Charged Fermion Masses Research Articles

Data driven flavour model

A bottom-up approach has been adopted to identify a flavour model that agrees with present experimental measurements. The charged fermion mass hierarchies suggest that only the top Yukawa term should be present at the renormalisable level. Similarly, describing the lightness of the active neutrinos through the type-I Seesaw mechanism, right-handed neutrino mass terms should also be present at the renormalisable level. The flavour symmetry of the Lagrangian including the fermionic kinetic terms and only the top Yukawa is then a combination of U(2) and U(3) factors. Once considering the Majorana neutrino terms, the associated symmetry is O(3). Lighter charged fermion and active neutrino masses and quark and lepton mixings arise considering specific spurion fields à la Minimal Flavour Violation. The associated phenomenology is investigated and the model turns out to have almost the same flavour protection as the Minimal Flavour Violation in both quark and lepton sectors. Promoting the spurions to dynamical fields, the associated scalar potential is also studied and a minimum is identified such that fermion masses and mixings are correctly reproduced. Very precise predictions for the Majorana phases follow from the minimisation of the scalar potential and thus the neutrinoless-double-beta decay may represent a smoking gun for the model.

Sequentially loop suppressed fermion masses from a single discrete symmetry

We propose a systematic and renormalizable sequential loop suppression mechanism to generate the hierarchy of the Standard Model fermion masses from one discrete symmetry. The discrete symmetry is sequentially softly broken in order to generate one-loop level masses for the bottom, charm, tau and muon leptons and two-loop level masses for the lightest Standard Model charged fermions. The tiny masses for the light active neutrinos are produced from radiative type-I seesaw mechanism, where the Dirac mass terms are effectively generated at two-loop level.

Parity and the origin of neutrino mass

In the LHC era the issue of the origin and nature of neutrino mass has attained a new meaning and a renewed importance. The growing success of the Higgs–Weinberg mechanism behind the charged fermion masses paves the way for answering the question of neutrino mass. We have shown recently how the spontaneous breaking of parity in the context of the minimal left–right symmetric model allows to probe the origin of neutrino mass in complete analogy with the charged fermions masses in the Standard Model. We revisit here this issue and fill in the gaps left in our previous work. In particular we discuss a number of different mathematical approaches to the problem of disentangling the seesaw mechanism and show how a unique analytical solution emerges. Most important, we give all the possible expressions for the neutrino Dirac mass matrix for general values of light and heavy neutrino mass matrices. In practical terms what is achieved is an untangling of the seesaw mechanism with clear and precise predictions testable at hadron colliders such as LHC.

Alternative renormalizable SO(10) GUTs and data fitting

The alternative renormalizable minimal SO(10) model is composed of the Yukawa couplings with 10⊕120 Higgs fields, whereas the right-handed (RH) neutrino Majorana masses are generated via the Witten mechanism. The gauge coupling unification is achieved together with a unique pattern of the fermion masses and mixing at the grand unification scale due to additional contributions of vector-like quarks to the standard model renormalization group equations. We perform the fitting of the model to the experimental data of charged fermion masses and the CKM matrix. The best fit point is obtained with large pulls for mc, ms, mb, and mτ. For the modifications to the minimal model by adding either 10′ or 120′, a large deviation for the tau mass rules out all these models. In the case with the bottom and vector-like quark mixing, the mass matrices are well fitted the charged fermions but the bound on the light neutrino mass scale excludes this scenario. To ameliorate this deficit, we consider the two-step symmetry breaking scenario, SO(10)→SU(5)→SU(3)C×SU(2)L×U(1)Y, with the SO(10) breaking at the Planck scale leading to the radiatively generated RH neutrino Majorana masses being at the ordinary seesaw scale. For this case, we find the best fit point with χ2=7.8 consistent with experimental results including the neutrino sector. The largest deviation is 2.3σ corresponding to the strange quark mass. Hence, a more precise determination of the strange quark mass can test this model. For the best fit point, we find the effective Majorana neutrino mass of mββ=0.22 meV and the sum of light neutrino masses as Σ=0.078 eV, which are consistent with the current constraints from the search for the neutrinoless double beta decay and the CMB anisotropy measurement.

Lepton and quark masses and mixing in a SUSY model with Δ(384) and CP

We construct a supersymmetric model for leptons and quarks with the flavor symmetry Δ(384) and CP. The peculiar features of lepton and quark mixing are accomplished by the stepwise breaking of the flavor and CP symmetry. The correct description of lepton mixing angles requires two steps of symmetry breaking, where tri-bimaximal mixing arises after the first step. In the quark sector the Cabibbo angle θC equals sin⁡π/16≈0.195 after the first step of symmetry breaking and it is brought into full agreement with experimental data after the second step. The two remaining quark mixing angles are generated after the third step of symmetry breaking. All three leptonic CP phases are predicted, sin⁡δl≈−0.936, |sin⁡α|=|sin⁡β|=1/2. The amount of CP violation in the quark sector turns out to be maximal at the lowest order and is correctly accounted for, when higher order effects are included. Charged fermion masses are reproduced with the help of operators with different numbers of flavor (and CP) symmetry breaking fields. Light neutrino masses, arising from the type-I seesaw mechanism, can accommodate both mass orderings, normal and inverted. The vacuum alignment of the flavor (and CP) symmetry breaking fields is discussed at leading and at higher order.

Broken democracy with intermediate [formula omitted] residual symmetry and random perturbations

The democratic mass matrix is an intriguing possibility for explaining the observed fermion mixings due to its inherent hierarchical mass eigenvalues and large mixing angles. Nevertheless, two of the three mass eigenvalues are zero if the flavor democracy is exact, in obvious contradiction with the experimental observations. One possibility is breaking the flavor democracy with anarchical perturbations as we proposed in an earlier work. However, even within the first two generations, the charged fermion masses are also hierarchical which may not be a coincidence. The democratic S3L×S3R symmetry of the three generations may first be broken down to an intermediate S2L×S2R symmetry among the first two generations to regulate the sequential hierarchies, followed by random perturbations, that generate the correct size of all measured observables. Unique predictions for neutrinoless double beta decay are also found.

Δ(27) flavor singlet-triplet Higgs model for fermion masses and mixings

We propose a multiscalar singlet extension of the singlet-triplet Higgs model capable of explaining the SM fermion mass spectrum and mixing parameters. Our model is based on the Δ(27) family symmetry, supplemented by cyclic symmetries, which are spontaneously broken thus yielding the observed hierarchy of the SM charged fermion masses and quark mixing angles. The masses of the light active neutrinos are produced by type-II seesaw mechanism mediated by the neutral component of the SU(2)L scalar triplet. The model symmetries lead to the extended Gatto-Sartori-Tonin relations between the quark masses and mixing angles.

Origin of a two-loop neutrino mass from SU(5) grand unification

In this work we propose a renormalizable model based on the $SU(5)$ gauge group where neutrino mass originates at the two-loop level without extending the fermionic content of the Standard Model (SM). Unlike the conventional $SU(5)$ models, in this proposed scenario, neutrino mass is intertwined with the charged fermion masses. In addition to correctly reproducing the SM charged fermion masses and mixings, neutrino mass is generated at the quantum level, hence naturally explains the smallness of neutrino masses. In this set-up, we provide examples of gauge coupling unification that simultaneously satisfy the proton decay constraints. This model has the potential to be tested experimentally by measuring the proton decay in the future experiments. Scalar leptoquarks that are naturally contained within this framework can accommodate the recent B-physics anomalies.

Fermion masses and mixings, Leptogenesis and Baryon number violation in Pati-Salam model

In this work we study a predictive model based on a partially unified theory possessing the gauge symmetry of the Pati-Salam group, SU(2)L×SU(2)R×SU(4)C supplemented by a global Peccei-Quinn symmetry, U(1)PQ. A comprehensive analysis of the Higgs potential is carried out in a minimal set-up. The assumed Peccei-Quinn symmetry along with solving the strong CP problem, can provide axion as the dark matter candidate. This minimal set-up with limited number of Yukawa parameters can successfully incorporate the hierarchies in the charged fermion masses and mixings. The automatic existence of the heavy Majorana neutrinos generate the extremely small light neutrino masses through the seesaw mechanism, which is also responsible for producing the observed cosmological matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. We find interesting correlation between the low scale neutrino observables and the baryon asymmetry in this model. Baryon number violating nucleon decay processes mediated by the scalar diquarks and leptoquarks in this framework are found to be, n,p→ℓ+m,ℓc+m (m= meson, ℓ= lepton, ℓc= antilepton) and n,p→ℓ+ℓc+ℓc. For some choice of the parameters of the theory, these decay rates can be within the observable range. Another baryon number violating process, the neutron-antineutron oscillation can also be in the observable range.

Alternative renormalizable minimal SO(10) GUT and seesaw scale

Alternative renormalizable minimal non-SUSY SO(10) GUT model is proposed. Instead of a 126-dimensional Higgs field, a 120-dimensional Higgs filed is introduced in addition to a 10-dimensional Higgs field and plays a crucial role to reproduce the realistic charged fermion mass matrices. With contributions of 120 Higgs field, the original Witten’s scenario of inducing the right-handed Majorana neutrino mass through 2-loop diagrams becomes phenomenologically viable. This model inherits the nice features of the conventional renormalizable minimal SO(10) GUT model with [Formula: see text] Higgs fields, while supplemented with a low scale seesaw mechanism due to the 2-loop induced right-handed Majorana neutrino mass.

The implication of gauge–Higgs unification for the hierarchical fermion masses

The observed hierarchical charged fermion masses of three generations seem to imply that these masses are originally universal for three generations and then get exponential suppression with "quantized exponents" by some mechanism. We argue that such remarkable feature of hierarchical fermion mass spectrum may be naturally understood in the scenario of gauge-Higgs unification, where the universality of fermion masses is guaranteed by the fact that Higgs boson is originally gauge boson in this scenario and also the quantized exponents may be attributed to the well-known quantization condition of magnetic charge of the magnetic monopole placed inside the torus, as the extra dimensional space. Because of the presence of the magnetic monopole, we get a chiral theory and multiple Kaluza-Klein zero modes even if we introduce only a single 6-dimensional Weyl fermion. We present two types of three generation model, which succeed to realize the remarkable hierarchical mass spectrum.

Leptonic CP violation and leptogenesis in minimal supersymmetric SU(4)c×SU(2)L×SU(2)R

We consider a supersymmetric SU(4)$_c \times$SU(2)$_L \times$SU(2)$_R$ model with a minimal number of Higgs multiplets and Dirac and Majorana $CP$-violating phases in the neutrino flavor mixing matrix. The model incorporates the charged fermion masses and quark mixings, and uses type I seesaw to explain the solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations. With the neutrino oscillation data of two mass squared differences and three flavor mixing angles, we employ thermal leptogenesis and the observed baryon asymmetry to find the allowed regions for the Dirac and Majorana phases. For a normal neutrino mass hierarchy, we find that the observed baryon asymmetry can be reproduced by a Dirac phase of around $\delta_{CP}=3 \pi/2$, which is strongly indicated by the recent T2K and NO$\nu$A data. For the case of inverted neutrino mass hierarchy, the predicted baryon asymmetry is not compatible with the observed value.

Novel foamy origin for singlet fermion masses

We show how masses for singlet fermions can be generated by interactions with a D-particle model of space-time foam inspired by brane theory. It has been shown previously by one of the authors (N.E.M.) such interactions may generate generate dynamically small masses for charged fermions via the recoils of D-particle defects interacting with photons. In this work we consider the direct interactions of D-particle with uncharged singlet fermions such as right-handed neutrinos. Quantum fluctuations of the lattice of D-particles have massless vector (spin-one) excitations that are analogues of phonons. These mediate forces between the singlet fermions, generating large dynamical masses that may be communicated to light neutrinos via the seesaw mechanism.

Dark matter and neutrino mass from the smallest non-Abelian chiral dark sector

All pieces of concrete evidence for phenomena outside the standard model (SM) - neutrino masses and dark matter - are consistent with the existence of new degrees of freedom that interact very weakly, if at all, with those in the SM. We propose that these new degrees of freedom organize themselves into a simple dark sector, a chiral SU(3) x SU(2) gauge theory with the smallest nontrivial fermion content. Similar to the SM, the dark SU(2) is spontaneously broken while the dark SU(3) confines at low energies. At the renormalizable level, the dark sector contains massless fermions - dark leptons - and stable massive particles - dark protons. We find that dark protons with masses between 10-100 TeV satisfy all current cosmological and astrophysical observations concerning dark matter even if dark protons are a symmetric thermal relic. The dark leptons play the role of right-handed neutrinos and allow simple realizations of the seesaw mechanism or the possibility that neutrinos are Dirac fermions. In the latter case, neutrino masses are also parametrically different from charged-fermion masses and the lightest neutrino is predicted to be massless. Since the new "neutrino" and "dark matter" degrees of freedom interact with one another, these two new-physics phenomena are intertwined. Dark leptons play a nontrivial role in early universe cosmology while indirect searches for dark matter involve, decisively, dark matter annihilations into dark leptons. These, in turn, may lead to observable signatures at high-energy neutrino and gamma-ray observatories, especially once one accounts for the potential Sommerfeld enhancement of the annihilation cross-section, derived from the low-energy dark-sector effective theory, a possibility we explore quantitatively in some detail.

Flavor from the double tetrahedral group without supersymmetry

We consider a class of flavor models proposed by Aranda, Carone and Lebed, relaxing the assumption of supersymmetry and allowing the flavor scale to float anywhere between the weak and Planck scales. We perform global fits to the charged fermion masses and CKM angles, and consider the dependence of the results on the unknown mass scale of the flavor sector. We find that the typical Yukawa textures in these models provide a good description of the data over a wide range of flavor scales, with a preference for those that approach the lower bounds allowed by flavor-changing-neutral-current constraints. Nevertheless, the possibility that the flavor scale and Planck scale are identified remains viable. We present models that demonstrate how the assumed textures can arise most simply in a non-supersymmetric framework.

Search for electroweak-scale right-handed neutrinos and mirror charged leptons through like-sign dilepton signals

The existence of tiny neutrino masses at a scale more than a million times smaller than the lightest charged fermion mass, namely the electron, and their mixings can not be explained within the framework of the exceptionally successful Standard Model. There are four ideas that has been proposed to explain the tiny neutrino masses. These include the see-saw mechanism with a right handed neutrino at the GUT scale, and this is the most elegant mechanism. The other mechanisms are radiatively generated neutrino masses, the neutrino mass arising from a 2nd Higgs doublet having a tiny VEV and coupling only to the neutrinos, and finally the mirror model or simply the EW-scale $\nu_R$ model. The mirror model has new quarks and leptons of opposite chirality at the electroweak scale (for the same Standard Model gauge symmetry $SU(2)_W \times U(1)_Y$) compared to what we have for the Standard Model. With suitable modification of the Higgs sector, the EW-scale $\nu_R$ model satisfies the electroweak precision test and also the constraints coming from the observed 125-GeV Higgs scalar. Since in this model, the mirror fermions are required to be in the EW scale, these can be produced at the LHC giving final states with a very low background from the SM. One such final state is the same sign dileptons with large missing $p_T$ for the events. In this work, we explore the constraint provided by the $8$ TeV data, and prospect of observing this signal in the $13$ TeV runs at the LHC. Additional signals will be the presence of displaced vertices depending on the smallness of the Yukawa couplings of the mirror leptons with the ordinary leptons and the singlet Higgs present in the model. Of particular importance to the EW-scale $\nu_R$ model is the production of $\nu_R$ which will be a direct test of the seesaw mechanism at collider energies.

Extending two Higgs doublet models for two-loop neutrino mass generation and one-loop neutrinoless double beta decay

We extend some two Higgs doublet models, where the Yukawa couplings for the charged fermion mass generation only involve one Higgs doublet, by two singlet scalars respectively carrying a singly electric charge and a doubly electric charge. The doublet and singlet scalars together can mediate a two-loop diagram to generate a tiny Majorana mass matrix of the standard model neutrinos. Remarkably, the structure of the neutrino mass matrix is fully determined by the symmetric Yukawa couplings of the doubly charged scalar to the right-handed leptons. Meanwhile, a one-loop induced neutrinoless double beta decay can arrive at a testable level even if the electron neutrino has an extremely small Majorana mass. We also study other experimental constraints and implications including some rare processes and Higgs phenomenology.

Fermion masses and mixings in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos based on the $$S_3$$ S 3 flavor symmetry

We propose a 3-3-1 model where the $${SU}(3)_{C}\otimes {SU}(3)_{L}\otimes U(1)_{X}$$ symmetry is extended by $$S_{3}\otimes Z_{3}\otimes Z_{3}^{\prime }\otimes Z_{8}\otimes Z_{16}$$ and the scalar spectrum is enlarged by extra $$ {SU}(3)_{L}$$ singlet scalar fields. The model successfully describes the observed SM fermion mass and mixing pattern. In this framework, the light active neutrino masses arise via an inverse seesaw mechanism and the observed charged fermion mass and quark mixing hierarchy is a consequence of the $$Z_{3}\otimes Z_{3}^{\prime }\otimes Z_{8}\otimes Z_{16}$$ symmetry breaking at very high energy. The obtained physical observables for both quark and lepton sectors are compatible with their experimental values. The model predicts the effective Majorana neutrino mass parameter of neutrinoless double beta decay to be $$m_{\beta \beta }=$$ 4 and 48 meV for the normal and the inverted neutrino spectra, respectively. Furthermore, we found a leptonic Dirac CP-violating phase close to $$\frac{\pi }{2}$$ and a Jarlskog invariant close to about $$3\times 10^{-2}$$ for both normal and inverted neutrino mass hierarchy.

A novel and economical explanation for SM fermion masses and mixings

I propose the first multiscalar singlet extension of the standard model (SM), which generates tree level top quark and exotic fermion masses as well as one and three loop level masses for charged fermions lighter than the top quark and for light active neutrinos, respectively, without invoking electrically charged scalar fields. That model, which is based on the $$S_{3}\times Z_{8}$$ discrete symmetry, successfully explains the observed SM fermion mass and mixing pattern. The charged exotic fermions induce one loop level masses for charged fermions lighter than the top quark. The $$Z_{8}$$ charged scalar singlet $$\chi $$ generates the observed charged fermion mass and quark mixing pattern.

Is symmetry breaking ofSU(5)theory responsible for the diphoton excess?

We advocate the possibility that the observed diphoton excess at 750 GeV at the LHC can be addressed by the scalar field that is a part of the SU(5) symmetry breaking sector. The field in question is the Standard Model singlet that resides in the adjoint representation that breaks SU(5) down to SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1). We also show that the required production and subsequent decay to two photons of this singlet can be induced by individual or combined contribution of two scalar multiplets $S_3$ and $R_2$ that transform as (3,3,-1/3) and (3,2,7/6) under SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1), respectively. The individual dominance of these multiplets is directly related to the issue of the charged fermion mass generation within the SU(5) framework and can be unambiguously tested through the diboson decay signatures of the Standard Model singlet field.