Messenger Field Research Articles

Focus point gauge mediation without a severe fine-tuning

We consider focus point gauge mediation within the framework of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, which substantially reduces the degree of finetuning for the electroweak symmetry breaking. The milder fine-tuning is realized by a messenger field in the adjoint representation of SU(5) gauge group with SU(3)c octet being heavy. Our model has a simple ultraviolet completion. The fine-tuning measure Δ can be as small as 40-50 without any contradiction with LHC constraints.

Fast sampling from Wiener posteriors for image data with dataflow engines

We use Dataflow Engines (DFE) to construct an efficient Wiener filter of noisy and incomplete image data, and to quickly draw probabilistic samples of the compatible true underlying images from the Wiener posterior. Dataflow computing is a powerful approach using reconfigurable hardware, which can be deeply pipelined and is intrinsically parallel. The unique Wiener-filtered image is the minimum-variance linear estimate of the true image (if the signal and noise covariances are known) and the most probable true image (if the signal and noise are Gaussian distributed). However, many images are compatible with the data with different probabilities, given by the analytic posterior probability distribution referred to as the Wiener posterior. The DFE code also draws large numbers of samples of true images from this posterior, which allows for further statistical analysis. Naive computation of the Wiener-filtered image is impractical for large datasets, as it scales as $n^3$, where $n$ is the number of pixels. We use a messenger field algorithm, which is well suited to a DFE implementation, to draw samples from the Wiener posterior, that is, with the correct probability we draw samples of noiseless images that are compatible with the observed noisy image. The Wiener-filtered image can be obtained by a trivial modification of the algorithm. We demonstrate a lower bound on the speed-up, from drawing 10$^5$ samples of a 128$^2$ image, of 11.3 ${\pm}$ 0.8 with 8 DFEs in a 1U MPC-X box when compared with a 1U server presenting 32 CPU threads. We also discuss a potential application in astronomy, to provide better dark matter maps and improved determination of the parameters of the Universe.

Optimal and fast $\mathcal {E}/\mathcal {B}$ separation with a dual messenger field

We adapt our recently proposed dual messenger algorithm for spin field reconstruction and showcase its efficiency and effectiveness in Wiener filtering polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps. Unlike conventional preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) solvers, our preconditioner-free technique can deal with high-resolution joint temperature and polarization maps with inhomogeneous noise distributions and arbitrary mask geometries with relative ease. Various convergence diagnostics illustrate the high quality of the dual messenger reconstruction. In contrast, the PCG implementation fails to converge to a reasonable solution for the specific problem considered. The implementation of the dual messenger method is straightforward and guarantees numerical stability and convergence. We show how the algorithm can be modified to generate fluctuation maps, which, combined with the Wiener filter solution, yield unbiased constrained signal realizations, consistent with observed data. This algorithm presents a pathway to exact global analyses of high-resolution and high-sensitivity CMB data for a statistically optimal separation of E and B modes. It is therefore relevant for current and next-generation CMB experiments, in the quest for the elusive primordial B-mode signal.

Cosmic Microwave Background Mapmaking with a Messenger Field

Abstract We apply a messenger field method to solve the linear minimum-variance mapmaking equation in the context of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations. In simulations, the method produces sky maps that converge significantly faster than those from a conjugate gradient descent algorithm with a diagonal preconditioner, even though the computational cost per iteration is similar. The messenger method recovers large scales in the map better than conjugate gradient descent, and yields a lower overall χ 2. In the single, pencil beam approximation, each iteration of the messenger mapmaking procedure produces an unbiased map, and the iterations become more optimal as they proceed. A variant of the method can handle differential data or perform deconvolution mapmaking. The messenger method requires no preconditioner, but a high-quality solution needs a cooling parameter to control the convergence. We study the convergence properties of this new method and discuss how the algorithm is feasible for the large data sets of current and future CMB experiments.

Seminatural gauge mediation from product group unification

We propose a focus point gauge mediation model based on the product group unification (PGU), which solves the doublet-triplet splitting problem of the Higgs multiplets. In the focus point gauge mediation, the electroweak symmetry breaking scale can be naturally explained even for multi-TeV stops. It is known that the focus point behavior appears if a ratio of the number of SU(2) doublet messengers to that of SU(3) triplet messengers is close to 5/2. Importantly, this ratio (effectively) appears in our scenario based on the PGU, if the messenger field is an adjoint representation of SU(5) gauge group. Therefore, our focus point scenario is very predictive. It is also pointed out the gravitino can be dark matter without spoiling the success of the thermal leptogenesis. The absence of the SUSY CP-problem is guaranteed in the case that the Higgs B-term vanishes at the messenger scale.

Radiative corrections from heavy fast-roll fields during inflation

We investigate radiative corrections to the inflaton potential from heavy fields undergoing a fast-roll phase transition. We find that a logarithmic one-loop correction to the inflaton potential involving this field can induce a temporary running of the spectral index. The induced running can be a short burst of strong running, which may be related to the observed anomalies on large scales in the cosmic microwave spectrum, or extend over many e-folds, sustaining an effectively constant running to be searched for in the future. We implement this in a general class of models, where effects are mediated through a heavy messenger field sitting in its minimum. Interestingly, within the present framework it is a generic outcome that a large running implies a small field model with a vanishing tensor-to-scalar ratio, circumventing the normal expectation that small field models typically lead to an unobservably small running of the spectral index. An observable level of tensor modes can also be accommodated, but, surprisingly, this requires running to be induced by a curvaton. If upcoming observations are consistent with a small tensor-to-scalar ratio as predicted by small field models of inflation, then the present study serves as an explicit example contrary to the general expectation that the running will be unobservable.

Singlet extension of the MSSM for 125 GeV Higgs mass with the least tuning

In order to raise the Higgs mass up to 125 GeV and relieve the fine-tuning associated with the heavy s-top mass in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), we propose a new singlet extension of the MSSM. In this scenario, the additional Higgs mass is radiatively generated also in a hidden sector, and the effect is tansmitted to the Higgs through a messenger field. The Higgs mass can be efficiently increased by the parameters of the superpotential as in the extra matter scenario, but free from the constraints on extra colored matter fields by the LHC experiments. As a result, the tuning problem can be remarkably mitigated by taking low enough messenger mass (\sim 300 GeV) and mass parameter scales (\sim 500 GeV).

Efficient Wiener filtering without preconditioning

We present a new approach to calculate the Wiener filter solution of general data sets. It is trivial to implement, flexible, numerically absolutely stable, and guaranteed to converge. Most importantly, it does not require an ingenious choice of preconditioner to work well. The method is capable of taking into account inhomogeneous noise distributions and arbitrary mask geometries. It iteratively builds up the signal reconstruction by means of a messenger field, introduced to mediate between the different preferred bases in which signal and noise properties can be specified most conveniently. Using cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation data as a showcase, we demonstrate the capabilities of our scheme by computing Wiener filtered WMAP7 temperature and polarization maps at full resolution for the first time. We show how the algorithm can be modified to synthesize fluctuation maps, which, combined with the Wiener filter solution, result in unbiased constrained signal realizations, consistent with the observations. The algorithm performs well even on simulated CMB maps with Planck resolution and dynamic range.

Neutrino mass from a hidden world and its phenomenological implications

We propose a model of neutrino mass generation in extra dimension. Allowing a large lepton number violation on a distant brane spatially separated from the standard model brane, a small neutrino mass is naturally generated due to an exponential suppression of the messenger field in the 5D bulk. The model accommodates a large Yukawa coupling with the singlet neutrino (nR) which may change the standard Higgs search and can simultaneously accommodate visible lepton number violation at the electroweak scale, which leads to very interesting phenomenology at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Light scalar as the messenger of electroweak and flavor symmetry breaking

We propose a new framework for understanding the hierarchies of fermion masses and mixings. The masses and mixings of all Standard Model (SM) charged fermions other than top arise from higher dimensional operators involving a messenger scalar S and flavon scalars F_i. The flavons spontaneously break SM flavor symmetries at around the TeV scale. The SM singlet scalar S couples directly to the Higgs H and spontaneously breaks another U(1) at the electroweak scale. At the TeV scale, SM quarks and charged leptons have renormalizable couplings to S, but not to H or F_i. These couplings involve new heavy vectorlike fermions. Integrating out these fermions produces a pattern of higher dimensional operators that reproduce the observed hierarchies of the SM masses and mixings in terms of powers of the "little hierarchy": the ratio of the electroweak scale to the flavor-breaking scale. The framework has important phenomenological implications. Flavor-changing neutral currents are within experimental limits but D^0 mixing and B_s->mu+mu- could be close to current sensitivities. The neutral scalar s of the messenger field mixes with the light Higgs of the SM, which can have strong effects on Higgs decay branching fractions. The s mass eigenstate may be lighter than the Higgs, and could be detected at the Tevatron or the LHC.

Shadow fermions, messenger scalars and leptogenesis

A mechanism for leptogenesis at the electroweak scale was investigated in a model of dark energy and dark matter proposed by one of us (PQH). This model involves an asymptotically free gauge group SU ( 2 ) Z and an axion-like particle with an SU ( 2 ) Z -instanton-induced potential which yields a scenario for the dark energy. Furthermore, the extended particle content of this SU ( 2 ) Z model contains a possible candidate for the cold dark matter, namely, the SU ( 2 ) Z “shadow” fermion, which couples with the Standard Model lepton through a scalar “messenger field” carrying both SU ( 2 ) Z and electroweak quantum numbers. Since these shadow fermions are in a real representation of SU ( 2 ) Z , lepton number can be violated in the Yukawa sector and a lepton number asymmetry can be generated in the SU ( 2 ) Z particle's decay which is also CP-violating and “out-of-equilibrium”. The asymmetry coming from the interference between the tree-level and one-loop amplitudes was calculated for both messenger scalar and shadow fermion decays. It turns out, in order to have a non-vanishing lepton asymmetry and to be consistent with the unitarity condition, some shadow fermions have to decay into lighter messenger scalars, hence could be a candidate “progenitor” for the lepton asymmetry.