Standard Model Leptons Research Articles

Neutrino dipole portal at a high energy μ−collider

We study the phenomenology of d = 6 dipole portal operators connecting active and sterile neutrinos at a futuristic muon collider. These operators can be the dominant portal between the Standard Model and the New Physics sector in scenarios in which the active-sterile mixing is suppressed. We identify two production modes for sterile neutrinos: one proceeding through the exchange of an s-channel electroweak boson and one arising from the fusion of an electroweak boson with a Standard Model lepton. We study the expected reach on the operators suppression scale for these different production mechanisms, showing that the latter offers the best sensitivity and allowing to test a New Physics scale in the ∼ 10 TeV range for strongly coupled UV completions of the dipole operators.

Secluded scalar dark matter and the muon anomalous magnetic moment

Abstract We consider a dark matter model with a singlet scalar, $\chi$, as our dark matter (DM) candidate which is secluded from the Standard Model (SM) and annihilates to the singlet scalar, $\phi$, via a contact interaction. 
The singlet scalar, $\phi$, has a leptophilic interaction with the SM leptons 
and may decay leptonically at tree level, and decays into a pair of photons at loop level. 
The focus in this work is to consider DM masses below 10 GeV. 
It is found a viable secluded region in the parameter space after imposing the observed 
relic density. There is a one-loop interaction between scalar dark matter and the atomic electron in this model. We then apply the available direct detection bounds from Xenon10, Xenon1T, and DarkSide on the DM-electron elastic scattering cross section. While the model can explain the muon anomalous magnetic moment, we put bounds from current and future lepton collider experiments.

Pinning down the leptophobic Z′ in leptonic final states with Deep Learning

A leptophobic Z′ that does not couple with the Standard Model leptons can evade the stringent bounds from the dilepton-resonance searches. In our earlier paper [T. Arun et al., Search for the Z′ boson decaying to a right-handed neutrino pair in leptophobic U(1) models, Phys. Rev. D, 106 (2022) 095035; arXiv:2204.02949], we presented two gauge anomaly-free U(1) models—one based on the Green-Schwarz (GS) anomaly cancellation mechanism, and the other on a grand unified theory (GUT) framework with gauge kinetic mixing—where a heavy leptophobic Z′ is present along with right-handed neutrinos (NR). We pointed out the interesting possibility of a correlated search for Z′ and NR at the LHC through the pp→Z′→NRNR channel. This channel can probe a part of the Z′ parameter space beyond the reach of the standard dijet resonance searches. In this follow-up paper, we analyse the challenging monolepton final state arising from the decays of the NR pair with Deep Learning. We present the high-luminosity LHC discovery reaches for six different GUT embeddings and a benchmark point in the GS setup. We also update our previous estimates in the dilepton channel with Deep Learning. We identify parameter regions that can be probed with the proposed channel but will remain inaccessible to dijet searches at the HL-LHC.

Unparticle effects at the MUonE experiment

We investigate possible effects of unparticles at the MUonE experiment by considering a general model for unparticle with broken scale invariance, characterized by the scaling dimension d and the energy scale μ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mu $$\\end{document} at which the scale invariance is broken. Taking into account available relevant constraints on the couplings of the unparticles with the Standard Model (SM) leptons, we found that the MUonE experiment at the level of 10 ppm systematic accuracy is sensitive to such effects if 1<d≲1.4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$1<d\\lesssim 1.4$$\\end{document} and 1≤μ≲12\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$1\\le \\mu \\lesssim 12$$\\end{document} GeV for vector unparticles. The effects of scalar unparticles are too feeble to be detected. The vector unparticles can induce a significant shift on the best-fit value of aμhad\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$a_\\mu ^\ ext {had}$$\\end{document} at the MUonE, thereby providing an opportunity to detect unparticles or to obtain a new bound on the unparticle-SM couplings in the case of no anomaly.

Scalar triplet leptogenesis with a CP violating phase

We study baryogenesis through leptogenesis via decay of triplet scalars embedded in the Standard Model. We consider two triplets scenario where the vacuum expectation value developed by one of the triplets is complex. The coupling of the triplet Higgs with the Standard Model leptons and Higgs scalar allows two decay channels, with branching ratios BL and Bϕ, respectively. It is known that the hierarchy between the two branching ratios (BL≫Bϕ or Bϕ≫BL), is sensitive to the generation of adequate CP violation and efficiency of leptogenesis. Working in a hierarchical limit of branching ratios and requiring adequate CP violation, we find the mass of the lightest triplet can be as low as 1×1010 GeV. In the temperature regime [109,1012] GeV, flavor effects, especially two-flavor effects become important in the study of leptogenesis. In two-flavored regime we study flavor effects in leptogenesis. It is observed that adequate baryon asymmetry can not be obtained for purely flavored leptogenesis, which corresponds to the hierarchical branching ratios, BL≫Bϕ. But the hierarchy in the other way Bϕ≫BL still allows successful baryogenesis through leptogenesis. The phase of the complex vacuum expectation value of the triplet scalar is constrained by requiring non-zero CP violation. Considering the mass scale of triplet scalars as TeV scale, we also study resonant leptogenesis in the light of TeV scale physics.

Search for third-generation vector-like leptons in pp collisions at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for vector-like leptons in multilepton (two, three, or four-or-more electrons plus muons) final states with zero or more hadronic τ-lepton decays is presented. The search is performed using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. To maximize the separation of signal and background, a machine-learning classifier is used. No excess of events is observed beyond the Standard Model expectation. Using a doublet vector-like lepton model, vector-like leptons coupling to third-generation Standard Model leptons are excluded in the mass range from 130 GeV to 900 GeV at the 95% confidence level, while the highest excluded mass is expected to be 970 GeV.

Early kinetic decoupling effect on the forbidden dark matter annihilations into standard model particles

The early kinetic decoupling (eKD) effect is an inevitable ingredient in calculating the relic density of dark matter (DM) for various well-motivated scenarios. It appears naturally in forbidden dark matter annihilation, the main focus of this work, which contains fermionic DM and a light singlet scalar that connects the DM and standard model (SM) leptons. The strong suppression of the scattering between DM and SM particles happens quite early in the DM depletion history, where the DM temperature drops away from the thermal equilibrium, $T_\chi < T_{\rm SM}$, leading to the decreased kinetic energy of DM. The forbidden annihilation thus becomes inefficient since small kinetic energy cannot help exceed the annihilation threshold, naturally leading to a larger abundance. To show the eKD discrepancy, we numerically solve the coupled Boltzmann equations that govern the evolution of DM number density and temperature. It is found that eKD significantly affects the DM abundance, resulting in almost an order of magnitude higher than that by the traditional calculation. We also discuss the constraints from experimental searches on the model parameters, where the viable parameter space shrinks when considering the eKD effect.

Dark Contributions to h → μ + μ – in the Presence of a μ-Flavored Vector-Like Lepton

A simple extension of the standard model (SM) with a μ-flavored vector-like lepton (VLL) doublet and a real singlet scalar can have an interesting implication to the h → μ + μ – decay while offering the simplest possible explanation for the dark matter (DM) phenomenology. Assuming the real singlet scalar to be a viable DM candidate, it has been shown that the muon Yukawa coupling can have a negative contribution at the one-loop order if the 2nd generation SM leptons are allowed to couple with the VLL doublet. The stringent direct detection bounds corresponding to a real singlet scalar DM can easily be relaxed if the SM quark sector was augmented with a dimension-6 operator at some new physics (NP) scale Λ NP. Thus, this model presents a significant phenomenological study where the muon Yukawa coupling can be corrected within a real singlet scalar DM framework. The considered parameter space can be tested/constrained through the high luminosity run of the LHC (HL-LHC) and future direct detection experiments.

Probing new physics in the vector-like lepton model by lepton electric dipole moments

We examine the lepton dipole moments in an extension of the Standard Model (SM), which contains vector-like leptons that couple only to the second-generation SM leptons. The model naturally leads to sizable contributions to the muon g − 2 and the muon electric dipole moment (EDM). One feature of this model is that a sizable electron EDM is also induced at the two-loop level due to the existence of new vector-like leptons in the loops. We find parameter regions that can explain the muon g − 2 anomaly and are also consistent with the experimental constraints coming from the electron EDM and the Higgs decay h → μ+μ−. The generated EDMs can be as large as mathcal{O} (10−22)e∙cm for the muon and mathcal{O} (10−30)e∙cm for the electron, respectively, which can be probed in future experiments for the EDM measurements.

Wash-in leptogenesis after axion inflation

CP violation and the violation of baryon-minus-lepton number B−L do not necessarily have to occur simultaneously in order to accomplish successful leptogenesis. Instead, it suffices if new CP-violating interactions at high energies result in primordial charge asymmetries, which are then reprocessed into a nonvanishing B−L asymmetry by right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) at lower energies. In this paper, we study this novel mechanism known as wash-in leptogenesis, utilizing axion inflation as the source of high-scale CP violation. We specifically consider axion inflation coupled to the Standard Model hypercharge sector, which results in the dual production of hypermagnetic helicity and fermionic charge asymmetries. Although the survival of these charges is endangered by sphaleron processes, magnetic diffusion, and the chiral plasma instability, we find a large range of viable scenarios. We consistently account for RHN flavor effects and coherence among the Standard Model lepton flavors across a wide range of RHN masses. We find a lower bound of 105···9 GeV on the mass of the lightest RHN involved in wash-in leptogenesis, depending on the onset of turbulence in the chiral plasma and the Hubble scale of inflation. Our model is representative of a broader class of new leptogenesis scenarios and suggests interesting observational signatures with regard to intergalactic magnetic fields, primordial black holes, and gravitational waves.

EFT analysis of leptophilic dark matter at future electron-positron colliders in the mono-photon and mono- Z channels

We consider the possibility that dark matter (DM) only interacts with the Standard Model leptons, but not quarks at tree level, and analyze the future lepton collider prospects of such leptophilic DM in the mono-photon and mono-$Z$ (both leptonic and hadronic) channels. Adopting a model-independent effective field theory framework, we consider all possible dimension-six operators of scalar-pseudoscalar (SP), vector-axial vector (VA), and tensor-axial tensor (TAT) types for a fermionic DM and derive the collider sensitivities on the effective cutoff scale $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ as a function of the DM mass. As a concrete example, we take the beam configurations of the International Linear Collider with $\sqrt{s}=1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ and $8\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{ab}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ integrated luminosity, including the effect of beam polarization, and show that it can probe leptophilic DM at $3\ensuremath{\sigma}$ level up to $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ values of 6.6, 8.8, and 7.1 TeV for the SP-, VA-, and TAT-type operators, respectively. This is largely complementary to the direct and indirect searches for leptophilic DM and can potentially provide the best-ever sensitivity in the low-mass DM regime.

Relic challenges for vector-like fermions as connectors to a dark sector

New dark sectors consisting of exotic fields that couple only very feebly to the Standard Model (SM) have strong theoretical motivation and may be relevant to explaining the abundance of dark matter (DM). An important question for such sectors is how they connect to the SM. For a dark sector with a new gauge interaction, a natural connection arises from heavy vector-like fermions charged under both the visible and dark gauge groups. The gauge charges of such fermions imply that one or more of them is stable in the absence of additional sources of dark symmetry breaking. A generic challenge for such connectors is that they can produce too much dark matter or interact too strongly with nuclei if they were ever thermalized in the early universe. In this paper we study this challenge in a simple connector theory consisting of new vector-like electroweak doublet and singlet fermions that also transform under the fundamental representation of a new Abelian gauge force, and we show that these connectors in their minimal form are almost always ruled out by existing direct DM searches. To address this challenge, we investigate two solutions. First, we study mitigating scattering on nuclei by introducing a Majorana mass term for the singlet. And second, we investigate a mixing with SM leptons that allows the connectors to decay while remaining consistent with cosmological tests and searches for charged lepton flavour violation. Both solutions rely on the presence of a dark Higgs field with a specific charge.

Dark sector tensor currents contribution to lepton's anomalous magnetic moment

In this work we consider a model including dark sector bosons interacting through tensor currents with Standard Model leptons. We show that for certain values of the interaction constant this model has the potential of providing an explanation for the discrepancy between theory and experiment, regarding the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The effect on the already established measurements for the electron are small and the lepton universality violation is naturally incorporated. Possible experimental searches together with systematic approach to characteristic properties of the final states are discussed.

Leptogenesis in an extended seesaw model with U(1) B−L symmetry

We have explored an extended seesaw model accommodating a keV sterile neutrino adopting U(1) B−L symmetry. This model provides a natural platform for achieving resonant leptogenesis to account for the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU). The required lepton asymmetry is sourced by the CP violating decay of the lightest heavy right-handed neutrino to Standard Model leptons and Higgs. The presence of the light sterile neutrino in the model brings out an enhancement in the final lepton asymmetry through an additional self-energy contribution. Adopting a proper treatment for all the washout processes this framework strictly favors a strong washout regime thereby protecting the low energy neutrino mass parameters in agreement with the present neutrino and cosmology data. This framework of extended seesaw scheme offers the source of matter–antimatter asymmetry without any severe fine-tuning of the Yukawa couplings governing the tiny neutrino mass. We also comment on the half-life period for the neutrinoless double beta decay process in the background of having a keV sterile neutrino satisfying all the constraints which guide the explanation for the observed BAU.

Unified origin of dark matter self interactions and low scale leptogenesis

We propose a novel and minimal framework where a light scalar field can give rise to dark matter (DM) self-interactions, while enhancing the CP symmetry required for successful baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis route. For demonstration purpose we choose to work in a scotogenic seesaw scenario where the lightest among the right handed neutrinos (RHN), introduced for generating light neutrino masses radiatively, play the role of DM while the heavier two can play non-trivial roles in generating DM relic as well as lepton asymmetry. While dark matter self-interactions mediated by an additional singlet scalar can alleviate the small scale issues of cold dark matter paradigm, the same scalar can give rise to new one-loop decay processes of heavy RHN into standard model leptons providing an enhanced contribution to CP asymmetry, even with sub-TeV scale RHN mass. The thermally under-abundant relic of DM due to large annihilation rates into its light mediator receives a late non-thermal contribution from a heavier RHN. With only five new particles involved in the scotogenic seesaw, each having non-trivial roles in generating DM relic and baryon asymmetry, the model can explain non-zero neutrino mass while being verifiable at different experiments related to DM direct detection, flavour physics and colliders. The mechanism we demonstrated here by using a scotogenic seesaw scenario is also applicable to other models.

Scalar leptoquarks at the LHC and flavour anomalies: a comparison of pair-production modes at NLO-QCD

We analyse scalar leptoquark pair production at the LHC with predictions including t-channel lepton exchange contributions up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD. In particular, we calculate NLO-QCD predictions for off-diagonal production channels, i.e. channels that involve two different leptoquark eigenstates and are driven solely by diagrams involving Standard Model leptons in the t-channel at leading order, as opposed to diagonal channels where a pair of the same leptoquark eigenstate is produced. We find that reliable theoretical predictions for both channels require NLO accuracy. The relative importance of the off-diagonal modes depends strongly on the considered scenario. In a generic model involving R2 and S3 leptoquarks, at large values of the Yukawa couplings off-diagonal contributions initiated by valence quarks can be up to an order of magnitude higher than the diagonal production. However, we also find that in phenomenologically viable scenarios addressing the flavour anomalies off-diagonal production is generally negligible, with a few exceptions of 10%–30% of the total rate depending on the treatment of the charm density in the proton.

Anomaly-free ALP from non-Abelian flavor symmetry

Motivated by the XENON1T excess in electron-recoil measurements, we investigate the prospects of probing axion-like particles (ALP) in lepton flavor violation experiments. In particular, we identify such ALP as a pseudo-Goldstone from the spontaneous breaking of the flavor symmetries that explain the mixing structure of the Standard Model leptons. We present the case of the flavor symmetries being a non-Abelian U(2) and the ALP originating from its U(1) subgroup, which is anomaly-free with the Standard Model group. We build two explicit realistic examples that reproduce leptonic masses and mixings and show that the ALP which is consistent with XENON1T anomaly could be probed by the proposed LFV experiments.

Minimal Realization of Light Thermal Dark Matter.

We propose a minimal UV-complete model for kinematically forbidden dark matter (DM) leading to a sub-GeV thermal relic. Our crucial realization is that the two-Higgs-doublet model can provide a light mediator through which the DM can annihilate into standard model leptons, avoiding indirect detection constraints. The DM mass is predicted to be very close to the mass of the leptons, which can potentially be identified from DM annihilation into gamma rays. Because of the sizable couplings to muons required to reproduce the DM relic abundance, this framework naturally favors a resolution to the (g-2)_{μ} anomaly. Furthermore, by embedding this setup to the Zee model, we show that the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations is inherently connected to the observed relic abundance of DM. All new physics involved in our framework lies at or below the electroweak scale, making it testable at upcoming colliders, beam-dump experiments, and future sub-GeV gamma-ray telescopes.

Magnetic moments of leptons, charged lepton flavor violations and dark matter phenomenology of a minimal radiative Dirac neutrino mass model

In a simple extension of the standard model (SM), a pair of vector like lepton doublets (L1 and L2) and a SU(2)L scalar doublet (η) have been introduced to help in accommodating the discrepancy in determination of the anomalous magnetic moments of the light leptons, namely, e and μ. Moreover, to make our scenario friendly to a Dirac like neutrino and also for a consistent dark matter phenomenology, we specifically add a singlet scalar (S) and a singlet fermion (ψ) in the set-up. However, the singlet states also induce a meaningful contribution in other charged lepton processes. A discrete symmetry {mathcal{Z}}_2times {mathcal{Z}}_2^{prime } has been imposed under which all the SM particles are even while the new particles may be assumed to have odd charges. In a bottom-up approach, with a minimal particle content, we systematically explore the available parameter space in terms of couplings and masses of the new particles. Here a number of observables associated with the SM leptons have been considered, e.g., masses and mixings of neutrinos, (g − 2) anomalies of e, μ, charged lepton flavor violating (cLFV) observables and the dark matter (DM) phenomenology of a singlet-doublet dark matter. Neutrinos, promoted as the Dirac type states, acquire mass at one loop level after the discrete {mathcal{Z}}_2^{prime } symmetry gets softly broken, while the unbroken {mathcal{Z}}_2 keeps the dark matter stable. The mixing between the singlet ψ and the doublet vector lepton can be constrained to satisfy the electroweak precision observables and the spin independent (SI) direct detection (DD) cross section of the dark matter. In this analysis, potentially important LHC bounds have also been discussed.

Filtered baryogenesis

We propose a new mechanism to simultaneously explain the observed dark matter abundance and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. The mechanism is based on the Filtered Dark Matter scenario, where dark matter particles acquire a large mass during a first-order phase transition. This implies that only a small fraction of them are energetic enough to enter the advancing true vacuum bubbles and survive until today, while the rest are reflected and annihilate away quickly. We supplement this scenario with a CP-violating interaction, which creates a chiral asymmetry in the population of dark matter particles. In the false vacuum phase, a portal interaction quickly converts the dark sector chiral asymmetry into a Standard Model lepton asymmetry. The lepton asymmetry is then partially converted to a baryon asymmetry by standard electroweak sphaleron processes. We discuss the dependence of the generated asymmetry on the parameters of the model for two different portal interactions and demonstrate successful baryogenesis for both. For one of the portals, it is also possible to simultaneously explain the observed dark matter abundance, over many orders of magnitude in the dark matter mass.