Broken flavor symmetries in high energy particle phenomenology

Abstract

Over the past couple of decades, the Standard Model of high energy particle physics has clearly established itself as an invaluable tool in the analysis of high energy particle phenomenon. However, from a field theorists point of view, there are many dissatisfying aspects to the model. One of these, is the large number of free parameters in the theory arising from the Yukawa couplings of the Higgs doublet. In this thesis, we examine various issues relating to the Yukawa coupeng structure of high energy particle field theories. We begin by examining extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics which contain additional scalar fields. By appealing to the flavor structure observed in the fermion mass and Kobayashi-Maskawa matrices, we propose a reasonable phenomenological parameterization of the new Yukawa couplings based on the concept of approximate flavor symmetries. It is shown that such a parameterization eliminates the need for discrete symmetries which limit the allowed couplings of the new scalars. New scalar particles which can mediate exotic flavor changing reactions can have masses as low as the weak scale. Next, we turn to the issue of neutrino mass matrices, where we examine a particular texture which leads to matter independent neutrino oscillation results for solar neutrinos. We, then, examine the basis for extremely strict limits placed on flavor changing interactions which also break lepton- and/or baryon-number. These limits are derived from cosmological considerations. Finally, we embark on an extended analysis of proton decay in supersymmetric SO(10) grand unified theories. In such theories, the dominant decay diagrams involve the Yukawa couplings of a heavy triplet superfield. We argue that past calculations of proton decay which were based on the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) model require reexamination because the Yukawa couplings of that theory are known to be wrong.