Scale Vacuum Expectation Values Research Articles

A low-scale flavon model with a \u2124N symmetry

We propose a model that explains the fermion mass hierarchy by the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism with a discrete {mathrm{mathbb{Z}}}_N^F symmetry. As a concrete model, we study a super-symmetric model with a single flavon coupled to the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. Flavon develops a TeV scale vacuum expectation value for realizing flavor hierarchy, an appropriate μ-term and the electroweak scale, hence the model has a low cutoff scale. We demonstrate how the flavon is successfully stabilized together with the Higgs bosons in the model. The discrete flavor symmetry {mathrm{mathbb{Z}}}_N^F controls not only the Standard Model fermion masses, but also the Higgs potential and a mass of the Higgsino which is a good candidate for dark matter. The hierarchy in the Higgs-flavon sector is determined in order to make the model anomaly-free and realize a stable electroweak vacuum. We show that this model can explain the fermion mass hierarchy, realistic Higgs-flavon potential and thermally produced dark matter at the same time. We discuss flavor violating processes induced by the light flavon which would be detected in future experiments.

Leptogenesis from Left-Handed Neutrino Production during Axion Inflation.

We propose that the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry can be naturally produced as a by-product of axion-driven slow-roll inflation by coupling the axion to standard model neutrinos. We assume that grand unified theory scale right-handed neutrinos are responsible for the masses of the standard model neutrinos and that the Higgs field is light during inflation and develops a Hubble-scale root-mean-square value. In this setup, the rolling axion generates a helicity asymmetry in standard model neutrinos. Following inflation, this helicity asymmetry becomes equal to a net lepton number as the Higgs condensate decays and is partially reprocessed by the SU(2)_{L} sphaleron into a net baryon number.

Criticality in the scale invariant standard model (squared)

We consider first the standard model Lagrangian with μh2 Higgs potential term set to zero. We point out that this classically scale invariant theory potentially exhibits radiative electroweak/scale symmetry breaking with very high vacuum expectation value (VEV) for the Higgs field, 〈ϕ〉≈1017–18 GeV. Furthermore, if such a vacuum were realized then cancellation of vacuum energy automatically implies that this nontrivial vacuum is degenerate with the trivial unbroken vacuum. Such a theory would therefore be critical with the Higgs self-coupling and its beta function nearly vanishing at the symmetry breaking minimum, λ(μ=〈ϕ〉)≈βλ(μ=〈ϕ〉)≈0. A phenomenologically viable model that predicts this criticality property arises if we consider two copies of the standard model Lagrangian, with exact Z2 symmetry swapping each ordinary particle with a partner. The spontaneously broken vacuum can then arise where one sector gains the high scale VEV, while the other gains the electroweak scale VEV. The low scale VEV is perturbed away from zero due to a Higgs portal coupling, or via the usual small Higgs mass terms μh2, which softly break the scale invariance. In either case, the cancellation of vacuum energy requires Mt=(171.53±0.42) GeV, which is close to its measured value of (173.34±0.76) GeV.

130 GeV Fermi gamma-ray line from dark matter decay

The 130 GeV gamma-ray line based on tentative analyses on the Fermi-LAT data is hard to be understood with dark matter annihilation in the conventional framework of the MSSM. We point out that it can be nicely explained with two body decay of a scalar dark matter (ϕ˜DM→γγ) by the dimension 6 operator suppressed with the mass of the grand unification scale (∼1016GeV), L⊃|ϕ˜DM|2FμνFμν/MGUT2, in which the scalar dark matter ϕ˜DM develops a TeV scale vacuum expectation value. We propose a viable model explaining the 130 GeV gamma-ray line.

Towards a realistic F-theory GUT

We consider semi-local F-theory GUTs arising from a single E_8 point of local enhancement, leading to simple GUT groups based on E_6, SO(10) and SU(5) with SU(3), SU(4) and SU(5) spectral covers, respectively. Assuming the minimal Z_2 monodromy, we determine the homology classes and the associated spectra after flux breaking for each case. Our analysis includes the GUT singlets which have hitherto been ignored but which play a crucial role in phenomenology. Using these results we construct an E_6 based model that demonstrates, for the first time, that it is possible to construct a phenomenologically viable model which leads to the MSSM at low energies. The exotics that result from flux breaking all get a large mass when singlet fields acquire vacuum expectation values driven by D- and F-flatness. Due to the underlying GUT symmetry and the U(1)s descending from E_8, bare baryon- and lepton-number violating terms are forbidden up to and including dimension 5. As a result nucleon decay is naturally suppressed below present bounds. The mu-term is forbidden by the U(1) but is generated at the SUSY breaking scale when a further singlet field acquires a TeV scale vacuum expectation value, driven by the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry. After including the effect of flux and instanton corrections acceptable quark and charged lepton masses and mixing angles can be obtained. Neutrinos get a mass from the see-saw mechanism through their coupling to singlet neutrinos that acquire large Majorana mass as a result of the monodromy.

Phase Transitions in the NMSSM

We study phase transitions in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) with the weak scale vacuum expectation values of the singlet scalar, constrained by Higgs spectrum and vacuum stability. We find four different types of phase transitions, three of which have two-stage nature. In particular, one of the two-stage transitions admits strongly first order electroweak phase transition, even with heavy squarks. We introduce a tree-level explicit CP violation in the Higgs sector, which does not affect the neutron electric dipole moment. In contrast to the MSSM with the CP violation in the squark sector, a strongly first order phase transition is not so weakened by this CP violation.

Z3 orbifold construction of SU(3)3 GUT with [formula omitted

It is argued that a phenomenologically viable grand unification model from superstring is SU(3)3, the simplest gauge group among the grand unifications of the electroweak hypercharge embedded in semi-simple groups. We construct a realistic 4D SU(3)3 model with the GUT scale sin2θW0=38 in a Z3 orbifold with Wilson line(s). By two GUT scale vacuum expectation values, we obtain a rank 4 supersymmetric standard model below the GUT scale.

Dimensionless supersymmetry breaking couplings, flat directions, and the origin of intermediate mass scales

The effects of supersymmetry breaking are usually parameterized by soft couplings of positive mass dimensions. However, realistic models also predict the existence of suppressed, but non-vanishing, dimensionless supersymmetry-breaking couplings. These couplings are technically hard, but do not lead to disastrous quadratic divergences in scalar masses, and may be crucial for understanding low-energy physics. In particular, analytic scalar quartic couplings that break supersymmetry can lead to intermediate scale vacuum expectation values along nearly-flat directions. I study the one-loop effective potential for flat directions in the presence of dimensionless supersymmetry-breaking terms, and discuss the corresponding renormalization group equations. I discuss two applications: a minimal model of automatic R-parity conservation, and an extension of this minimal model which provides a solution to the \mu problem and an invisible axion.