Charged Lepton Sector Research Articles

Neutrino anarchy from flavor deconstruction

Flavor deconstruction refers to non-universal gauge extensions where the original gauge symmetry is deconstructed into separate copies, one for each family. A hierarchical chain of symmetry breaking provides an attractive low-scale solution to the flavor puzzle, consistent with flavor-changing neutral currents and finite naturalness. Although successful in explaining the origin of flavor hierarchies in the quark and charged lepton sectors, existing models have struggled with the large and seemingly anarchic mixing observed in neutrino oscillations. This letter identifies conditions under which neutrino anarchy may arise from flavor deconstruction in generic models with right-handed neutrinos. When deconstruction is applied to carefully chosen subgroups of the extended gauge symmetry, hierarchies in the seesaw formula cancel out.

Radiative neutrino mass with electroweak scale Majorana dark matter in the Scotogenic model

Non-zero neutrino mass and dark matter (DM) overshadow the success of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. The most straightforward extension of the SM to explain these two issues is the Scotogenic model, where the SM particle spectrum extends with three isospin singlet right-handed neutrinos and one doublet scalar, all odd under a Z2 symmetry. The neutrino masses and mixings result from the Weinberg operator induced at one-loop level. The particle spectrum of this model contains a few weakly interacting stable massive particles, each of which can be a good candidate for DM. In this work, we have considered the lightest right-handed neutrino as DM candidate. The Yukawa couplings that give rise to the observed flavor mixings in the neutrino sector also lead to flavor violation in the SM charged lepton sector and hence, get tightly constrained from the charged lepton flavor violating (CLFV) observables. The same Yukawa couplings also contribute to the DM annihilation in the early universe and hence, determine the relic density of the DM. In this work, we address the tension between the constraints from CLFV observables and measured DM relic density to obtain the large Yukawa couplings with the help of a parameterization that reduces the phenomenology relevant parameters to merely three and enhances the detection prospect at the collider experiments. We have explored the parameter space consistent with current CLFV bounds, the observed DM relic density, and the absolute neutrino mass limit. To search for these scenarios, we have identified two promising signals at the proposed lepton colliders: the mono-photon plus missing energy and di-lepton plus missing energy signals. We have studied the collider phenomenology of these signatures and estimated the 5σ detection required luminosity for the center of mass energies at 500 GeV and 1 TeV.

Revisiting Trimaximal TM2 mixing in two A4 modular symmetries

In this paper, we discuss a minimal lepton flavor model with two modular [Formula: see text] symmetries, one acting on neutrinos and the other acting on charged leptons. Two corresponding moduli fields are restricted at stabilizers. To avoid vanishing or degenerate lepton masses, the stabilizer in the charged lepton sector always preserves a [Formula: see text] symmetry, and that in the neutrino preserves a [Formula: see text] symmetry. By scanning all viable stabilizers, a unique Trimaximal TM2 mixing is predicted. However, the prediction of the lightest neutrino mass and the mass parameter in neutrinoless double beta decay, as well as two Majorana phases, are different and classified into three cases.

On the Deviation in Cobimaximal Neutrino Mixing Emanating from Charged Lepton Sector

On the Deviation in Cobimaximal Neutrino Mixing Emanating from Charged Lepton Sector

Heavy neutral leptons — Advancing into the PeV domain

Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) are hypothetical particles able to explain neutrino oscillations and provide a mechanism for generating the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. Quantum corrections due to such particles give rise to flavor violating processes in the charged lepton sector. Based on the fact that these corrections grow with HNL masses, we improve existing constraints by orders of magnitude in mass and mixing angle. This allows us to probe part of the parameter space of leptogenesis with multi-TeV HNLs. We also show that one will be able to infer HNL parameters in a significant portion of the parameter space for TeV-PeV masses if charged lepton flavor violating signals are detected.

Tri-bimaximal-Cabibbo mixing: flavour violations in the charged lepton sector

The well understood structure of U_{pmns} matrix mandates a Cabibbo mixing matrix in the first two generations of the charged lepton sector if we assume Tri-bimaximal mixing in the neutrino sector. This ansatz, called Tri-bimaximal-Cabibbo mixing, is ruled out immediately by the experiments searching for charged lepton flavour violating currents. In this article, we aim to show that the resurrection of the theoretically well motivated Tri-bimaximal mixing scenario comes naturally within Minimal Flavour Violation hypothesis in the lepton sector. We analyse the flavour violating currents mu rightarrow e e e, mu Ti rightarrow e Ti, mu rightarrow e gamma , pi ^0rightarrow e^+ mu ^{-} and K_L rightarrow mu ^+ e^- in this scenario and show that the New Physics that generates mixing among the charged lepton could lie within the reach of hadron colliders. In the minimal field content scenario, though the most stringent constrain on New Physics is gtrsim {mathcal {O}}(10 TeV) for maximal coupling, considering more natural couplings relaxes it to gtrsim {mathcal {O}}(4 TeV). On the other hand, New Physics with the extended field content is even more strongly constrained to gtrsim {mathcal {O}}(75 TeV) for maximal coupling, while it gets relaxed to gtrsim {mathcal {O}}(31 TeV) for natural scenario.

Five texture zeros in the lepton sector and neutrino oscillations at DUNE

In this work, we have assumed special structures for the charged and neutral mass matrices in the lepton sector, inspired by structures for the up and down quark mass matrices that result by assuming a certain number of symmetrical zeros in their entries named texture zeros. A prediction of the lepton mixing matrix results from the rotation matrices that diagonalize the mass matrices in the neutral and charged lepton sectors. The use of texture zeros reduces the number of spurious parameters to the minimal ones needed to explain observations i.e., charged lepton masses and neutrino oscillation parameters. Specifically, we have considered the case of five texture zeros and we have confronted the resulting lepton mixing matrices with current measurements in the neutrino sector. Finally, sensitivities to the independent parameters in the mixing predicted by the nonequivalent forms were studied using simulated events at the DUNE neutrino oscillation experiment. We have found that DUNE is sensitive to nonzero $CP$ violation allowed in the models.

Tri-Bimaximal-Cabibbo Mixing: Flavour Violation in Charged Lepton Sector

Tri-Bimaximal-Cabibbo Mixing: Flavour Violation in Charged Lepton Sector

Tri-bimaximal-Cabibbo Mixing: flavour violation in charged lepton sector

Tri-bimaximal-Cabibbo Mixing: flavour violation in charged lepton sector

Probing hidden spin-2 mediator of dark matter with NA64e , LDMX, NA64μ , and M3

The connection between Standard Model (SM) particles and dark matter (DM) can be introduced via a hidden spin-2 massive mediator. In the present paper we consider the simplified benchmark link between the charged lepton sector of SM and DM particles, which are considered to be hidden Dirac fermions from the dark sector. The regarding couplings are established through the dimension-five operators involving spin-2 mediator field and the energy-momentum tensors of both SM and DM sectors. We study in detail the implication of this scenario for the lepton fixed-target facilities, such as $\mathrm{NA}64e$, LDMX, $\mathrm{NA}64\ensuremath{\mu}$, and ${\mathrm{M}}^{3}$; in particular, for the specific experiment we discuss in detail, the missing energy signatures of spin-2 boson production followed by its invisible decay into stable DM pairs. Moreover, we derive the expected reaches of these experiments for the projected statistics of the leptons accumulated on the target. We also discuss the implication of both nuclear and atomic form-factor parametrizations for the differential spectra of hidden spin-2 boson emission, the total cross section of its production, and the experimental reach of the fixed-fixed-target facilities for probing hidden spin-2 DM mediator. We briefly discuss the DM relic abundance parameter space that can be probed by these experiments.

Impact of Lorentz violation on anomalous magnetic moments of charged leptons

We address the question whether a violation of Lorentz symmetry can explain the tension between the measurement and the Standard-Model prediction of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, (g − 2)μ, and whether it can significantly impact the one of the electron, (g — 2)e. While anisotropic Lorentz-violating effects are, in general, expected to produce sidereal oscillations in observables, isotropic Lorentz violation (LV) in the charged-lepton sector could also feed into (g — 2)e,μ. However, we find that this type of Lorentz violation, parametrised via a dim-4 field operator of the Standard-Model Extension (SME), is already strongly constrained by the absence of vacuum Čerenkov radiation and photon decay. In particular, the observations of very-high-energetic astrophysical photons at LHAASO and of high-energetic electrons (muons) by the LHC (IceCube) place the most stringent two-sided bounds on the relevant SME coefficients overset{circ }{c} (e) ( overset{circ }{c} (μ)). Therefore, any explanation of the tension in (g − 2)μ via isotropic Lorentz violation of the minimal spin-degenerate SME is excluded, and the possible size of its impact on (g − 2)e is very limited.

Electromagnetic flavor-changing lepton decays from Lorentz and CPT violation

Lorentz- and $CPT$-violating effects initiating two-body electromagnetic flavor-changing decays of charged leptons are studied in the framework of Lorentz-violating effective field theory. An analysis of data from experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute and at the Stanford Linear Accelerator measuring the branching ratios of these decays provides 576 constraints on independent flavor-changing effects in the charged-lepton sector, consistent with no Lorentz and $CPT$ violation at the level of parts in ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}13}--{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$.

Adding Flavor to the SMEFT

We study the flavor structure of the lepton and baryon number-conserving dimension-6 operators in the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT). Building on the work of [1], we define several well-motivated flavor symmetries and symmetry-breaking patterns that serve as competing hypotheses about the ultraviolet (UV) dynamics beyond the SM, not far above the TeV scale. In particular, we consider four different structures in the quark sector and seven in the charged lepton sector. The set of flavor-breaking spurions is (almost) always taken to be the minimal one needed to reproduce the observed charged fermion masses and mixings. For each case, we explicitly construct and count the operators to the first few orders in the spurion expansion, providing ready-for-use setups for phenomenological studies and global fits. We provide a Mathematica package SMEFTflavor (https://github.com/aethomsen/SMEFTflavor) to facilitate similar analyses for flavor symmetries not covered in this work.

Bounds on charged-lepton flavor violations via resonant scattering

We explore the possibility of probing flavor violations in the charged-lepton sector by means of high-luminosity lepton-photon and electron-muon collisions, by inverting initial and final states in a variety of decay channels presently used to bound such violations. In particular, we analyze the resonant lepton, γℓ→ℓ′, and neutral-meson, e−μ+→ϕ,η,π0, scattering channels, whose cross sections are critically dependent on the colliding-beams energy spread, being particularly demanding in the case of leptonic processes. For these processes, we compute upper bounds to the cross-section corresponding to present limits on the inverse decay channel rates. In order to circumvent the beam energy spread limitations we extend the analysis to processes in which a photon accompanies the resonance in the final state, compensating the off-shellness effects by radiative return. These processes might be studied at future facilities with moderate energies, in case lepton-photon and electron-muon collisions with sufficiently high luminosity will be available.

Charged lepton flavor violation in light of the muon magnetic moment anomaly and colliders

Any observation of charged lepton flavor violation (CLFV) implies the existence of new physics beyond the SM in charged lepton sector. CLFV interactions may also contribute to the muon magnetic moment and explain the discrepancy between the SM prediction and the recent muon g-2 precision measurement at Fermilab. We consider the most general SM gauge invariant Lagrangian of Delta L=0 bileptons with CLFV couplings and investigate the interplay of low-energy precision experiments and colliders in light of the muon magnetic moment anomaly. We go beyond previous work by demonstrating the sensitivity of the LHC, the MACE experiment, a proposed muonium-antimuonium conversion experiment, and a muon collider. Currently-available LHC data is already able to probe unexplored parameter space via the CLFV process pprightarrow gamma ^*/Z^*rightarrow ell _1^pm ell _1^pm ell _2^mp ell _2^mp .

The singly-charged scalar singlet as the origin of neutrino masses

We consider the generation of neutrino masses via a singly-charged scalar singlet. Under general assumptions we identify two distinct structures for the neutrino mass matrix. This yields a constraint for the antisymmetric Yukawa coupling of the singly-charged scalar singlet to two left-handed lepton doublets, irrespective of how the breaking of lepton-number conservation is achieved. The constraint disfavours large hierarchies among the Yukawa couplings. We study the implications for the phenomenology of lepton-flavour universality, measurements of the W-boson mass, flavour violation in the charged-lepton sector and decays of the singly-charged scalar singlet. We also discuss the parameter space that can address the Cabibbo Angle Anomaly.

Lowering the scale of Pati-Salam breaking through seesaw mixing

We analyse the experimental limits on the breaking scale of Pati-Salam extensions of the Standard Model. These arise from the experimental limits on rare-meson decay processes mediated at tree-level by the vector leptoquark in the model. This leptoquark ordinarily couples to both left- and right-handed SM fermions and therefore the meson decays do not experience a helicity suppression. We find that the current limits vary from mathcal{O} (80–2500) TeV depending on the choice of matrix structure appearing in the relevant three-generational charged-current interactions. We extensively analyse scenarios where additional fermionic degrees of freedom are introduced, transforming as complete Pati-Salam multiplets. These can lower the scales of Pati-Salam breaking through mass-mixing within the charged-lepton and down-quark sectors, leading to a helicity suppression of the meson decay widths which constrain Pati-Salam breaking. We find four multiplets with varying degrees of viability for this purpose: an SU(2)L/R bidoublet, a pair of SU(4) decuplets and either an SU(2)L or SU(2)R triplet all of which contain heavy exotic versions of the SM charged leptons. We find that the Pati-Salam limits can be as low as mathcal{O} (5–150) TeV with the addition of these four multiplets. We also identify an interesting possible connection between the smallness of the neutrino masses and a helicity suppression of the Pati-Salam limits for three of the four multiplets.

Implications of SU(2)L gauge invariance for constraints on Lorentz violation

Lorentz invariance may only be broken far above the electroweak scale, since violations are experimentally stringently constrained. Therefore, the Standard-Model Extension parameterizing Lorentz violation (LV) via (higher-dimensional) field theory operators is manifestly SU(2)L gauge-invariant. As a consequence, LV in neutrinos implies LV in charged leptons and vice versa. This allows us to obtain estimated sensitivities for flavour-changing operators in the charged-lepton sector from neutrino oscillations as well as sensitivities for flavour-diagonal neutrino effects from high-precision electron experiments. We also apply this method to an analysis of time-of-flight data for neutrinos (detected by IceCube) and photons from gamma ray bursts where discrepancies have been observed. Our conclusion is that an explanation of the arrival time difference between neutrino and photon events by dim-5 operators in the neutrino sector would lead to unacceptably large LV effects in the charged-lepton sector.

Structure of flavor changing Goldstone boson interactions

General flavor changing Goldstone boson (GB) interactions with fermions from a spontaneous global U(1)G symmetry breaking are discussed. This GB may be the Axion, solving the strong QCD CP problem, if there is a QCD anomaly for the assignments of quarks U(1)G charge. Or it may be the Majoron, producing seesaw Majorana neutrino masses by lepton number violation, if the symmetry breaking scale is much higher than the electroweak scale. It may also, in principle, play the roles of Axion and Majoron simultaneously as far as providing solution for the strong CP problem and generating a small Majorana neutrino masses are concerned. Great attentions have been focused on flavor conserving GB interactions. Recently flavor changing Axion and Majoron models have been studied in the hope to find new physics from rare decays in the intensity frontier. In this work, we will provide a systematic model building aspect study for flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) GB interactions in the fermion sectors, or separately in the quark, charged lepton and neutrino sectors and will identify in detail the sources of FCNC interactions in a class of beyond standard model with a spontaneous global U(1)G symmetry breaking. We also provide a general proof of the equivalence of using physical GB components and GB broken generators for calculating GB couplings to two gluons and two photons, and discuss some issues related to spontaneous CP violation models. Besides, we will also provide some details for obtaining FCNC GB interactions in several popular models, such as the Type-I, -II, -III seesaw and Left-Right symmetric models, and point out some special features in these models.

Fermion mass hierarchies, large lepton mixing and residual modular symmetries

In modular-invariant models of flavour, hierarchical fermion mass matrices may arise solely due to the proximity of the modulus τ to a point of residual symmetry. This mechanism does not require flavon fields, and modular weights are not analogous to Froggatt-Nielsen charges. Instead, we show that hierarchies depend on the decomposition of field representations under the residual symmetry group. We systematically go through the possible fermion field representation choices which may yield hierarchical structures in the vicinity of symmetric points, for the four smallest finite modular groups, isomorphic to S3, A4, S4, and A5, as well as for their double covers. We find a restricted set of pairs of representations for which the discussed mechanism may produce viable fermion (charged-lepton and quark) mass hierarchies. We present two lepton flavour models in which the charged-lepton mass hierarchies are naturally obtained, while lepton mixing is somewhat fine-tuned. After formulating the conditions for obtaining a viable lepton mixing matrix in the symmetric limit, we construct a model in which both the charged-lepton and neutrino sectors are free from fine-tuning.