Flavor Physics Research Articles

Testing the CKM unitarity at high energy via the W+W− production at the LHC and future colliders

We propose a novel test to assess the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, VCKM, at present and future collider experiments. Our strategy makes use of the W+W− production cross section to directly probe the VCKM†VCKM product, which regulates the high-energy behavior of the observable. The violation of unitarity is signaled by an anomalous behavior of the cross section that grows quadratically with the W+W− invariant mass with respect to the Standard Model prediction. By using the recent ATLAS measurements of the W+W− cross section we are able to constrain the maximal unitarity violation allowed by current data, producing a bound complementary to the results of flavor physics experiments. Forecasts for the high luminosity phase of the LHC and for the future 100 TeV hadron collider are also discussed.

Rare B and K decays in a scotogenic model

A scotogenic model can radiatively generate the observed neutrino mass, provide a dark matter candidate, and lead to rare lepton flavor-violating processes. We aim to extend the model to establish a potential connection to the quark flavor-related processes within the framework of scotogenesis, enhancing the unexpectedly large branching ratio (BR) of B+→K+νν¯ observed by the Belle II Collaboration. Meanwhile, the model can address tensions between some experimental measurements and standard model (SM) predictions in flavor physics, such as the muon g−2 excess and the higher BR of Bs→μ−μ+. In the model, we introduce the following dark particles: a neutral singlet Dirac-type lepton (N); two inert Higgs doublets (η1,2), with one carrying a lepton number; a charged singlet dark scalar (χ+); and a singlet vectorlike up-type dark quark (T). The first two entities are responsible for the radiative neutrino mass, and χ+ couples to right-handed quarks and leptons and can resolve the tensions existing in muon g−2 and Bs→μ−μ+. Furthermore, the BR of B+→K+νν¯ can be enhanced up to a factor of 2 compared to the SM prediction through the mediations of the dark T and the charged scalars. In addition, we also study the impacts on the K→πνν¯ decays. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Extended scotogenic model of neutrino mass and proton decay

The current article presents an extension of the classical scotogenic neutrino mass paradigm, where the three issues in particle physics: dark matter, smallness of neutrino mass, and stability of the proton are interconnected. The scenario encompasses the neutrino mass as well as the proton decay as a consequence of an existence of the dark matter. The study successfully achieves the correlation between the naturally small neutrino masses and naturally long proton lifetime in the present paradigm. Furthermore, all relevant cosmological, collider, and flavor physics constraints are incorporated in the detailed analysis. The scotogenic fermionic dark matter with the mass in the range from 100 GeV to 10 TeV successfully satisfies all relevant constraints. The valid range of 2.51×10−5<λ<2×10−3 is obtained for the 2HDM λ coupling. We give a brief discussion, as well as outline some of the future prospects. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Recent highlights from the BELLE and BELLE II experiments

The BELLE experiment at the KEKB collider in Tsukuba operated as a B-factory until 2018, making significant contributions to flavor physics. Building on this legacy, the BELLE II experiment, an upgraded version, now operates at the SuperKEKB energy-asymmetric e+e− collider. BELLE II has collected 424fb−1 of data, including 365fb−1 at the ϒ(4S) resonance. A wide range of physics topics can be studies with this data. In this proceeding, we review our latest results, which include tests of lepton flavor universality, Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa physics, searches for rare B-meson decays, and spectroscopy studies. We also discuss contributions to the gμ−2 prediction.

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We investigate the possibility of disentangling different new physics contributions to the rare meson decays and through kinematic distributions in the missing energy . We employ dimension-6 operators within the Low-Energy Effective Field Theory (LEFT), identifying the invisible part of the final state as either active or sterile neutrinos. Special emphasis is given to lepton-number violating (LNV) operators with scalar and tensor currents. We show analytically that contributions from vector, scalar, and tensor quark currents can be uniquely determined from experimental data of kinematic distributions. In addition, we present new correlations of branching ratios for K and B-decays involving scalar and tensor currents. As there could a priori also be new invisible particles in the final states, we include dark-sector operators giving rise to two dark scalars, fermions, or vectors in the final state. In this context, we present new calculations of the inclusive decay rate for dark operators. We show that careful measurements of kinematic distributions make it theoretically possible to disentangle the contribution from LEFT operators from most of the dark-sector operators, even when multiple operators are contributing. We revisit sum rules for vector currents in LEFT and show that the latter are also satisfied in some new dark-physics scenarios that could mimic LEFT. Finally, we point out that an excess in rare meson decays consistent with a LNV hypothesis would point towards highly flavor non-democratic physics in the UV, and could put high-scale leptogenesis under tension.

Collisional energy loss of a heavy quark in a semiquark-gluon plasma

By utilizing a background field effective theory, we compute the collisional energy loss of a heavy quark moving through a semiquark-gluon plasma characterized by nontrivial holonomy for Polyakov loops. We consider the elastic scatterings between the incident heavy quark and the thermal partons with both hard and soft momentum transfers. As compared to the energy loss obtained from the perturbation theory, the hard processes get modified through the thermal distribution functions that depend on the background field, while the proper treatment of the soft processes strongly relies on the use of the hard-thermal-loop resummed gluon propagator derived from the background field effective theory. Our results show that the heavy quark energy loss is significantly suppressed in the semiquark-gluon plasma due to a background field that is self-consistently generated in the effective theory. On the other hand, the suppression has a strong dependence on the temperature of the plasma, which becomes negligible above 2–3 times the critical temperature. For a realistic coupling constant, ignoring a relatively weak dependence on the heavy quark velocity, the suppression on the collisional energy loss can be approximated by an overall factor determined solely by the background field. This simple conclusion is expected to be useful for phenomenological applications in the heavy flavor physics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Novel collider signatures in the type-I 2HDM+a model

The 2HDM+a model is one of the main models used in the interpretations of dark matter searches at the LHC. So far, all the 2HDM+a benchmarks considered by the ATLAS and CMS experiments are limited to a type-II Yukawa sector, in which the Higgs bosons A, H, and H± are all constrained to be mass-degenerate and heavier than around 600 GeV. In this work, we present the first detailed study of 2HDM+a models with a type-I Yukawa sector, which, for moderate values of tan β, lift the constraints from flavour physics, allowing the extra Higgs bosons to be even lighter than the 125 GeV Higgs boson discovered at the LHC. We discuss several benchmarks where the A, H, and H± states are not necessarily mass-degenerate and the signatures that arise in these models, some of which have not yet been explored at the LHC. We present the dominant channels in the studied benchmarks and the expected sensitivity in Run 2 data using truth-level analyses and discuss potential improvements in the experimental searches for Run 3.

Production of hidden-heavy and double-heavy hadronic molecules at the Z factory of CEPC

With a clean environment and high collision energy, the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) would be an excellent facility for heavy flavor physics. Using the Monte Carlo event generator ythia, we simulate the production of the charmed (bottom) hadron pairs in the electron-positron collisions at the Z factory of CEPC, and the inclusive production rates for typical candidates of the hidden/double-charm and hidden/double-bottom S-wave hadronic molecules are estimated at an order-of-magnitude level with the final state interactions after the hadron pair production. The predicted cross sections for the hidden-charm meson-meson molecules X(3872) and Zc(3900) are at pb level, which are about two to three orders of magnitude larger than the production cross sections for the double-charm meson-meson molecules Tcc and Tcc*, as the double-charmed ones require the production of two pairs of cc¯ from the Z boson decay. The production cross sections for the hidden-charm pentaquark states Pc and Pcs as meson-baryon molecules are a few to tens of fb, which are about one magnitude larger than those of the possible hidden-charm baryon-antibaryon and double-charm meson-baryon molecules. In the bottom sector, the production cross sections for the Zb states as B(*)B¯* molecules are about tens to hundreds of fb, indicating 106–107 events from a two-year operation of CEPC, and the expected events from the double-bottom molecules are about 2–5 orders of magnitude smaller than the Zb states. Our results shows great prospects of probing heavy exotic hadrons at CEPC. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Scalar dark matter explanation of the excess in the Belle II B+→ K++ invisible measurement

Recently Belle II reported the first measurement of B+ → K+ + invisible(inv), which is 2.7σ above the standard model (SM) prediction. If confirmed, this calls for new physics beyond SM. In the SM, the invisible particles are neutrino-anti-neutrino pairs. There are more possibilities when going beyond the SM. In this work, we focus on decays to dark matter (DM) and show that the B → K + inv excess from Belle II and DM relic density can be simultaneously explained in a simple extension of the SM. The model introduces a real scalar singlet ϕ acting as a DM candidate, and two heavy vector-like quarks Q, D with the same quantum numbers as the SM left-handed quark doublet and right-handed down-type quark singlet, respectively. All these new particles are odd under a ℤ2 symmetry while the SM particles are even. The model can successfully explain the Belle II anomaly and DM relic density for TeV-scale heavy quarks with hierarchical Yukawa couplings involving b and s quarks. At the same time, it can easily satisfy other flavour physics constraints. Direct detection searches utilizing the Migdal effect constrain some of the parameter space.

Constructing model-agnostic likelihoods, a method for the reinterpretation of particle physics results

Experimental High Energy Physics has entered an era of precision measurements. However, measurements of many of the accessible processes assume that the final states’ underlying kinematic distribution is the same as the Standard Model prediction. This assumption introduces an implicit model-dependency into the measurement, rendering the reinterpretation of the experimental analysis complicated without reanalysing the underlying data. We present a novel reweighting method in order to perform reinterpretation of particle physics measurements. It makes use of reweighting the Standard Model templates according to kinematic signal distributions of alternative theoretical models, prior to performing the statistical analysis. The generality of this method allows us to perform statistical inference in the space of theoretical parameters, assuming different kinematic distributions, according to a beyond Standard Model prediction. We implement our method as an extension to the pyhf software and interface it with the EOS software, which allows us to perform flavor physics phenomenology studies. Furthermore, we argue that, beyond the pyhf or HistFactory likelihood specification, only minimal information is necessary to make a likelihood model-agnostic and hence easily reinterpretable. We showcase that publishing such likelihoods is crucial for a full exploitation of experimental results.

Questions of flavor physics and neutrino mass from a flipped hypercharge

The flavor structure of quarks and leptons is not yet fully understood, but it hints a more fundamental theory of nonuniversal generations. We therefore propose a simple extension of the Standard Model by flipping (i.e., enlarging) the hypercharge U(1)Y to U(1)X⊗U(1)N for which both X and N depend on generations of both quark and lepton. By anomaly cancellation, this extension not only explains the existence of just three fermion generations as observed but also requires the presence of a right-handed neutrino per generation, which motivates seesaw neutrino mass generation. Furthermore, in its minimal version with a scalar doublet and two scalar singlets, the model naturally generates the measured fermion-mixing matrices while it successfully accommodates several flavor anomalies observed in the neutral meson mixings, B-meson decays, lepton-flavor-violating processes of charged leptons, as well as satisfying constraints from particle colliders. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

2-zeros texture and the Universal Texture Constraint in the Leptonic Sector

Texture matrices are used to mitigate the redundancy inherent in the description of flavor physics via Yukawa couplings by eliminating some entries in order to identify relevant parameters. In this paper, the implications of a 2-zero texture mixing matrix in the parallel case are studied for leptons. Eight possible parametrizations were found and the parameter space was studied for all the scenarios using a chi-squared analysis. Using a model of GUT with [Formula: see text] symmetry, the mass matrices were restricted and a reduction of parameters was possible by adding the previously proposed Universal Texture Constraint for two scenarios. Constrains on the mass of the heaviest neutrino were found and the interval favored by UTC is [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]eV as well as general properties of the free parameters of the model.

Steven Weinberg and Higgs physics

As a tribute to Steven Weinberg, we summarize the immense impact that he had on the understanding of the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking and on the physics of the Higgs boson. In particular, four landmark contributions to this field are highlighted. A first one is his early work with Goldstone and Salam on spontaneously broken continuous symmetries that paved the way to the Higgs mechanism. A second towering breakthrough is his model of leptons which later became the Standard Model of particle physics and for which he was awarded the Nobel prize with Glashow and Salam. A third seminal work is the so-called Weinberg-Linde lower bound on the Higgs boson mass that was derived from the requirement of the stability of the electroweak vacuum. Finally, we summarize his important contributions in model-building of new physics with extended Higgs sectors and their possible impact in flavor physics and CP-violation. The historical aspects as well as the contemporary way of viewing these four major topics are summarized and their impact on today Higgs physics, and more generally particle physics, is highlighted.

Leading directions in the SMEFT: Renormalization effects

The stability of the electroweak scale, challenged by the absence of deviations in flavor physics, prompts the consideration of SMEFT scenarios governed by approximate SM flavor symmetries. This study examines microscopic theories that match onto a set of U(3)5-symmetric dimension-6 operators. Renormalization group (RG) mixing from the ultraviolet to the electroweak scale yields significant phenomenological constraints, particularly pronounced for UV-motivated directions. To demonstrate this, we explore a complete suite of tree-level models featuring new spin-0, spin-1/2, and spin-1 fields, categorized by their irreducible representations under the flavor group. We find that for the leading directions, corresponding to a single-mediator dominance, RG mixing effects occasionally serve as the primary indirect probe. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

On the Magnitudes of some CKM Matrix Elements

Abstract This write-up follows the presentation at the symposium, with emphasis on topics and ideas discussed there. It is purposefully informal, not a review of the field, and neither does it include a complete list of references. However, I hope that readers might find somwe comments useful or amusing, and may appreciate the challenges and reasons for excitement about recent progress and future opportunities in flavor physics.

Recent flavor and dark-sector results from Belle II

The Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB energy-asymmetric e+e− collider is the upgraded successor of the B-factory facility at the KEK laboratory, Japan. The designed instantaneous luminosity of the machine is 6×1035cm−2s−1. The Belle II experiment aims to ultimately accumulate 50 ab−1 of data, 50 times more than its predecessor. With this data set, Belle II will be able to measure the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements with unprecedented precision and explore flavor physics with B and D mesons and τ leptons. Belle II has also a unique capability to search for low-mass dark matter and low-mass mediators. Here, we briefly report the latest results from Belle II.

Flavor physics constraints on left-right symmetric models with universal seesaw

We study the phenomenological constraints on the parameter space of a class of left-right symmetric models in which the fermion masses are generated through a universal seesaw mechanism. Motivated by the axionless solution to the strong CP problem, the model features a simple Higgs sector consisting of left- and right-handed doublets. The fermion masses are then generated through their mixing with heavy vector-like fermions, which leads to flavor changing neutral currents arising at tree-level and also introduces non-unitarity in the charged current interactions. These new contributions induce flavor and flavor-universality violating processes which are used to derive constraints on the parameter space of the model. We also argue that although the model has the potential to resolve flavor anomalies, it falls short in the case of B-anomalies RK(⁎) and anomalous magnetic moment of muon aμ.

S -wave contribution to rare D0→π+π−ℓ+ℓ− decays in the standard model and sensitivity to new physics

Physics of the up-type flavor offers unique possibilities of testing the standard model (SM) compared to the down-type flavor sector. Here, we discuss SM and new physics (NP) contributions to the rare charm-meson decay D0→π+π−ℓ+ℓ−. In particular, we discuss the effect of including the lightest scalar isoscalar resonance in the SM picture, namely, the f0(500), which manifests in a big portion of the allowed phase space. Other than showing in the total branching ratio at an observable level of about 20%, the f0(500) resonance manifests as interference terms with the vector resonances, such as at high invariant mass of the leptonic pair in distinct angular observables. Recent data from LHCb optimize the sensitivity to P-wave contributions that we analyze in view of the inclusion of vector resonances. We propose the measurement of alternative observables that are sensitive to the S-wave and are straightforward to implement experimentally. This leads to a new set of null observables that vanish in the SM due to its gauge and flavor structures. Finally, we study observables that depend on the SM interference with generic NP contributions from semileptonic four-fermion operators in the presence of the S-wave. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Gauge coupling unification in a minimal non-supersymmetric E6 GUT

We consider a minimal renormalizable non-supersymmetric [Formula: see text] Grand Unified Theory using fundamental representation 27 for fermions and scalars. The scalar with adjoint representation 78 is also taken for direct breaking of [Formula: see text] to SM. The proposed model, guided by TeV-scale vector-like fermions and scalar leptoquark, offers successful gauge unification even in the absence of any intermediate symmetry. Embedded with threshold corrections, it is shown to be compatible with the present experimental limit on proton decay lifetime. The unique feature of the model shows that the GUT threshold corrections to the unification mass is controlled by superheavy gauge bosons only, thereby minimizing the uncertainty of the GUT predictions. The scalar leptoquark and vector-like fermions residing in 27 representation can explain flavor physics anomalies like [Formula: see text] as reported by the LHCb collaboration and the muon anomalous magnetic moment reported by the recent muon [Formula: see text] experiment at Fermilab. The model can also predict a sub-eV scale neutrino at one-loop level via exchange of W and Z gauge bosons through MRIS mechanism.

Heavy flavor machine learning algorithms for fast data processing in sPHENIX

The sPHENIX experiment at RHIC utilizes the first new heavy ion detector since the switch on of the LHC experiments. It’s optimized for precision jet and heavy flavor physics measurements, and recorded its first collisions in spring 2023. sPHENIX uses a tracking system with streaming readout and barrel calorimetry to reconstruct the collision topology. Event plane detectors, minimum bias detectors and zero-degree calorimeters are used to characterize the event. The streaming readout detectors are capable of recording 10% of the minimum bias rate, in addition to triggered events, in p+p collisions which will enable unabated, precision b-hadron and heavy flavor jet measurements at RHIC. An AI-assisted hardware trigger demonstrator is under development to sample the remaining 90% of minimum-bias p+p collisions with an aim for further deployment at the EIC.