Rate of anomalous electroweak baryon and lepton number violation at finite temperature

Using Langer's statistical theory of the decay of metastable states we calculate the rate of the anomalous electroweak baryon and lepton number violating processes in the case that the electroweak phase transition is of second order. Our formulas are valid in a temperature range between M_w and the critical temperature T_c. We get a dissipation of the baryon and lepton number of the order of exp(4.6×10⁹).     

Monte Carlo simulation of baryon and lepton number violating processes at high energies

We report results obtained with the first complete event generator for electroweak baryon and lepton number violating interactions at supercolliders. Typical events contain of the order of 50 electroweak gauge bosons, some Higgs bosons and quarks and leptons of all generations. There is still great uncertainty about the expected rate, but an event generator is needed in any case to establish what experimental limits can be placed on the cross section, and to determine whether, even if such spectacular events are seen, baryon and/or lepton number violation can be conclusively demonstrated. We find that baryon number violation would be very difficult to establish, but lepton number violation can be seen provided at least a few hundredL violating events are available with good electron or muon identification in the energy range 10 GeV to 1 TeV. The event generator, which takes the form of a package (HERBVI) interfacing to the existing simulation program HERWIG, should be useful for the coming period of detailed experiment design for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.     

Baryogenesis at low reheating temperatures

We note that the maximum temperature during reheating can be much greater than the reheating temperature T(r) at which the universe becomes radiation dominated. We show that the standard model anomalous (B+L)-violating processes can therefore be in thermal equilibrium for 1 GeV less, similarT(r)<100 GeV. Electroweak baryogenesis could work and the traditional upper bound on the Higgs mass coming from the requirement of the preservation of the baryon asymmetry may be relaxed. Alternatively, the baryon asymmetry may be reprocessed by sphaleron transitions either from a (B-L) asymmetry generated by the Affleck-Dine mechanism or from a chiral asymmetry between e(R) and e(L) in a B-L = 0 universe.     

Leptogenesis bound on spontaneous symmetry breaking of global lepton number

We propose a new class of leptogenesis bounds on the spontaneous symmetry breaking of global lepton number. These models have a generic feature of inducing new lepton number violating interactions, due to the presence of the Majorons. We analyzed the singlet Majoron model with right-handed neutrinos to find that the lepton number should be broken above 10⁵ GeV to realize a successful leptogenesis because the annihilations of the right-handed neutrinos into the massless Majorons and into the standard model Higgs should go out of equilibrium before the sphaleron process is over. We then argue that this type of leptogenesis constraint should exist in the singlet–triplet Majoron models as well as in a class of R-parity violating supersymmetric Majoron models.     

Neutrino masses in supersymmetry: R-parity and leptogenesis

In the supersymmetric standard model of particle interactions, R-parity nonconservation is often invoked to obtain nonzero neutrino masses. We point out here that such interactions of the supersymmetric particles would erase any pre-existing lepton or baryon asymmetry of the universe before the electroweak phase transition through the B+L violating sphaleron processes. We also point out that all models of radiative generation of neutrino masses suffer from the same problem. We then show how neutrino masses may be obtained in supersymmetry (assuming R-parity conservation) together with successful leptogenesis and predict the possible existence of new observable particles.     

First-order electroweak phase transition powered by additional F-term loop effects in an extended supersymmetric Higgs sector

We investigate the one-loop effect of new charged scalar bosons on the Higgs potential at finite temperatures in the supersymmetric standard model with four Higgs doublet chiral superfields as well as a pair of charged singlet chiral superfields. In this model, the mass of the lightest Higgs boson h is determined only by the D-term in the Higgs potential at the tree-level, while the triple Higgs boson coupling for hhh can receive a significant radiative correction due to nondecoupling one-loop contributions of the additional charged scalar bosons. We find that the same nondecoupling mechanism can also contribute to realize stronger first order electroweak phase transition than that in the minimal supersymmetric standard model, which is definitely required for a successful scenario of electroweak baryogenesis. Therefore, this model can be a new candidate for a model in which the baryon asymmetry of the Universe is explained at the electroweak scale.     

On the metastability of the Standard Model vacuum

If the Higgs mass m_H is as low as suggested by present experimental information, the Standard Model ground state might not be absolutely stable. We present a detailed analysis of the lower bounds on m_H imposed by the requirement that the electroweak vacuum be sufficiently long-lived. We perform a complete one-loop calculation of the tunnelling probability at zero temperature, and we improve it by means of two-loop renormalization-group equations. We find that, for m_H=115 GeV, the Higgs potential develops an instability below the Planck scale for m_t>(166±2) GeV, but the electroweak vacuum is sufficiently long-lived for m_t<(175±2) GeV.     

Baryon asymmetry of the universe and the electroweak phase transition

The present baryon asymmetry of the universe has finally been determined at the finite temperature electroweak phase transition. The strength of this transition plays a crucial role. The effective action is presented to higher orders, including wave function correction factors and the fullg ⁴, λ² effective potential. An upper bound for the Higgs massm _H～70 GeV is concluded for the reliability of the perturbative approach. The finite temperature electroweak, phase transition is studied on the lattice and the most important results of Monte-Carlo simulations are collected.     

SUSY spectrum and the Higgs mass in the BLMSSM

The predictions for the mass of the light CP-even Higgs are investigated in the context of a simple extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model where the baryon and lepton numbers are local gauge symmetries. This theory predicts the existence of light charged and neutral leptons which give extra contributions to the Higgs mass at the one-loop level. We show the possibility to satisfy the LEP2 bound and achieve a Higgs mass around 125 GeV in a supersymmetric spectrum with light sfermions and small left–right mixing in the stop sector. We make a brief discussion of the unique leptonic signals at the Large Hadron Collider. This theory predicts baryon number violation at the low scale and one could avoid the current LHC bounds on the supersymmetric mass spectrum.     

The higgs boson mass in standard electroweak theory

The Higgs—boson mass in standardSU(2)×U(1) electroweak theory is obtained by requiring the one-loop effective potential to be an exact solution of the renormalization—group equation. Neglecting fermion couplings one getsm _H =35 GeV.     

Strong electroweak phase transitions in the Standard Model with a singlet

It is well known that the electroweak phase transition (EWPhT) in extensions of the Standard Model with one real scalar singlet can be first-order for realistic values of the Higgs mass. We revisit this scenario with the most general renormalizable scalar potential systematically identifying all regions in parameter space that develop, due to tree-level dynamics, a potential barrier at the critical temperature that is strong enough to avoid sphaleron wash-out of the baryon asymmetry. Such strong EWPhTs allow for a simple mean-field approximation and an analytic treatment of the free-energy that leads to very good theoretical control and understanding of the different mechanisms that can make the transition strong. We identify a new realization of such mechanism, based on a flat direction developing at the critical temperature, which could operate in other models. Finally, we discuss in detail some special cases of the model performing a numerical calculation of the one-loop free-energy that improves over the mean-field approximation and confirms the analytical expectations.     

Electroweak baryogenesis in a supersymmetric U(1)' model

We construct an anomaly-free supersymmetric U(1)' model with a secluded U(1)'-breaking sector. We study the one-loop effective potential at finite temperature and show that there exists a strong enough first order electroweak phase transition for electroweak baryogenesis (EWBG) because of the large trilinear term AhhSHdHu in the tree-level Higgs potential. Unlike in the minimal supersymmetric standard model, the lightest top squark can be very heavy. We consider the nonlocal EWBG mechanism in the thin wall regime and find that within uncertainties the observed baryon number can be generated from the tau lepton contribution, with the secluded sector playing an essential role. The chargino and neutralino contributions and the implications for the Z' mass and electric dipole moments are briefly discussed.     

Late reheating, hadronic jets, and baryogenesis

If inflaton couples very weakly to ordinary matter, the reheating temperature of the Universe can be lower than the electroweak scale. In this Letter we show that the late reheating occurs in a highly nonuniform way, within narrow areas along the jets produced by ordinary particles originated from inflaton decays. Depending on inflaton mass and decay constant, the initial temperature inside the lumps of the overheated plasma may be large enough to trigger the unsuppressed sphaleron processes with baryon number nonconservation. This allows for efficient local electroweak baryogenesis at reheating temperatures TR approximately O(10) GeV.     

Leptogenesis from spin-gravity coupling following inflation

The energy levels of the left- and the right-handed neutrinos are split in the background of gravitational waves generated during inflation, which, in presence of lepton-number-violating interactions, gives rise to a net lepton asymmetry at equilibrium. Lepton number violation is achieved by the same dimension five operator which gives rise to neutrino masses after electroweak symmetry breaking. A net baryon asymmetry of the same magnitude can be generated from this lepton asymmetry by electroweak sphaleron processes.     

Singlino-driven electroweak baryogenesis in the next-to-MSSM

We explore a new possibility of electroweak baryogenesis in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model. In this model, a strong first-order electroweak phase transition can be achieved due to the additional singlet Higgs field. The new impact of its superpartner (singlino) on the baryon asymmetry is investigated by employing the closed-time-path formalism. We find that the CP violating source term fueled by the singlino could be large enough to generate the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe without any conflicts with the current constraints from the non-observation of the thallium, neutron and mercury electric dipole moments.     

Numerical tests of the electroweak phase transition and thermodynamics of the electroweak plasma

The finite temperature phase transition in the SU(2) Higgs model at a Higgs boson mass M_H ≅ 34 GeV is studied in numerical simulations on four-dimensional lattices with time-like extensions up to L_t = 5. The effects of the finite volume and finite lattice spacing on masses and couplings are studied in detail. The errors due to uncertainties in the critical hopping parameter are estimated. The thermodynamics of the electroweak plasma near the phase transition is investigated by determining the relation between energy density and pressure.     

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 discriminate 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.     

The higgs boson mass from precision electroweak data

We present a new global fit to precision electroweak data, including new low- and high-energy data and analyzing the radiative corrections arising from the minimal symmetry breaking sectors of the Standard Model (SM) and its supersymmetric extension (MSSM). It is shown that present data favor a Higgs mass ofO(M _z):M _H=76 _?50 ⁺¹⁵² GeV. We confront our analysis with (meta) stability and perturbative bounds on the SM Higgs mass, and the theoretical upper bound on the MSSM Higgs mass. Present data do not discriminate significantly between the SM and MSSM Higgs mass ranges. We comment in passing on the sensitivity of the Higgs mass determination to the values ofα(M _z) andα _s(M _z).     

Saving fourth generation and baryon number by living long

Recent studies of precision electroweak observables have led to the conclusion that a fourth generation is highly constrained. However, we point out that a long-lived fourth generation can reopen a large portion of the parameter space. In addition, it preserves baryon and lepton asymmetries against sphaleron erasure even if B−L=0. It opens up the possibility of exact B−L symmetry and hence Dirac neutrinos. The fourth generation can be observed at the LHC with unique signatures of long-lived particles in the near future.     

On the radiative corrections to the electroweak parameters and precision tests of the electroweak theory

The radiative corrections to the electroweak parameters are reconsidered with an emphasis on analysing prospects for future tests of the as yet untested parts of the electroweak theory, in particular the “new physics” of vector-boson self-interactions and the Higgs scalar. The vacuum polarization due to the light fermions is treated in the leading-long approximation, while the top-quark is taken into account exactly. A detailed analysis of the errors involved in our approximations and a comparison with the results of complete one-loop calculations shows that vacuum polarization due to bosons is negligible, ifm _H =100 GeV, while it may become visible in precision tests ine ⁺ e ^? annihilation, ifm _H ?1 TeV. We also give detailed results (as a function of the top-quark mass) on the radiatively correceted parameters used in model-independent fits to neutrino-scattering and in the interpretation of atomic-parity violation experiments. Technically, we diagonalize the γ-Z propagator for anyq ², and we show, when treating the top-quark vacuum polarization exactly, that the intuitively appealing notion of running coupling constants can be used beyond the leading-log approximation.