Right-handed Fermions Research Articles

A new and gauge-invariant littlest Higgs model with T-parity

We inspect the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity, based on a global symmetry SU(5) spontaneously broken to SO(5), in order to elucidate the pathologies it presents due to the non-trivial interplay between the gauge invariance associated to the heavy modes and the discrete T-parity symmetry. In particular, the usual Yukawa Lagrangian responsible for providing masses to the heavy ‘mirror’ fermions is not gauge invariant. This is because it contains an SO(5) quintuplet of right-handed fermions that transforms nonlinearly under SU(5), hence involving in general all SO(5) generators when a gauge transformation is performed and not only those associated to its gauge subgroup. Part of the solution to this problem consists of completing the right-handed fermion quintuplet with T-odd ‘mirror partners’ and a gauge singlet, what has been previously suggested for other purposes. Furthermore, we find that the singlet must be T-even, the global symmetry group must be enlarged, an additional nonlinear sigma field should be introduced to parametrize the spontaneous symmetry breaking and new extra fermionic degrees of freedom are required to give a mass to all fermions in an economic way while preserving gauge invariance. Finally, we derive the Coleman–Weinberg potential for the Goldstone fields using the background field method.

Sub-GeV U(1)R gauge boson to address the proton radius discrepancy

We propose a Standard Model extension by a $U(1)_{R}$ gauge symmetry where only right-handed chiral fermions can carry a non-trivial charge. Here we show that the simplest anomaly-free solution to accommodate the proton charge radius discrepancy takes right-handed muons $\mu_R$ and first generation quarks, $u_R$ and $d_R$. Consistency with the latest muon's $(g-2)$ measurements is achieved through an extra light scalar, which itself must lie in the tens of MeV mass range to be viable.

Combined Lorentz Symmetry: Lessons from Superfluid ^3He

We consider the possibility of the scenario in which the P, T and Lorentz symmetry of the relativistic quantum vacuum are all the combined symmetries. These symmetries emerge as a result of the symmetry breaking of the more fundamental P, T and Lorentz symmetries of the original vacuum, which is invariant under separate groups of the coordinate transformations and spin rotations. The condensed matter vacua (ground states) suggest two possible scenarios of the origin of the combined Lorentz symmetry, and both are realized in the superfluid phases of liquid ^3He: the ^3He-A scenario and the ^3He-B scenario. In these scenarios, the gravitational tetrads are considered as the order parameter of the symmetry breaking in the quantum vacuum. The ^3He-B scenarios applied to the Minkowski vacuum lead to the continuous degeneracy of the Minkowski vacuum with respect to the O(3, 1) spin rotations. The symmetry breaking leads to the corresponding topological objects, which appear due to the nontrivial topology of the manifold of the degenerate Minkowski vacua, such as torsion strings. The fourfold degeneracy of the Minkowski vacuum with respect to discrete P and T symmetries suggests that the Weyl fermions are described by four different tetrad fields: the tetrad for the left-handed fermions, the tetrad for the right-handed fermions, and the tetrads for their antiparticles. This may lead to the gravity with several metric fields, so that the parity violation may lead to the breaking of equivalence principle. Finally, we considered the application of the gravitational tetrads for the solution of the cosmological constant problem.

Excited states of massive fermions in a chiral gauge theory

It is shown numerically, in a chiral U(1) gauge Higgs theory in which the left and right-handed fermion components have opposite U(1) charges, that the spectrum of gauge and Higgs fields surrounding a static fermion contains both a ground state and at least one stable excited state. To bypass the difficulties associated with dynamical fermions in a lattice chiral gauge theory we consider only static fermion sources in a quenched approximation, at fixed lattice spacing and couplings, and with a lattice action along the lines suggested long ago by Smit and Swift.

Colored scalars mediated rare charm meson decays to invisible fermions

We consider effects of coloured scalar mediators in decays $c\to u \, {\it invisibles}$. In particular, in these processes, as invisibles, we consider massive right-handed fermions. The coloured scalar $\bar S_1\equiv (\bar 3, 1, -2/3)$, due to its coupling to weak singlets up-quarks and invisible right-handed fermions ($\chi$), is particularly interesting. Then, we consider $\tilde R_2 \equiv (\bar 3, 2, 1/6)$, which as a weak doublet is a subject of severe low-energy constraints. The $\chi$ mass is considered in the range $(m_K - m_\pi)/2\leq m_\chi \leq (m_D - m_\pi)/2$. We determine branching ratios for $D\to \chi \bar \chi$, $D\to \chi \bar \chi \gamma$ and $D\to \pi \chi \chi$ for several $\chi$ masses, using most constraining bounds. For $\bar S_1$, the most constraining is $D^0 -\bar D^0$ mixing, while in the case of $\tilde R_2$ the strongest constraint comes from $B\to K {\it missing\, energy}$ . We find in decays mediated by $\bar S_1$ that branching ratios can be $\mathcal B(D\to \chi \bar \chi)< 10^{-8}$ for $m_\chi=0.8$ GeV, $\mathcal B(D\to \chi \bar \chi \gamma) \sim 10^{-8}$ for $m_\chi=0.18$ GeV, while $\mathcal B(D^+ \to \pi^+ \chi \bar \chi )$ can reach $ \sim 10^{-8}$ for $m_\chi=0.18$ GeV. In the case of $\tilde R_2$ these decay rates are very suppressed. We find that future tau-charm factories and Belle II experiments offer good opportunities to search for such processes. Both $\bar S_1$ and $\tilde R_2$ might have masses within LHC reach.

Explicit parity violation inSU(2)L⊗ SU(2)R⊗ U(1)B−L models

Here, we propose models with SU(2)L ⊗ SU(2)R ⊗ U(1)B−L electroweak gauge symmetry, in which parity (or charge conjugation) is explicitly broken and the interactions of left- and right-handed fermions are completely different from each other at any energy scale. In this type of model, there is no restoration of parity at high energies. However, as in all left-right symmetric models, the electroweak charged interactions of quarks and leptons appear to be only left-handed at low energies, because the right-handed interactions are suppressed by the masses of the respective charged vector bosons and/or because these interactions may be much weaker than the left-handed ones.

Measuring chiral imbalance with collisional energy loss

We compute the collisional energy loss of an {energetic} massive fermion crossing a chiral plasma at finite temperature characterized by an imbalance between the populations of left-handed and right-handed fermions. We find a new contribution to the energy loss which is proportional to the helicity of the test fermion and depends on the amount of chiral imbalance in the plasma. We then compute the difference between the energy loss of a fermion with the two opposite helicities, to assess whether this could be used to quantify the chiral imbalance in the plasma. We find that the leading contribution to these helicity-dependent energy loss contributions comes from the exchange of hard photons (or gluons for QCD) with the medium constituents, and in some scenarios can become comparable to the leading-order result for a plasma without any chiral imbalance. We also evaluate the contribution arising from soft photon exchange, which is a subleading effect, and requires regularization. We illustrate how dimensional regularization is a well suited prescription to be applied to these energy loss computations.

Searching for Z\u2032 bosons at the P2 experiment

The P2 experiment aims at high-precision measurements of the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic electron-proton and electron-12C scatterings with longitudinally polarized electrons. We discuss here the sensitivity of P2 to new physics mediated by an additional neutral gauge boson Z′ of a new U(1)′ gauge symmetry. If the charge assignment of the U(1)′ is chiral, i.e., left- and right-handed fermions have different charges under U(1)′, additional parity-violation is induced directly. On the other hand, if the U(1)′ has a non-chiral charge assignment, additional parity-violation can be induced via mass or kinetic Z-Z′ mixing. By comparing the P2 sensitivity to existing constraints, we show that in both cases P2 has discovery potential over a wide range of Z′ mass. In particular, for chiral models, the P2 experiment can probe gauge couplings at the order of 10−5 when the Z′ boson is light, and heavy Z′ bosons up to 79 (90) TeV in the proton (12C) mode. For non-chiral models with mass mixing, the P2 experiment is sensitive to mass mixing angles smaller than roughly 10−4, depending on model details and gauge coupling magnitude.

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.

An inverse seesaw model with A4-modular symmetry

We discuss an inverse seesaw model based on right-handed fermion specific U(1) gauge symmetry and A4-modular symmetry. These symmetries forbid unnecessary terms and restrict structures of Yukawa interactions which are relevant to inverse seesaw mechanism. Then we can obtain some predictions in neutrino sector such as Dirac-CP phase and sum of neutrino mass, which are shown by our numerical analysis. Besides the relation among masses of heavy pseudo-Dirac neutrino can be obtained since it is also restricted by the modular symmetry. We also discuss implications to lepton flavor violation and collider physics in our model.

The see-saw portal at future Higgs Factories

We consider an extension of the Standard Model with two right-handed singlet fermions with mass at the electroweak scale that induce neutrino masses, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale Λ. We focus on the effective operators of lowest dimension d = 5, which induce new production and decay modes for the singlet fermions. We assess the sensitivity of future Higgs Factories, such as FCC-ee, CLIC-380, ILC and CEPC, to the coefficients of these operators for various center of mass energies. We show that future lepton colliders can test the cut-off of the theory up to Λ ≃ 500–1000 TeV, surpassing the reach of future indirect measurements of the Higgs and Z boson widths. We also comment on the possibility of determining the underlying model flavor structure should a New Physics signal be observed, and on the impact of higher dimensional d = 6 operators on the experimental signatures.

Tunable chiral symmetry breaking in symmetric Weyl materials

Asymmetric Weyl semimetals, which possess an inherently chiral structure, have different energies and dispersion relations for left- and right-handed fermions. They exhibit certain effects not found in symmetric Weyl semimetals, such as the quantized circular photogalvanic effect and the helical magnetic effect. In this work, we derive the conditions required for breaking chiral symmetry by applying an external field in symmetric Weyl semimetals. We explicitly demonstrate that in certain materials with the $T_d$ point group, magnetic fields along low symmetry directions break the symmetry between left- and right-handed fermions; the symmetry breaking can be tuned by changing the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field. In some cases, we find an imbalance between the number of type I left- and right-handed Weyl cones (which is compensated by the number of type II cones of each chirality.)

A flipped U(1) R extension of the Standard Model

In this work, we study an extension of the standard model (SM) based on the gauge symmetry SU(3) C × SU(2) L × U(1) Y′ × U(1) R where only the right-handed fermions have nonzero U(1) R charge and the weak hypercharge of the SM is identified as a combination of the U(1) Y′ and U(1) R charges. The gauge charge assignment of the fields is constrained by the conditions of the anomaly cancellation and the gauge invariance of the Yukawa couplings. The light neutrino masses are generated via the type-I seesaw mechanism where the Majorana masses of the right-handed neutrinos are related to the U(1) Y′ × U(1) R symmetry breaking scale. Then, we discuss the constraints on the free parameters of the model from various current experiments, such as the precision measurement of the total Z width, ρ parameter, atomic parity violation of cesium, LEP and LHC bounds. In addition, we investigate the potential of probing for the signal of the new neutral gauge boson based on the forward–backward asymmetry for the process e + e − → μ + μ − which is the most sensitive mode at the ILC.

Axial anomaly generation by domain wall motion in Weyl semimetals

A space-time dependent node separation in Weyl semimetals acts as an axial vector field. Coupled with domain wall motion in magnetic Weyl semimetals, this induces axial electric and magnetic fields localized at the domain wall. We show how these fields can activate the axial (chiral) anomaly and provide a direct experimental signature of it. Specifically, a domain wall provides a spatially dependent Weyl node separation and an axial magnetic field $\textbf{B}_5$, and domain wall movement, driven by an external magnetic field, gives the Weyl node separation a time dependence, inducing an axial electric field $\textbf{E}_5$. At magnetic fields beyond the Walker breakdown, $\textbf{E}_5\cdot\textbf{B}_5$ becomes nonzero and activates the axial anomaly that induces a finite axial charge density -- imbalance in the number of left- and right-handed fermions -- moving with the domain wall. This axial density, in turn, produces, via the chiral magnetic effect, an oscillating current flowing along the domain wall plane, resulting in a characteristic radiation of electromagnetic waves emanating from the domain wall. A detection of this radiation would constitute a direct measurement of the axial anomaly induced by axial electromagnetic fields.

Opportunities for probing U(1)T3R with light mediators

We consider strategies for using new datasets to probe scenarios in which light right-handed SM fermions couple to a new gauge group, $U(1)_{T3R}$. This scenario provides a natural explanation for the light flavor sector scale, and a motivation for sub-GeV dark matter. There is parameter space which is currently allowed, but we find that much of it can be probed with future experiments. In particular, cosmological and astrophysical observations, neutrino experiments and experiments which search for displaced visible decay or invisible decay can all play a role. Still, there is a small region of parameter space which even these upcoming experiments will not be able to probe. This model can explain the observed 2.4-3$\sigma$ excess of events at the COHERENT experiment in the parameter space allowed by current laboratory experiments, but the ongoing/upcoming laboratory experiments will decisively probe this possibility.

Geometry creates inertia

The dynamics of fermions in curved spacetime is governed by a spin connection, a part of which is contorsion, an auxiliary field independent of the metric, without dynamics but fully expressible in terms of the axial current density of fermions. Its effect is the appearance of a quartic interaction involving all fermions. Contorsion can couple to left- and right-handed fermions with different strengths, leading to an effective mass for fermions propagating on a background containing fermionic matter.

Gravitational interactions and neutrino masses

We describe a scenario where the smallness of neutrino masses is related to a global symmetry that is only violated by quantum gravitational effects. The coupling of neutrinos to gauge singlet right-handed fermions is attributed to symmetry preserving gravitational operators suppressed by the Planck mass, in this framework. The proposed scenario leads to axion particles that decay into neutrinos, which could be probed through cosmological measurements and may help explain the Hubble parameter tension. Depending on the details of the implementation, the scenario could provide axion dark matter candidates.

Operatorial characterization of Majorana neutrinos

The Majorana neutrino psi _{M}(x) when constructed as a superposition of chiral fermions such as nu _{L} + Coverline{nu _{L}}^{T} is characterized by (mathcal{C}mathcal{P}) psi _{M}(x)(mathcal{C}mathcal{P})^{dagger } =igamma ^{0}psi _{M}(t,-vec {x}), and the CP symmetry describes the entire physics contents of Majorana neutrinos. Further specifications of C and P separately could lead to difficulties depending on the choice of C and P. The conventional mathcal{C} psi _{M}(x) mathcal{C}^{dagger } = psi _{M}(x) with well-defined P is naturally defined when one constructs the Majorana neutrino from the Dirac-type fermion. In the seesaw model of Type I or Type I+II where the same number of left- and right-handed chiral fermions appear, it is possible to use the generalized Pauli–Gursey transformation to rewrite the seesaw Lagrangian in terms of Dirac-type fermions only; the conventional C symmetry then works to define Majorana neutrinos. In contrast, the “pseudo C-symmetry” nu _{L,R}(x)rightarrow Coverline{nu _{L,R}(x)}^{T} (and associated “pseudo P-symmetry”), that has been often used in both the seesaw model and Weinberg’s model to describe Majorana neutrinos, attempts to assign a nontrivial charge conjugation transformation rule to each chiral fermion separately. But this common construction is known to be operatorially ill-defined and, for example, the amplitude of the neutrinoless double beta decay vanishes if the vacuum is assumed to be invariant under the pseudo C-symmetry.

Minimal dirac neutrino mass models from hbox {U}(1)_{mathrm{R}} gauge symmetry and left\u2013right asymmetry at colliders

In this work, we propose minimal realizations for generating Dirac neutrino masses in the context of a right-handed abelian gauge extension of the Standard Model. Utilizing only U(1)_R symmetry, we address and analyze the possibilities of Dirac neutrino mass generation via (a) tree-level seesaw and (b) radiative correction at the one-loop level. One of the presented radiative models implements the attractive scotogenic model that links neutrino mass with Dark Matter (DM), where the stability of the DM is guaranteed from a residual discrete symmetry emerging from U(1)_R. Since only the right-handed fermions carry non-zero charges under the U(1)_R, this framework leads to sizable and distinctive Left–Right asymmetry as well as Forward–Backward asymmetry discriminating from U(1)_{B-L} models and can be tested at the colliders. We analyze the current experimental bounds and present the discovery reach limits for the new heavy gauge boson Z^{prime } at the LHC and ILC. Furthermore, we also study the associated charged lepton flavor violating processes, dark matter phenomenology and cosmological constraints of these models.

Sub-GeV dark matter model

We propose an extension of the Standard Model gauge symmetry by the gauge group $U(1)_{T3R}$ in order to address the Yukawa coupling hierarchy between the third generation fermions and the first two generation fermions of the SM. We assume that only the right-handed fermions of the first two generations are charged under the $U(1)_{T3R}$. In addition to the new dark gauge boson, we have a dark scalar particle whose vacuum expectation value (vev) breaks the $U(1)_{T3R}$ symmetry down to $Z_2$ symmetry and also explains the hierarchy problem. A vev of $\cal O$(GeV) is required to explain the mass parameters of the light flavor sector naturally. The dark matter (DM) particle arising from the model naturally has mass in the $\mathcal {O}$(1-100) MeV range. The model satisfies all the current constraints. We discuss the various prospects of the direct detection of the dark matter. We get both elastic and inelastic spin independent DM-nucleon scattering. The dark matter obtains the correct thermal relic density by annihilation.