No Arabic abstract
We consider effective Lagrangians which, after electroweak- and family-symmetry breaking, yield fermionic mass matrices and/or other flavoured couplings exhibiting residual family symmetries (RFS). Thinking from the bottom up, these RFS intimately link ultraviolet (UV) Beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) physics to infrared flavour phenomenology without direct reference to any (potentially unfalsifiable) UV dynamics. While this discussion is typically performed at the level of RFS group generators and the UV flavour groups they can close, we now also focus on the RFS-implied shape of the low-energy mass/coupling matrices. We then show how this information can be used to algorithmically guide the reconstruction of an effective Lagrangian, thereby forming top-down models realizing the typical bottom-up phenomenological conclusions. As a first application we take results from scans of finite groups capable of controlling (through their RFS) CKM or PMNS mixing within the SM alone. We then extend this to recently studied scenarios where RFS also control special patterns of leptoquark couplings, thus providing proof-in-principle completions for such `Simplified Models of Flavourful Leptoquarks.
CP-odd invariants, independent of basis and valid for any choice of CP transformation are a powerful tool in the study of CP. They are particularly convenient to study the CP properties of models with family symmetries. After interpreting the consequences of adding specific CP symmetries to a Lagrangian invariant under $Delta(27)$, I use the invariant approach to systematically study Yukawa-like Lagrangians with an increasing field content in terms of $Delta(27)$ representations. Included in the Lagrangians studied are models featuring explicit CP violation with calculable phases (referred to as explicit geometrical CP violation) and models that automatically conserve CP, despite having all the $Delta(27)$ representations.
We discuss F-theory SU(5) GUTs in which some or all of the quark and lepton families are assigned to different curves and family symmetry enforces a leading order rank one structure of the Yukawa matrices. We consider two possibilities for the suppression of baryon and lepton number violation. The first is based on Flipped SU(5) with gauge group SU(5)times U(1)_chi times SU(4)_{perp} in which U(1)_{chi} plays the role of a generalised matter parity. We present an example which, after imposing a Z_2 monodromy, has a U(1)_{perp}^2 family symmetry. Even in the absence of flux, spontaneous breaking of the family symmetry leads to viable quark, charged lepton and neutrino masses and mixing. The second possibility has an R-parity associated with the symmetry of the underlying compactification manifold and the flux. We construct an example of a model with viable masses and mixing angles based on the gauge group SU(5)times SU(5)_{perp} with a U(1)_{perp}^3 family symmetry after imposing a Z_2 monodromy.
It has been suggested that residual symmetries in the charged-lepton and neutrino mass matrices can possibly reveal the flavour symmetry group of the lepton sector. We review the basic ideas of this purely group-theoretical approach and discuss some of its results. Finally, we also list its shortcomings.
Assuming that neutrinos are Majorana particles, we perform a complete classification of all possible mixing matrices which are fully determined by residual symmetries in the charged-lepton and neutrino mass matrices. The classification is based on the assumption that the residual symmetries originate from a finite flavour symmetry group. The mathematical tools which allow us to accomplish this classification are theorems on sums of roots of unity. We find 17 sporadic cases plus one infinite series of mixing matrices associated with three-flavour mixing, all of which have already been discussed in the literature. Only the infinite series contains mixing matrices which are compatible with the data at the 3 sigma level.
We demonstrate how residual flavour symmetries, infrared signatures of symmetry breaking in complete models of flavour, can naturally forbid (or limit in a flavour specific way) flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNC) in multi-Higgs-doublet models (MHDM) without using mass hierarchies. We first review how this model-independent mechanism can control the fermionic mixing patterns of the Standard Model, and then implement the symmetries in the Yukawa sector of MHDM, which allows us to intimately connect the predictivity of a given flavour model with its ability to sequester FCNC. Finally, after discussing various subtleties of the approach, we sketch an $A_4$ toy model that realises an explicit example of these simplified constructions.