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T. Hambye

Publications and source records attributed to T. Hambye.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2017

Probing Leptogenesis

The focus of this chapter lies on the possible experimental tests of leptogenesis scenarios. We consider both leptogenesis generated from oscillations, as well as leptogenesis from out-of-equilibrium decays. As the Akhmedov-Rubakov-Smirnov (ARS) mechanism allows for heavy neutrinos in the GeV range, this opens up a plethora of possible experimental tests, e.g. at neutrino oscillation experiments, neutrinoless double beta decay, and direct searches for neutral heavy leptons at future facilities. In contrast, testing leptogenesis from out-of-equilibrium decays is a quite difficult task. We comment on the necessary conditions for having successful leptogenesis at the TeV-scale. We further discuss possible realizations and their model specific testability in extended seesaw models, models with extended gauge sectors, and supersymmetric leptogenesis. Not being able to test high-scale leptogenesis directly, we present a way to falsify such scenarios by focusing on their washout processes. This is discussed specifically for the left-right symmetric model and the observation of a heavy $W_R$, as well as model independently when measuring $\Delta L = 2$ washout processes at the LHC or neutrinoless double beta decay.

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arXiv2009

Minimal Flavour Seesaw Models

We explore realizations of minimal flavour violation (MFV) for the lepton sector. We find that it can be realized within those seesaw models where a separation of the lepton number and lepton flavour violating scales can be achieved, such as type II and inverse seesaw models. We present in particular a simple implementation of the MFV hypothesis which differs in nature from those previously discussed. It allows to reconstruct the flavour structure of the model from the values of the light neutrino masses and mixing parameters, even in the presence of CP-violating phases. Experimentally reachable predictions for rare processes such as mu --> e gamma are given.

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arXiv2009

Scalar Multiplet Dark Matter

We perform a systematic study of the phenomenology associated to models where the dark matter consists in the neutral component of a scalar SU(2)_L n-uplet, up to n=7. If one includes only the pure gauge induced annihilation cross-sections it is known that such particles provide good dark matter candidates, leading to the observed dark matter relic abundance for a particular value of their mass around the TeV scale. We show that these values actually become ranges of values -which we determine- if one takes into account the annihilations induced by the various scalar couplings appearing in these models. This leads to predictions for both direct and indirect detection signatures as a function of the dark matter mass within these ranges. Both can be largely enhanced by the quartic coupling contributions. We also explain how, if one adds right-handed neutrinos to the scalar doublet case, the results of this analysis allow to have altogether a viable dark matter candidate, successful generation of neutrino masses, and leptogenesis in a particularly minimal way with all new physics at the TeV scale.

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arXiv2009

Is leptogenesis falsifiable at LHC?

It is well known that the leptogenesis mechanism offers an attractive possibility to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe. Its particular robustness however comes with one major difficulty: it will be very hard if not impossible to test experimentally in a foreseeable future, as most of the mechanics typically takes place at high energy or results from suppressed interactions, without unavoidable low-energy implications. An alternate approach is taken by asking: can it be at least falsified? We show that possible discoveries at current and future colliders, most notably that of right-handed gauge interactions, would indeed forbid at least the "canonical" leptogenesis mechanisms, namely those based on right-handed neutrino decay. General lower bounds for successful leptogenesis on the mass of the right-handed gauge boson W_R are given. Other possibilities to falsify leptogenesis, including from the observation of a Z', are also considered.

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arXiv2008

$μ\to e γ$ and $τ\to l γ$ decays in the fermion triplet seesaw model

In the framework of the seesaw models with triplets of fermions, we evaluate the decay rates of $μ\to e γ$ and $τ\to l γ$ transitions. We show that although, due to neutrino mass constraints, those rates are in general expected to be well under the present experimental limits, this is not necessarily always the case. Interestingly enough, the observation of one of those decays in planned experiments would nevertheless contradict bounds stemming from present experimental limits on the $μ\to eee$ and $τ\to 3 l$ decay rates. Such detection of radiative decays would therefore imply that there exist sources of lepton flavour violation not associated to triplet fermions.

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arXiv2008

Low energy effects of neutrino masses

While all models of Majorana neutrino masses lead to the same dimension five effective operator, which does not conserve lepton number, the dimension six operators induced at low energies conserve lepton number and differ depending on the high energy model of new physics. We derive the low-energy dimension six operators which are characteristic of generic Seesaw models, in which neutrino masses result from the exchange of heavy fields which may be either fermionic singlets, fermionic triplets or scalar triplets. The resulting operators may lead to effects observable in the near future, if the coefficients of the dimension five and six operators are decoupled along a certain pattern, which turns out to be common to all models. The phenomenological consequences are explored as well, including their contributions to $μ\to e γ$ and new bounds on the Yukawa couplings for each model.

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arXiv2006

Are small neutrino masses unveiling the missing mass problem of the Universe?

We present a scenario in which a remarkably simple relation linking dark matter properties and neutrino masses naturally emerges. This framework points towards a low energy theory where the neutrino mass originates from the existence of a light scalar dark matter particle in the MeV mass range. A very surprising aspect of this scenario is that the required MeV dark matter is one of the favoured candidates to explain the mysterious emission of 511 keV photons in the centre of our galaxy. A possible interpretation of these findings is that dark matter is the stepping stone of a theory beyond the standard model instead of being an embarrassing relic whose energy density must be accounted for in any successful model building.

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arXiv2004

Leptogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric triplet seesaw model

In the supersymmetric triplet (type-II) seesaw model, in which a single SU(2)_L-triplet couples to leptons, the high-energy neutrino flavour structure can be directly determined from the low-energy neutrino data. We show that even with such a minimal triplet content, leptogenesis can be naturally accommodated thanks to the resonant interference between superpotential and soft supersymmetry breaking terms.

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arXiv2004

Low-scale leptogenesis and soft supersymmetry breaking

We investigate the possibility of low-scale leptogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric standard model extended with right handed (s)neutrinos. We demonstrate that successful leptogenesis can be easily achieved at a scale as low as ~ TeV where lepton number and CP violation comes from soft supersymmetry breaking terms. The scenario is shown to be compatible with neutrino masses data.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2003

Delta I=1/2 and epsilon'/epsilon in Large-Nc QCD

We present new results for the matrix elements of the Q_6 and Q_4 penguin operators, evaluated in a large-Nc approach which incorporates important O(N_c^2\frac{n_f}{N_c}) unfactorized contributions. Our approach shows analytic matching between short- and long-distance scale dependences within dimensional renormalization schemes, such as MS-bar. Numerically, we find that there is a large positive contribution to the Delta I =1/2 matrix element of Q_6 and hence to the direct CP-violation parameter epsilon'/epsilon. We also present results for the Delta I = 1/2 rule in K -> pi pi amplitudes, which incorporate the related and important ``eye-diagram'' contributions of O(N_c^2\frac{1}{N_c}) from the Q_2 operator (i.e. the penguin-like contraction). The results lead to an enhancement of the Delta I = 1/2 effective coupling. The origin of the large unfactorized contributions which we find is discussed in terms of the relevant scales of the problem.

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arXiv2000

1/N_c and epsilon'/epsilon

We present a recent analysis of epsilon'/epsilon in the 1/N_c expansion. We show that the 1/N_c corrections to the matrix element of Q_6 are large and positive, indicating a Delta I = 1/2 enhancement similar to the one of Q_1 and Q_2 which dominate the CP conserving amplitude. This enhances the CP ratio and can bring the standard model prediction close to the measured value for central values of the parameters. Several comments on the theoretical status of epsilon'/epsilon and the errors in its calculation are given.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2000

Analyzing epsilon'/epsilon in the 1/N_c Expansion

We present a recent analysis of epsilon'/epsilon in the 1/N_c expansion. We show that the 1/N_c corrections to the matrix element of Q_6 are large and positive, indicating a Delta I=1/2 enhancement similar to the one of Q_1 and Q_2 which dominate the CP conserving amplitude. This enhances the CP ratio and can bring the standard model prediction close to the measured value for central values of the parameters.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

epsilon'/epsilon in the 1/N_c Expansion

We present a new analysis of the ratio epsilon'/epsilon which measures the direct CP violation in K\toππdecays. We use the 1/N_c expansion within the framework of the effective chiral lagrangian for pseudoscalar mesons. From general counting arguments we show that the matrix element of the operator Q_6 is not protected from possible large 1/N_c corrections beyond its large-N_c or VSA value. Calculating the 1/N_c corrections, we explicitly find that they are large and positive. Our result indicates that a ΔI=1/2 enhancement is operative for Q_6 similar to the one of Q_1 and Q_2 which dominate the CP conserving amplitude. This enhances epsilon'/epsilon and can bring the standard model prediction close to the measured value for central values of the parameters.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

Analysis of \epsilon'/\epsilon in the 1/N_c Expansion

We present a new analysis of the ratio \epsilon'/\epsilon which measures the direct CP violation in K\to\pi\pi decays. We use the 1/N_c expansion within the framework of the effective chiral lagrangian for pseudoscalar mesons. The 1/N_c corrections to the hadronic matrix elements of all operators are calculated at leading order in the chiral expansion. Numerically, doing a simple scanning of the input parameters we find 1.5 \cdot 10^{-4}\leq \epsilon'/\epsilon \leq 31.6\cdot 10^{-4}. We also investigate, in the chiral limit, the 1/N_c corrections to the operator Q_6 at next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion. We find large positive corrections which can further enhance \epsilon'/\epsilon and bring the standard model prediction close to the measured value for central values of the parameters. Our result indicates that a \Delta I=1/2 enhancement may be operative for Q_6 similar to the one of Q_1 and Q_2 which dominate the CP conserving amplitude.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

New Analysis of the Delta I = 1/2 Rule in Kaon Decays and the B_K Parameter

We present a new analysis of the Delta I = 1/2 rule in K --> pi pi decays and the B_K parameter. We use the 1/N_c expansion within the effective chiral lagrangian for pseudoscalar mesons and compute the hadronic matrix elements at leading and next-to-leading order in the chiral and the 1/N_c expansions. Numerically, our calculation reproduces the dominant Delta I = 1/2 K --> pi pi amplitude. Our result depends only moderately on the choice of the cutoff scale in the chiral loops. The Delta I = 3/2 amplitude emerges sufficiently suppressed but shows a significant dependence on the cutoff. The B_K parameter turns out to be smaller than the value previously obtained in the 1/N_c approach. It also shows a significant dependence on the choice of the cutoff scale. Our results indicate that corrections from higher order terms and/or higher resonances are large for the Delta I = 3/2 K --> pi pi amplitude and the (|Delta S| = 2) K^0 -- anti K^0 transition amplitude.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

New Analysis of the Delta I = 1/2 Rule in the 1/N_c Expansion for K --> pi pi Decays

We analyze long-distance contributions to the K --> pi pi amplitudes relevant for the Delta I = 1/2 selection rule in the framework of the 1/N_c expansion. We use a modified prescription for the identification of meson momenta in the chiral loop corrections to gain a consistent matching with the short-distance part. Our approach involves a separation of non-factorizable and factorizable 1/N_c corrections. Along these lines we calculate the one-loop contributions from the lowest order lagrangian. Our main result is an additional enhancement of the Delta I = 1/2 channel amplitude which we find in good agreement with experiment.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

1/N_c Corrections to the Hadronic Matrix Elements of Q_6 and Q_8 in K --> pi pi Decays

We calculate long-distance contributions to the amplitudes A(K^0 --> pi pi, I) induced by the gluon and the electroweak penguin operators Q_6 and Q_8, respectively. We use the 1/N_c expansion within the effective chiral lagrangian for pseudoscalar mesons. In addition, we adopt a modified prescription for the identification of meson momenta in the chiral loop corrections in order to achieve a consistent matching to the short-distance part. Our approach leads to an explicit classification of the loop diagrams into non-factorizable and factorizable, the scale dependence of the latter being absorbed in the low-energy coefficients of the effective theory. Along these lines we calculate the one-loop corrections to the O(p^0) term in the chiral expansion of both operators. In the numerical results, we obtain moderate corrections to B_6^(1/2) and a substantial reduction of B_8^(3/2).

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