experiments such as DUNE without being in conflict with other constraints such as neutrino scattering or lepton-flavor-violating decays. In particular, the LMA-Dark solution to the solar-neutrino anomaly can be obtained for $U(1)_B$, but not for $U(1)_{B-L}$.

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arXiv2016

Lepton Flavor Violating Non-Standard Interactions via Light Mediators

Non-Standard neutral current Interactions (NSIs) of neutrinos with matter can alter the pattern of neutrino oscillation due to the coherent forward scattering of neutrinos on the medium. This effect makes long-baseline neutrino experiments such as NO$ν$A and DUNE a sensitive probe of beyond standard model (BSM) physics. We construct light mediator models that can give rise to both lepton flavor conserving as well as Lepton Flavor Violating (LFV) neutral current NSI. We outline the present phenomenological viability of these models and future prospects to test them. We predict a lower bound on Br$(H\to μτ)$ in terms of the parameters that can be measured by DUNE and NO$ν$A, and show that the hint for $H\to μτ$ in current LHC data can be accommodated in our model. A large part of the parameter space of the model is already constrained by the bounds on Br$(τ\to Z^\prime μ)$ and rare meson decays and can in principle fully tested by improving these bounds.

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arXiv2015

Neutrinos secretly converting to lighter particles to please both KATRIN and the cosmos

Within the framework of the Standard Model of particle physics and standard cosmology, observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) set stringent bounds on the sum of the masses of neutrinos. If these bounds are satisfied, the upcoming KATRIN experiment which is designed to probe neutrino mass down to $\sim 0.2$ eV will observe only a null signal. We show that the bounds can be relaxed by introducing new interactions for the massive active neutrinos, making neutrino masses in the range observable by KATRIN compatible with cosmological bounds. Within this scenario, neutrinos convert to new stable light particles by resonant production of intermediate states around a temperature of $T\sim$ keV in the early Universe, leading to a much less pronounced suppression of density fluctuations compared to the standard model.

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arXiv2015

Revisiting the quantum decoherence scenario as an explanation for the LSND anomaly

We propose an explanation for the LSND anomaly based on quantum decoherence, postulating an exponential behavior for the decoherence parameters as a function of the neutrino energy. Within this ansatz decoherence effects are suppressed for neutrino energies above 200 MeV as well as around and below few MeV, restricting deviations from standard three-flavour oscillations only to the LSND energy range of 20--50 MeV. The scenario is consistent with the global data on neutrino oscillations, alleviates the tension between LSND and KARMEN, and predicts a null-result for MiniBooNE. No sterile neutrinos are introduced, conflict with cosmology is avoided, and no tension between short-baseline appearance and disappearance data arises. The proposal can be tested at planned reactor experiments with baselines of around 50 km, such as JUNO or RENO-50.

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arXiv2015

A model for large non-standard interactions of neutrinos leading to the LMA-Dark solution

It is well-known that in addition to the standard LMA solution to solar anomaly, there is another solution called LMA-Dark which requires Non-Standard Interactions (NSI) with effective couplings as large as the Fermi coupling. Although this solution satisfies all the bounds from various neutrino oscillation observations and even provides a better fit to low energy solar neutrino spectrum, it is not as popular as the LMA solution mainly because no model compatible with the existing bounds has been so far constructed to give rise to this solution. We introduce a model that provides a foundation for such large NSI with strength and flavor structure required for the LMA-Dark solution. This model is based on a new $U(1)^\prime$ gauge interaction with a gauge boson of mass $\sim 10$ MeV under which quarks as well as the second and third generations of leptons are charged. We show that observable effects can appear in the spectrum of supernova and high energy cosmic neutrinos. Our model predicts a new contribution to the muon magnetic dipole moment and new rare meson decay modes.

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arXiv2014

Two-loop snail diagrams: relating neutrino masses to dark matter

Various mechanisms have been developed to explain the origin of Majorana neutrino masses. One of them is radiative mass generation. Two-loop mass generation is of particular interest because the masses and couplings of new particles propagating in the loop can be in the range testable by other experiments and observations. In order for the radiative mass suppression to be reliable, it should be guaranteed that lower loop contributions are suppressed. Based on loop topology and the form of electroweak presentation of the particles propagating in the loop, one can determine whether a lower---and therefore dominant---loop contribution is possible. We present a model based on these general considerations which leads to neutrino masses via a two-loop diagram which we dub as "snail-diagram". The model has two natural candidates for dark matter one of them being a neutral Dirac fermion which can satisfy the conditions of the thermal freeze-out scenario by annihilation to lepton pairs. We comment on the possibility of explaining the GeV gamma ray excess observed by Fermi-LAT from the region close to the Galaxy Center. We also discuss possible signals at the LHC and at experiments searching for lepton flavor violating rare decays.

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arXiv2014

Decaying Vector Dark Matter as an Explanation for the 3.5 keV Line from Galaxy Clusters

We present a Vector Dark Matter (VDM) model that explains the 3.5 keV line recently observed in the XMM-Newton observatory data from galaxy clusters. In this model, dark matter is composed of two vector bosons, $V$ and $V^\prime$, which couple to the photon through an effective generalized Chern-Simons coupling, $g_V$. $V^\prime$ is slightly heavier than $V$ with a mass splitting $m_{V^\prime}-m_V\simeq 3.5$~keV. The decay of $V^\prime$ to $V$ and a photon gives rise to the 3.5~keV line. The production of $V$ and $V^\prime$ takes place in the early universe within the freeze-in framework through the effective $g_V$ coupling when $m_{V^\prime}<T<Λ$, $Λ$ being the cut-off above which the effective $g_V$ coupling is not valid. We introduce a high energy model that gives rise to the $g_V$ coupling at low energies. To do this, $V$ and $V^\prime$ are promoted to gauge bosons of spontaneously broken new $U(1)_V$ and $U(1)_{V^\prime}$ gauge symmetries, respectively. The high energy sector includes milli-charged chiral fermions that lead to the $g_V$ coupling at low energy via triangle diagrams.

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arXiv2014

3.5 keV X-rays as the "21 cm line" of dark atoms, and a link to light sterile neutrinos

The recently discovered 3.5 keV X-ray line from extragalactic sources may be evidence of dark matter scatterings or decays. We show that dark atoms can be the source of the emission, through their hyperfine transitions, which would be the analog of 21 cm radiation from a dark sector. We identify two families of dark atom models that match the X-ray observations and are consistent with other constraints. In the first, the hyperfine excited state is long-lived compared to the age of the universe, and the dark atom mass is relatively unconstrained; dark atoms could be strongly self-interacting in this case. In the second, the excited state is short-lived and viable models are parameterized by the value of the dark proton-to-electron mass ratio $R$: for $R = 10^2-10^4$, the dark atom mass is predicted be in the range $350-1300$ GeV, with fine structure constant $α'\cong 0.1-0.6$. In either class of models, the dark photon must be massive with $m_{γ'} \gtrsim$ 1 MeV and decay into $e^+ e^-$. Evidence for the model could come from direct detection of the dark atoms. In a natural extension of this framework, the dark photon could decay predominantly into invisible particles, for example $\sim 0.5$ eV sterile neutrinos, explaining the extra radiation degree of freedom recently suggested by data from BICEP2, while remaining compatible with BBN.

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arXiv2014

Shedding light on LMA-Dark solar neutrino solution by medium baseline reactor experiments: JUNO and RENO-50

In the presence of Non-Standard neutral current Interactions (NSI) a new solution to solar neutrino anomaly with $\cos 2θ_{12}<0$ appears. We investigate how this solution can be tested by upcoming intermediate baseline reactor experiments, JUNO and RENO-50. We point out a degeneracy between the two solutions when both hierarchy and the $θ_{12}$ octant are flipped. We then comment on how this degeneracy can be partially lifted by long baseline experiments sensitive to matter effects such as the NOvA experiment.

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arXiv2014

Dips in the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background

Scalar (fermion) dark matter with mass in the MeV range coupled to ordinary neutrinos and another fermion (scalar) is motivated by scenarios that establish a link between radiatively generated neutrino masses and the dark matter relic density. With such a coupling, cosmic supernova neutrinos, on their way to us, could resonantly interact with the background dark matter particles, giving rise to a dip in their redshift-integrated spectra. Current and future neutrino detectors, such as Super-Kamiokande, LENA and Hyper-Kamiokande, could be able to detect this distortion.

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arXiv2013

Measuring Dirac CP-violating phase with intermediate energy beta beam facility

Taking the established nonzero value of $θ_{13}$, we study the possibility of extracting the Dirac CP-violating phase by a beta beam facility with a boost factor $100<γ<450$. We compare the performance of different setups with different baselines, boost factors and detector technologies. We find that an antineutrino beam from $^6$He decay with a baseline of $L=1300$ km has a very promising CP discovery potential using a 500 kton Water Cherenkov (WC) detector. Fortunately this baseline corresponds to the distance between FermiLAB to Sanford underground research facility in South Dakota.

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arXiv2013

Constraining Super-light Sterile Neutrino Scenario by JUNO and RENO-50

The Super-light Sterile Neutrino Scenario (SSNS) has been proposed in the literature to explain the suppression of the upturn in the low energy solar data. In this scenario, the mass splitting between the new mass eigenstate, $ν_0$ and the standard $ν_1$ is of order of $Δm_{01}^2\sim 10^{-5}$ eV$^2$. Reactor neutrino experiments with baseline larger than $\sim$20 km can help us to probe this scenario. We study the potential of upcoming JUNO and RENO-50 reactor experiments for discovering the superlight sterile neutrino or constraining its mixing parameters. We study the dependence of sensitivity to the SNSS and find that the proposed JUNO setup is very close to the optimal setup for probing the SSNS.

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arXiv2013

Natural explanation for 130 GeV photon line within vector boson dark matter model

We present a dark matter model for explaining the observed 130 GeV photon line from the galaxy center. The dark matter candidate is a vector boson of mass $m_V$ with a dimensionless coupling to the photon and $Z$ boson. The model predicts a double line photon spectrum at energies equal to $m_V$ and $m_V(1-m_Z^2/4m_V^2)$ originating from the dark matter annihilation. The same coupling leads to a mono-photon plus missing energy signal at the LHC. The entire perturbative parameter space can be probed by the 14 TeV LHC run. The model has also a good prospect of being probed by direct dark matter searches as well as the measurement of the rates of $h \to γγ$ and $h \to Z γ$ at the LHC.

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arXiv2013

Recipes and Ingredients for Neutrino Mass at Loop Level

The large hierarchy between the neutrino mass scale and that of the other fermions seems to be unnatural from a theoretical point of view. Various strategies have been devised in order to generate naturally small values of neutrino masses. One of these techniques is neutrino mass generation at the loop level which requires a mechanism, e.g., a symmetry, to forbid the lower order contributions. Here, we study in detail the conditions on this type of symmetries. We put special emphasis on the discrete Z_n symmetries as a simple example but our results can be also extended to more general groups. We find that regardless of the details of the symmetry, in certain cases the existence of a lower order contribution to neutrino masses can be determined by the topology of the diagrams with a given number of loops. We discuss the lepton flavor violating rare decays as well as (g-2)_μin this class of models, which generically appear at the one loop level. Typically the imposed symmetry has important implications for dark matter, with the possibility of stabilizing one or even multiple dark matter candidates.

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arXiv2013

Implications of the Pseudo-Dirac Scenario for Ultra High Energy Neutrinos from GRBs

The source of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) is still an unresolved mystery. Up until recently, sources of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) had been considered as a suitable source for UHECR. Within the fireball model, the UHECR produced at GRBs should be accompanied with a neutrino flux detectable at the neutrino telescope such as IceCube. Recently, IceCube has set an upper bound on the neutrino flux accompanied by GRBs about 3.7 times below the prediction. We investigate whether this deficit can be explained by the oscillation of the active neutrinos to sterile neutrinos en route from the source to the detectors within the pseudo-Dirac scenario. We then discuss the implication of this scenario for diffuse supernova relic neutrinos.

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arXiv2012

Dirac neutrino mass generation from dark matter

In 2006, a simple extension of the Standard Model was proposed in which neutrinos obtain radiative Majorana masses at one-loop level from their couplings with dark matter, hence the term "scotogenic," from the Greek "scotos" meaning darkness. Here an analogous mechanism for Dirac neutrino masses is discussed in a minimal model. In different ranges of the parameter space, various candidates for dark matter are possible. In particular, the lightest Dirac fermion which appears in the loop diagram generating neutrino mass can be a viable dark matter candidate. Such a possibility does not exist for the Majorana case. Realistic neutrino mixing in the context of $A_4$ is discussed. A possible supersymmetric extension is also briefly discussed.

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arXiv2012

VDM: A model for Vector Dark Matter

We construct a model based on a new $U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry and a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry under which the new gauge boson is odd. The model contains new complex scalars which carry $U(1)_X$ charge but are singlets of the Standard Model. The $U(1)_X$ symmetry is spontaneously broken but the $Z_2$ symmetry is maintained, making the new gauge boson a dark matter candidate. In the minimal version there is only one complex scalar field but by extending the number of scalars to two, the model will enjoy rich phenomenology which comes in various phases. In one phase, CP is spontaneously broken. In the other phase, an accidental $Z_2$ symmetry appears which makes one of the scalars stable and therefore a dark matter candidate along with the vector boson. We discuss the discovery potential of the model by colliders as well as the direct dark matter searches.

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arXiv2012

Flavoring Monochromatic Neutrino Flux from Dark Matter Annihilation

As is well-known, if the scattering cross section of the Dark Matter (DM) particles off the nuclei inside the Sun is large enough, the Sun can trap DM particles. In principle, the annihilation of DM pair inside the Sun can then lead to the detection of a relatively large flux of neutrinos in the neutrino telescopes. If the annihilation directly produces a neutrino pair, the flux of neutrinos on Earth will be monochromatic. In this case, the oscillatory terms in the oscillation probability lead to a novel seasonal variation of detected events which is sensitive to the initial flavor composition. In this paper, we propose two models that predict such a detectable monochromatic neutrino flux from the DM annihilation. Model I, which is based on augmenting the type II seesaw mechanism, predicts a flavor composition for the monochromatic flux determined by $(m_ν)_{αβ}$. In model II, the DM pair first annihilates to a pair of sterile neutrinos which oscillate into active neutrinos with a flavor composition determined by the flavor structure of the active-sterile neutrino mixing.

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