Higgs-mediated Flavor Changing Neutral Currents Research Articles

Lepton dark matter portal in the inert Zee model

The inert Zee model is an extension of the Zee model for neutrino masses. This new model explains the dark matter relic abundance, generates a one-loop neutrino masses and forbids tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents. Although the dark matter phenomenology of the model is similar to that of the inert doublet model, the presence of new vector-like fermions opens the lepton portal as a new dark matter annihilation channel. We study the impact of this new portal in the low-mass regime and show the parameter space allowed by direct and indirect searches of dark matter. Remarkably, the region for [Formula: see text] GeV is recovered for [Formula: see text]. We also show that future experiments like LZ and DARWIN could probe a large region of the parameter space of the model.

Flavor violating Higgs couplings in minimal flavor violation

Motivated by the recent LHC data on the lepton-flavor violating (LFV) decays h → ℓ1ℓ2 and Bs,d → ℓ1ℓ2, we study the Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions in the effective field theory (EFT) approach without and with the minimal flavor violation (MFV) hypothesis, and concentrate on the later. After considering the B and K physics data, the various LFV processes, and the LHC Higgs data, severe constraints on the Higgs FCNC couplings are derived, which are dominated by the LHC Higgs data, the {B}_s-{overline{B}}_s mixing, and the μ → eγ decay. In the general case and the MFV framework, allowed ranges of various observables are obtained, such as mathrm{mathcal{B}} (Bs → ℓ1ℓ2), mathrm{mathcal{B}} (h → ℓ1ℓ2), mathrm{mathcal{B}} (h → q1q2), and the branching ratio of μ → e conversion in Al. Future prospects of searching for the Higgs FCNC interactions at the low-energy experiments and the LHC are discussed.

Charged lepton flavor violation and electric dipole moments in the inert Zee model

The inert Zee model is an extension of the Zee model for neutrino masses to allow for a solution to the dark matter problem that involves two vector-like fields, a doublet and a singlet of SU(2)L, and two scalars, also a doublet and a singlet of SU(2)L, all of them being odd under an exact Z2 symmetry. The introduction of the Z2 guarantees one-loop neutrino masses, forbids tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents and ensures the stability of the dark matter candidate. Due to the natural breaking of lepton numbers in the inert Zee model and encouraged by the ambitious experimental program designed to look for charged lepton flavor violation signals and the electron electric dipole moment, we study the phenomenology of the processes leading to these kind of signals, and establish which are the most promising experimental perspectives on that matter.

Constraints and implications on Higgs FCNC couplings from precision measurement of Bs→μ+μ− decay

We study constraints and implications of the recent LHCb measurement of ${\cal B}(B_s \to \mu^+\mu^-)$ for tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions. Combined with experimental data on $B_s$ mass difference $\Delta m_s$, the $h \to \mu \tau$, and the $h \to \tau^+\tau^-$ decay branching ratios from the LHC, we find that the Higgs FCNC couplings are severely constrained. The allowed regions for $B_s \to \mu \tau$, $\tau\tau$ and $h \to sb$ decays are obtained. Current data allow large CP violation in the $h \to \tau^+ \tau^-$ decay. Consequences of the Cheng-Sher ansatz for the Higgs Yukawa couplings are discussed in some detail.

High scale flavor alignment in two-Higgs doublet models and its phenomenology

The most general two-Higgs doublet model (2HDM) includes potentially large sources of flavor changing neutral currents (FCNCs) that must be suppressed in order to achieve a phenomenologically viable model. The flavor alignment ansatz postulates that all Yukawa coupling matrices are diagonal when expressed in the basis of mass-eigenstate fermion fields, in which case tree-level Higgs-mediated FCNCs are eliminated. In this work, we explore models with the flavor alignment condition imposed at a very high energy scale, which results in the generation of Higgs-mediated FCNCs via renormalization group running from the high energy scale to the electroweak scale. Using the current experimental bounds on flavor changing observables, constraints are derived on the aligned 2HDM parameter space. In the favored parameter region, we analyze the implications for Higgs boson phenomenology.

The inert Zee model

We study a realization of the topology of the Zee model for the generation of neutrino masses at one-loop with a minimal set of vector-like fermions. After imposing an exact $Z_2$ symmetry to avoid tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents, one dark matter candidate is obtained from the subjacent inert doublet model, but with the presence of new co-annihilating particles. We show that the model is consistent with the constraints coming from lepton flavor violation processes, oblique parameters, dark matter and neutrino oscillation data.

Preserving the validity of the two-Higgs-doublet model up to the Planck scale

We examine the constraints on the two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) due to the stability of the scalar potential and absence of Landau poles at energy scales below the Planck scale. We employ the most general 2HDM that incorporates an approximately Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson with a flavor aligned Yukawa sector to eliminate potential tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents. Using basis independent techniques, we exhibit robust regimes of the 2HDM parameter space with a 125 GeV SM-like Higgs boson that is stable and perturbative up to the Planck scale. Implications for the heavy scalar spectrum are exhibited.

Higgs phenomenology in Type-I 2HDM with U(1) H Higgs gauge symmetry

It is well known that generic two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) suffer from potentially large Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) problem, unless additional symmetries are imposed on the Higgs fields thereby respecting the Natural Flavor Conservation Criterion (NFC) by Glashow and Weinberg. A common way to respect the NFC is to impose Z_2 symmetry which is softly broken by a dim-2 operator. Another new way is to introduce local U(1)_H Higgs flavor symmetry that distinguishes one Higgs doublet from the other. In this paper, we consider the Higgs phenomenology in Type-I 2HDMs with the U(1)_H symmetry with the simplest U(1)_H assignments that the SM fermions are all neutral under U(1)_H, and we make detailed comparison with the ordinary Type-I 2HDM. After imposing various constraints such as vacuum stability and perturbativity as well as the electroweak precision observables and collider search bounds on charged Higgs boson, we find that the allowed Higgs signal strengths in our model are much broader than those in the ordinary Type-I 2HDM, because of newly introduced U(1)_H-charged singlet scalar and U(1)_H gauge boson. Still the ATLAS data on gg to h to gamma gamma cannot be accommodated. Our model could be distinguished from the ordinary 2HDM with the Z_2 symmetry in a certain parameter region and some channels. If the couplings of the new boson turn out to be close to those in the SM, it would be essential to search for extra U(1)_H gauge boson and/or one more neutral scalar boson to distinguish two models.

Effective Lagrangian approach to Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral current top quark decays

The flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) transitions t --> q'H and t --> q'V_i (V_i=\gamma, g, Z) are studied in the context of the effective Lagrangian approach. We focus on the scenario in which these decays are predominantly induced by new physics effects arising from the Yukawa sector extended with dimension-six SU_L(2) X U_Y(1)-invariant operators, which generate the most general CP-even and CP-odd tq'H vertex at the tree level. For the unknown coefficients, we assume a slightly modified version of the Cheng-Sher ansatz. We found that the branching ratio for the Higgs-mediated FCNC t--> q'V_i decays are enhanced by two or three orders of magnitude with respect to the results expected in models with extended Higgs sectors, such as the general two-Higgs doublet model. We discuss the possibilities of detecting this class of decays at the LHC.

Implications of the muon anomalous magnetic moment and Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents

In the light of the recent measurement of the muon anmalous magnetic moment $a_\mu$ by the Muon $(g-2)$ Collaboration, we examine the contribution to $a_\mu$ from the exchange of flavor changing scalars. Assuming that the heavier generations have larger flavor changing couplings, we obtain a bound on $\mu - \tau$ Yukawa coupling for a given scalar mass. Constraints on other flavor changing/conserving couplings are also obtained from the lepton flavor violating decays of muon and tau lepton, and bounds on the branching ratio of $\tau \to 3 e$, $\mu \to 3 e$ and $\tau \to e \mu e$ processes are predicted.

Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral currents in the general framework with two Higgs doublets: An RGE analysis

We consider the standard model with two Higgs doublets with the most general Yukawa coupling terms (``type III''). In the model, the neutral-Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral currents (FCNC's) are allowed, but must be reasonably suppressed at low energies of probes. It has been known that the existing hierarchies of quark masses render this suppression at low energies rather natural. On the other hand, the model has been regarded by many as unnatural because of the absence of any symmetry that would ensure persistence of this suppression as the energy of probes increases. The opinion has been based on the expectation that the mentioned FCNC's would increase by large factors at increasing energies. We performed a numerical analysis of the flow of these FCN coupling parameters as governed by the one-loop renormalization group equations (RGE's), in a simplified case when Yukawa couplings of the first quark generation are neglected. The analysis shows a remarkable persistence of the mentioned FCNC suppression and thus indicates that the model is not unnatural in the RGE sense. Further, we point out two mistakes in the Yukawa RGE's of Machacek and Vaughn at one-loop level.

Anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents

In the two-Higgs doublet extension of the standard model, flavor-changing neutral couplings arise naturally. In the lepton sector, the largest such coupling is expected to be $\mu-\tau-\phi#. We consider the effects of this coupling on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The resulting bound on the coupling, unlike previous bounds, is independent of the value of other unknown couplings. It will be significantly improved by the upcoming E821 experiment at Brookhaven National Lab.