Is the resonance at 125 GeV the Higgs boson?

The recently discovered resonance at 125 GeV has properties remarkably close to those of the Standard Model Higgs boson. We perform model-independent fits of all presently available data. The non-standard best-fits found in our previous analyses remain favored with respect to the SM fit, mainly but not only because the γγ rate remains above the SM prediction.     

TeV-scale bileptons, see-saw type II and lepton flavor violation in core-collapse supernova

Electrons and electron neutrinos in the inner core of the core-collapse supernova are highly degenerate and therefore numerous during a few seconds of explosion. In contrast, leptons of other flavors are non-degenerate and therefore relatively scarce. This is due to lepton flavor conservation. If this conservation law is broken by some non-standard interactions, ν _e are converted to ν _μ , ν _τ , and e are converted to μ. This affects the supernova dynamics and the supernova neutrino signal. We consider lepton flavor violating interactions mediated by scalar bileptons, i.e. heavy scalars with lepton number 2. It is shown that in case of TeV-mass bileptons the electron Fermi gas is equilibrated with non-electron species inside the inner supernova core at a time scale ～(1–100) ms. In particular, a scalar triplet which generates neutrino masses through the see-saw type II mechanism is considered. It is found that the supernova core is sensitive to yet unprobed values of masses and couplings of the triplet.     

125 GeV Higgs,type III seesaw and gauge–Higgs unification

Recently, both the ATLAS and CMS experiments have observed an excess of events that could be the first evidence for a 125 GeV Higgs boson. This is a few GeV below the (absolute) vacuum stability bound on the Higgs mass in the Standard Model (SM), assuming a Planck mass ultraviolet (UV) cutoff. In this Letter, we study some implications of a 125 GeV Higgs boson for new physics in terms of the vacuum stability bound. We first consider the seesaw extension of the SM and find that in type III seesaw, the vacuum stability bound on the Higgs mass can be as low as 125 GeV for the seesaw scale around a TeV. Next we discuss some alternative new physics models which provide an effective ultraviolet cutoff lower than the Planck mass. An effective cutoff Λ?10¹¹ GeV$\Lambda ?{10}^{11}\text{GeV}$ leads to a vacuum stability bound on the Higgs mass of 125 GeV. In a gauge–Higgs unification scenario with five-dimensional flat spacetime, the so-called gauge–Higgs condition can yield a Higgs mass of 125 GeV, with the compactification scale of the extra-dimension being identified as the cutoff scale Λ?10¹¹ GeV$\Lambda ?{10}^{11}\text{GeV}$. Identifying the compactification scale with the unification scale of the SM SU(2) gauge coupling and the top quark Yukawa coupling yields a Higgs mass of 121±2 GeV$121\pm 2\text{GeV}$.     

b→cτ■ decay in supersymmetry with R-parity violation

In past years,several hints of lepton flavor universality(LFU)violation have emerged from the b→ct■,and b→sl~+l-data.More recently,the Belle Collaboration has reported the first measurement of the D* longitudinal polarization fraction in the B→D*τV decay.Motivated by this intriguing result,along with the recent measurements of RJ/Ψand τ polarization,we present the study of b→ct■ decays in supersymmetry(SUSY)with R-parity violation(RPV).We consider B→D(*)t■,Bc→ηct■,Bc→J/ψt■ and ∧b→∧ct■ modes and focus on the branching ratios,LFU ratios,forward-backward asymmetries,polarizations of daughter hadrons,and the τ lepton.The RPV SUSY was capable of explaining the RD(*) anomalies at the 2σ level,after taking into account various flavor constraints.In the allowed parameter space,the differential branching fractions and LFU ratios are largely enhanced by the SUSY effects,especially in the large dilepton invariant mass region.Moreover,a lower bound B(B~+→K~+vv)7.37×10~(-6) is obtained.These observables could provide testable signatures at the high-luminosity LHC and SuperKEKB,and correlate with direct searches for SUSY.     

Supersymmetric models with minimal flavor violation and their running

We revisit the formulation of the principle of minimal flavor violation (MFV) in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, both at moderate and large tan β, and with or without new CP-violating phases. We introduce a counting rule which keeps track of the highly hierarchical structure of the Yukawa matrices. In this manner, we are able to control systematically which terms can be discarded in the soft SUSY breaking part of the Lagrangian. We argue that for the implementation of this counting rule, it is convenient to introduce a new basis of matrices in which both the squark (and slepton) mass terms as well as the trilinear couplings can be expanded. We derive the RGE for the MFV parameters and show that the beta functions also respect the counting rule. For moderate tan β, we provide explicit analytic solutions of these RGE and illustrate their behavior by analyzing the neighborhood (also switching on new phases) of the SPS-1a benchmark point. We then show that even in the case of large tan β, the RGE remain valid and that the analytic solutions obtained for moderate tan β still allow us to understand the most important features of the running of the parameters, as illustrated with the help of the SPS-4 benchmark point.     

The lepton flavor violating decay τ ± → μ±μ±μ? at LHCb

The possibility of improving the limit on the branching fraction of the lepton flavor violating decay ?? ^± ?? ??^±??^±??^? at LHCb is discussed. It is shown that a simple, cut-based analysis is sufficient to improve the upper limit on this branching fraction within the lifetime of LHCb.     

Lepton flavor violation decays τ −→μ − P 1 P 2 in the topcolor-assisted technicolor model and the littlest Higgs model with T-parity

The new particles predicted by the topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) model and the littlest Higgs model with T-parity (called LHT model) can induce the lepton flavor violation (LFV) couplings at tree level or one loop level, which might generate large contributions to some LFV processes. Taking into account the constraints of the experimental data on the relevant free parameters, we calculate the branching ratios of the LFV decay processes τ ^?→μ ^? P ₁ P ₂ with P ₁ P ₂=π ⁺ π ^?, K ⁺ K ^? and $K^{0}\bar{K}^{0}$ in the context of these two kinds of new physics models. We find that the TC2 model and the LHT model can indeed produce significant contributions to some of these LFV decay processes.     

Azimuthal distributions in radiative decay of a polarized τ lepton

We investigate various distributions over emitted photon angles, especially over the azimuthal angle, in the one-meson radiative decay of the polarized τ lepton, τ^– → π^–γν_τ. In connection with this, the photon phase space is discussed in more detail because it is nontrivial in the case of a polarized τ lepton. The decay matrix element contains both the inner bremsstrahlung and the resonance (structural) contributions. The azimuthal dependence of some observables are calculated. They are the asymmetry of the differential decay width caused by the τ-lepton polarization, the Stokes parameters of the emitted photon itself, and the correlation parameters describing the influence of τ-lepton polarization on the photon Stokes parameters. A numerical estimation is done in the τ-lepton rest frame for an arbitrary direction of the τ-lepton polarization 3-vector. The vector and axial-vector form factors describing the structure-dependent part of the decay amplitude are determined using the chiral effective theory with resonances (RχT). It is found that the features of the azimuthal distributions allows separating various terms in the spin-dependent contribution. The so-called up–down and right–left asymmetries are also calculated.     

The lepton flavor violating signal of the extra gauge boson Z′in photon-photon collision at the ILC

The hitherto unconstrained lepton flavor mixings,induced by the new gauge boson Z ,which are the prediction of many new physics models,such as topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) models and flavor-universal TC2 models,may lead to the lepton flavor violating productions of τμˉ,τeˉ and μeˉ in photon-photon collision at the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC).Through a comparative analysis of these processes,we find that the better channel to probe the new physics models is the production of τμˉ or τeˉ which occurs at a much higher rate than μeˉ production due to the large mixing angle and the large flavor changing coupling,and may reach the detectable level of the ILC for a large part of the parameter space.Since the rates predicted by the Standard Model are far below the detectable level,these processes may serve as a sensitive probe for such new physics models.     

Testing lepton flavor universality in terms of BESⅢ and charm-tau factory data

The recent measurements on R_K and R_π imply that there exists a possible violation of the leptonic flavor universality which is one of the cornerstones of the Standard Model. It is suggested that a mixing between sterile and active neutrinos might induce such a violation. In this work we consider the scenarios with one or two sterile neutrinos to explicitly realize the data while the constraints from the available experiments have been taken into account. Moreover, as indicated in literature, the deviation of the real PMNS matrix from the symmetric patterns may be due to a μ-τ asymmetry, therefore the measurements on R_D(Ds)eμ=Γ(D(D_s)→ e⁺ν_e)/Γ(D(D_s)→ μ⁺ν_μ) and R_D(Ds)μτ=Γ(D(D_s)→ μ⁺ν_μ)/Γ(D(D_s)→ τ⁺ν_τ) (and for some other heavy mesons B^± and B_c etc.) may shed more light on the physics responsible for the violation of the leptonic flavor universality. The data of BESⅢ are available to test the universality and that of future charm-tau factories will provide more accurate information. In this work, we will discuss R_D(Ds)eμ and R_D(Ds)μτ in detail and also briefly consider the cases for B^± and B_c.     

CP violation in B→φKs decay in R-parity violating supersymmetry

In the framework of R-parity violating supersymmetry, we investigate the time dependent CP asymmetry SφKs anomaly of B→φKs decay. When the values of the weak phase φ in the R-parity violating coupling fall into certain parameter spaces (246°<φ<263°) we find that this anomaly can be easily ex-plained; at the same time, the branching ratio of B →φKs decay can also be in agreement with experimental measurements.     

CP violation in B→φKs decay in R-parity violating supersymmetry

In the framework of R-parity violating supersymmetry, we investigate the time dependent CP asymmetry SφKs anomaly of B→φKs decay. When the values of the weak phase φ in the R-parity violating coupling fall into certain parameter spaces （246°〈 φ 〈 263°） we find that this anomaly can be easily explained; at the same time, the branching ratio of B→φKs decay can also be in agreement with experimental measurements.     

Heavy neutrinos and lepton number violation in ?p colliders

We discuss the prospects of studying lepton number violating processes in order to identify Majorana neutrinos from low scale seesaw mechanisms at lepton-proton colliders. In particular, we consider the scenarios of colliding electrons with LHC energy protons and, motivated by the efforts towards the construction of a muon collider, the prospects of muon-proton collisions. We find that present constraints on the mixing of the Majorana neutrinos still allow for a detectable signal at these kind of facilities given the smallness of the Standard Model background. We discuss possible cuts in order to further increase the signal over background ratio and the prospects of reconstructing the neutrino mass from the kinematics of the final state particles.