No Arabic abstract
If grand unification is real, searches for baryon-number violation should be included on the list of observables that may reveal information regarding the origin of neutrino masses. Making use of an effective-operator approach and assuming that nature is SU(5) invariant at very short distances, we estimate the consequences of different scenarios that lead to light Majorana neutrinos for low-energy phenomena that violate baryon number minus lepton number (B-L) by two (or more) units, including neutron-antineutron oscillations and B-L violating nucleon decays. We find that, among all possible effective theories of lepton-number violation that lead to nonzero neutrino masses, only a subset is, broadly speaking, consistent with grand unification.
We investigate the possibility to find an ultraviolet completion of the simple extensions of the Standard Model where baryon number is a local symmetry. In the context of such theories one can understand the spontaneous breaking of baryon number at the low scale and the proton stability. We find a simple theory based on SU(4)_C x SU(3)_L x SU(3)_R where baryon number is embedded in a non-Abelian gauge symmetry. We discuss the main features of the theory and the possible implications for experiments. This theory predicts stable colored and/or fractional electric charged fields which can give rise to very exotic signatures at the Large Hadron Collider experiments such as CMS and ATLAS. We further discuss the embedding in a gauge theory based on SU(4)_C x SU(4)_L x SU(4)_R which could define the way to achieve the unification of the gauge interactions at the low scale.
This report, prepared for the Community Planning Study - Snowmass 2013 - summarizes the theoretical motivations and the experimental efforts to search for baryon number violation, focussing on nucleon decay and neutron-antineutron oscillations. Present and future nucleon decay search experiments using large underground detectors, as well as planned neutron-antineutron oscillation search experiments with free neutron beams are highlighted.
It is shown how pure Dirac neutrino masses can naturally occur at low energies even in the presence of Planck scale lepton number violation. The geometrical picture in five dimensions assumes that the lepton number symmetry is explicitly broken on the Planck brane while the right-handed neutrino is localised on the TeV brane. This physical separation in the bulk causes the global lepton number to be preserved at low energies. A small wavefunction overlap between the left-handed and right-handed neutrinos then naturally leads to a small Dirac Yukawa coupling. By the AdS/CFT correspondence there exists a purely four-dimensional dual description in which the right-handed neutrino is a composite CFT bound state. The global lepton number is violated at the Planck scale in a fundamental sector whose mixing into the composite sector is highly suppressed by CFT operators with large anomalous dimensions. A similar small mixing is then also responsible for generating a naturally small Dirac Yukawa coupling between the fundamental left-handed neutrino and the composite right-handed neutrino.
We propose a model to explain tiny masses of neutrinos with the lepton number conservation, where neither too heavy particles beyond the TeV-scale nor tiny coupling constants are required. Assignments of conserving lepton numbers to new fields result in an unbroken $Z_2$ symmetry that stabilizes the dark matter candidate (the lightest $Z_2$-odd particle). In this model, $Z_2$-odd particles play an important role to generate the mass of neutrinos. The scalar dark matter in our model can satisfy constraints on the dark matter abundance and those from direct searches. It is also shown that the strong first-order phase transition, which is required for the electroweak baryogenesis, can be realized in our model. In addition, the scalar potential can in principle contain CP-violating phases, which can also be utilized for the baryogenesis. Therefore, three problems in the standard model, namely absence of neutrino masses, the dark matter candidate, and the mechanism to generate baryon asymmetry of the Universe, may be simultaneously resolved at the TeV-scale. Phenomenology of this model is also discussed briefly.
We explore possible signatures for charged lepton flavour violation (LFV), sparticle discovery at the LHC and dark matter (DM) searches in grand unified theories (GUTs) based on SU(5), flipped SU(5) (FSU(5)) and SU(4)$_c times $SU(2)$_L times $SU(2)$_R$ (4-2-2). We assume that soft supersymmetry-breaking terms preserve the group symmetry at some high input scale, and focus on the non-universal effects on different matter representations generated by gauge interactions at lower scales, as well as the charged LFV induced in Type-1 see-saw models of neutrino masses. We identify the different mechanisms that control the relic DM density in the various GUT models, and contrast their LFV and LHC signatures. The SU(5) and 4-2-2 models offer good detection prospects both at the LHC and in LFV searches, though with different LSP compositions, and the SU(5) and FSU(5) models offer LFV within the current reach. The 4-2-2 model allows chargino and gluino coannihilations with neutralinos, and the former offer good detection prospects for both the LHC and LFV, while gluino coannihilations lead to lower LFV rates. Our results indicate that LFV is a powerful tool that complements LHC and DM searches, providing significant insights into the sparticle spectra and neutrino mass parameters in different models.