CP Violation in Fermion Pair Decays of Neutral Boson Particles

We study CP violation in fermion pair decays of neutral boson particles with spin 0 or 1. We study a new asymmetry to measure CP violation in $\eta, K_L \rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ decays and discuss the possibility of measuring it experimentally. For the spin-1 particles case, we study CP violation in the decays of $J/\psi$ to $SU(3)$ octet baryon pairs. We show that these decays can be used to put stringent constraints on the electric dipole moments of $\Lambda$, $\Sigma$ and $\Xi$.Comment: 14p, OZ-93/22, UM-93/89, OITS 51

The flavor puzzle in multi-Higgs models

We reconsider the flavor problem in the models with two Higgs doublets. By studying two generation toy models, we look for flavor basis independent constraints on Yukawa couplings that will give us the mass hierarchy while keeping all Yukawa couplings of the same order. We then generalize our findings to the full three generation Standard Model. We find that we need two constraints on the Yukawa couplings to generate the observed mass hierarchy, and a slight tuning of Yukawa couplings of order 10%, much less than the Standard Model. We briefly study how these constraints can be realized, and show how flavor changing currents are under control for $K-\bar{K}$ mixing in the near-decoupling limit.Comment: 26 pages, typos are corrected, references are added, the final versio

Theory and phenomenology of two-Higgs-doublet models

We discuss theoretical and phenomenological aspects of two-Higgs-doublet extensions of the Standard Model. In general, these extensions have scalar mediated flavour changing neutral currents which are strongly constrained by experiment. Various strategies are discussed to control these flavour changing scalar currents and their phenomenological consequences are analysed. In particular, scenarios with natural flavour conservation are investigated, including the so-called type I and type II models as well as lepton-specific and inert models. Type III models are then discussed, where scalar flavour changing neutral currents are present at tree level, but are suppressed by either specific ansatze for the Yukawa couplings or by the introduction of family symmetries. We also consider the phenomenology of charged scalars in these models. Next we turn to the role of symmetries in the scalar sector. We discuss the six symmetry-constrained scalar potentials and their extension into the fermion sector. The vacuum structure of the scalar potential is analysed, including a study of the vacuum stability conditions on the potential and its renormalization-group improvement. The stability of the tree level minimum of the scalar potential in connection with electric charge conservation and its behaviour under CP is analysed. The question of CP violation is addressed in detail, including the cases of explicit CP violation and spontaneous CP violation. We present a detailed study of weak basis invariants which are odd under CP. A careful study of spontaneous CP violation is presented, including an analysis of the conditions which have to be satisfied in order for a vacuum to violate CP. We present minimal models of CP violation where the vacuum phase is sufficient to generate a complex CKM matrix, which is at present a requirement for any realistic model of spontaneous CP violation.Comment: v3: 180 pages, 506 references, new chapter 7 with recent LHC results; referee comments taken into account; submitted to Physics Report

Leptogenesis with Heavy Majorana Neutrinos Reexamined

The mass term for Majorana neutrinos explicitly violates lepton number. Several authors have used this fact to create a lepton asymmetry in the universe by considering CP violating effects in the one loop self-energy correction for the decaying heavy Majorana neutrino. We compare and comment on the different approaches used to calculate the lepton asymmetry including those using an effective Hamiltonian and resummed propagators. We also recalculate the asymmetry in the small mass difference limit.Comment: 16 pages, LaTex, 1 figure included. 2 footnotes and 1 reference adde

Models of Neutrino Masses and Baryogenesis

Majorana masses of the neutrino implies lepton number violation and is intimately related to the lepton asymmetry of the universe, which gets related to the baryon asymmetry of the universe in the presence of the sphalerons during the electroweak phase transition. Assuming that the baryon asymmetry of the universe is generated before the electroweak phase transition, it is possible to dicriminate different classes of models of neutrino masses. While see-saw mechanism and the triplet higgs mechanism are preferred, the Zee-type radiative models and the R-parity breaking models requires additional inputs to generate baryon asymmetry of the universe during the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 27 pages including 5 figures; Review article for Pramana: the Indian Journal of Physic

Probing oscillations into sterile neutrinos with cosmology, astrophysics and experiments

We perform a thorough analysis of oscillation signals generated by one extra sterile neutrino, extending previous analyses done in simple limiting cases and including the effects of established oscillations among active neutrinos. We consider the following probes: solar, atmospheric, reactor and beam neutrinos, Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (helium-4, deuterium), Cosmic Microwave Background, Large Scale Structure, supernovae, neutrinos from other astrophysical sources. We find no evidence for a sterile neutrino in present data, identify the still allowed regions, and study which future experiments can best probe them: sub-MeV solar experiments, more precise studies of CMB or BBN, future supernova explosions, etc. We discuss how the LSND hint is strongly disfavoured by the constraints of (standard) cosmology.Comment: 50 pages, many (14) figures. The text is divided into "results" and "technical details" sections. Final updated versio

On the massless "just-so" solution to the solar neutrino problem

We study the effect of the non-resonant, vacuum oscillation-like neutrino flavor conversion induced by non-standard flavor changing and non-universal flavor diagonal neutrino interactions with electrons in the sun. We have found an acceptable fit for the combined analysis for the solar experiments total rates, the Super-Kamiokande (SK) energy spectrum and zenith angle dependence. Phenomenological constraints on non-standard flavor changing and non-universal flavor diagonal neutrino interactions are considered.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, uses eps

Charged-Higgs phenomenology in the Aligned two-Higgs-doublet model

The alignment in flavour space of the Yukawa matrices of a general two-Higgs-doublet model results in the absence of tree-level flavour-changing neutral currents. In addition to the usual fermion masses and mixings, the aligned Yukawa structure only contains three complex parameters, which are potential new sources of CP violation. For particular values of these three parameters all known specific implementations of the model based on discrete Z_2 symmetries are recovered. One of the most distinctive features of the two-Higgs-doublet model is the presence of a charged scalar. In this work, we discuss its main phenomenological consequences in flavour-changing processes at low energies and derive the corresponding constraints on the parameters of the aligned two-Higgs-doublet model.Comment: 46 pages, 19 figures. Version accepted for publication in JHEP. References added. Discussion slightly extended. Conclusions unchange

Bilinear R-parity violation with flavor symmetry

Bilinear R-parity violation (BRPV) provides the simplest intrinsically supersymmetric neutrino mass generation scheme. While neutrino mixing parameters can be probed in high energy accelerators, they are unfortunately not predicted by the theory. Here we propose a model based on the discrete flavor symmetry $A_4$ with a single R-parity violating parameter, leading to (i) correct Cabbibo mixing given by the Gatto-Sartori-Tonin formula, and a successful unification-like b-tau mass relation, and (ii) a correlation between the lepton mixing angles $\theta_{13}$ and $\theta_{23}$ in agreement with recent neutrino oscillation data, as well as a (nearly) massless neutrino, leading to absence of neutrinoless double beta decay.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Extended version, as published in JHE

Progress in the physics of massive neutrinos

The current status of the physics of massive neutrinos is reviewed with a forward-looking emphasis. The article begins with the general phenomenology of neutrino oscillations in vacuum and matter and documents the experimental evidence for oscillations of solar, reactor, atmospheric and accelerator neutrinos. Both active and sterile oscillation possibilities are considered. The impact of cosmology (BBN, CMB, leptogenesis) and astrophysics (supernovae, highest energy cosmic rays) on neutrino observables and vice versa, is evaluated. The predictions of grand unified, radiative and other models of neutrino mass are discussed. Ways of determining the unknown parameters of three-neutrino oscillations are assessed, taking into account eight-fold degeneracies in parameters that yield the same oscillation probabilities, as well as ways to determine the absolute neutrino mass scale (from beta-decay, neutrinoless double-beta decay, large scale structure and Z-bursts). Critical unknowns at present are the amplitude of \nu_\mu to \nu_e oscillations and the hierarchy of the neutrino mass spectrum; the detection of CP violation in the neutrino sector depends on these and on an unknown phase. The estimated neutrino parameter sensitivities at future facilities (reactors, superbeams, neutrino factories) are given. The overall agenda of a future neutrino physics program to construct a bottom-up understanding of the lepton sector is presented.Comment: 111 pages, 35 figures. Update