R parity violation assisted thermal leptogenesis in the seesaw mechanism

Successful leptogenesis within the simplest type I supersymmetric seesaw mechanism requires the lightest of the three right-handed neutrino supermultiplets to be heavier than approximately 10(9) GeV. Thermal production of such (s)neutrinos requires very high reheating temperatures which result in an overproduction of gravitinos with catastrophic consequences for the evolution of the Universe. In this Letter, we let R parity be violated through a lambda(i)N(i)H(u)H(d) term in the superpotential, where N(i) are right-handed neutrino supermultiplets. We show that in the presence of this term, the produced lepton-antilepton asymmetry can be enhanced. As a result, even for N1 masses as low as 10(6) GeV or less, we can obtain the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe without gravitino overproduction.     

Overview of hadronic parity violation

The subject of hadronic parity violation is nearly fifty years old, but a good deal of uncertainty remains, despite many efforts both theoretical and experimental. A brief summary of the field is presented and a plan is proposed for new experimental work which, when combined with a new theoretical tack based on effective field theory, should lead to resolution of the present difficulties.     

The polarization-asymmetry correlation of107In and parity violation

We report on the first measurements of the longitudinal polarization of positrons emitted by polarized nuclei, using cryogenically polarized¹⁰⁷In. This so-called polarization-asymmetry correlation is very sensitive to the mass of a possible right-handed gauge boson, which is invoked by parity symmetric extensions of the standard V-A electroweak model to explain the experimentally observed strong violation of parity which, however, may not be complete. The positron polarization is deduced from the time-resolved decay spectrum of positronium hyperfine states. Our preliminary result points to a lower limit of about 210 GeV for the mass of an eventual right-handed charged W gauge boson. This result can still be improved.     

Atomic parity violation and the HERA anomaly

We show that the two scenarios able to explain the HERA anomaly — a new leptoquark coupling or a new contact interaction — predict new contributions to atomic parity violation. These corrections are sufficiently large and different that a feasible reduction in the dominant atomic theory uncertainty could give some hint in favour of one of the two scenarios.     

Muon anomaly and dark parity violation

The muon anomalous magnetic moment exhibits a 3.6σ discrepancy between experiment and theory. One explanation requires the existence of a light vector boson, Z_{d} (the dark Z), with mass 10-500?MeV that couples weakly to the electromagnetic current through kinetic mixing. Support for such a solution also comes from astrophysics conjectures regarding the utility of a U(1)_{d} gauge symmetry in the dark matter sector. In that scenario, we show that mass mixing between the Z_{d} and ordinary Z boson introduces a new source of "dark" parity violation, which is potentially observable in atomic and polarized electron scattering experiments. Restrictive bounds on the mixing (m_{Z_{d}}/m_{Z})δ are found from existing atomic parity violation results, δ^{2}<2×10^{-5}. Combined with future planned and proposed polarized electron scattering experiments, a sensitivity of δ^{2}～10^{-6} is expected to be reached, thereby complementing direct searches for the Z_{d} boson.     

Macroscopic parity violation and supernova asymmetries

Core collapse supernovae are dominated by weakly interacting neutrinos. This provides a unique opportunity for macroscopic parity violation. We speculate that parity violation in a strong magnetic field can lead to an asymmetry in the explosion and a recoil of the newly formed neutron star. We estimate the size of this asymmetry from neutrino polarized-neutron elastic scattering, polarized electron capture and neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering in a (partially) polarized electron gas.     

Theoretical aspects of nuclear parity violation

We make use of the topological chiral soliton model of the nucleon to predict the form factors related to the parity-violating meson-nucleon vertices. We find that these are of monopole type at low q² with cut-offs similar to the equivalent strong meson-nucleon form factors. We furthermore investigate the parity-violating πΔN vertex. We find that while the isoscalar coupling vanishes identically, the isovector parity-violating πΔN vertex has a coupling stant of about 2 × 10⁻⁸ being of comparable magnitude as the equivalent weak pion-nucleon vertex strength. We also discuss the parity-violating ωΔN and ρΔN vertices in the model and furthermore comment on the pv meson ΔΔ vertices. In the appendix we will correct the formula for h_ω⁰ of ref. ⁵), where some terms have been omitted.     

Theoretical overview of atomic parity violation

Recent advances in interpreting the most accurate-to-date measurement of atomic parity violation in Cs are reviewed. The inferred nuclear weak charge, Q _W( ^133Cs ) = - 72.65(28)_expt(36)_theor , agrees with the prediction of the standard model at 1σ level. Further improved interpretation is limited by an accuracy of solving the basic correlation problem of the atomic structure. We report on our progress in solving this problem within the relativistic coupled-cluster formalism. We include single, double and triple electronic excitations in the coupled-cluster expansion. Numerical results for energies, electric-dipole matrix elements, and hyperfine-structure constants of Cs are presented.     

Spontaneous parity violation and minimal Higgs models

In this paper we present a model for the spontaneous breaking of parity with two Higgs doublets and two neutral Higgs singlets which are even and odd under -parity. The condition can be satisfied without introducing bidoublets, and it is induced by the breaking of -parity through the vacuum expectation value of the odd Higgs singlet. Examples of left–right symmetric and mirror fermions models in grand unified theories are presented. PACS 12.60.Cn; 14.80.Cp; 12.10.Dm     

Hadronic parity violation and effective field theory

The history and phenomenology of hadronic parity violation is reviewed and a new model-independent approach based on effective field theory is developed. Possible future developments are discussed.     

Neutral current parity violation and gauge flavours

In a large class of gauge theories the trace of the weak neutral axial charge operator over any complete irreducible gauge multiplet is shown to vanish. This implies a relation involving deep inelastic neutrino-induced neutral current parity-violating cross sections which can be used to test the correctness of the Weinberg-Salam gauge multiplet structure of quarks.     

The effective chiral Lagrangian from dimension-six parity and time-reversal violation

We classify the parity- and time-reversal-violating operators involving quark and gluon fields that have effective dimension six: the quark electric dipole moment, the quark and gluon chromo-electric dipole moments, and four four-quark operators. We construct the effective chiral Lagrangian with hadronic and electromagnetic interactions that originate from them, which serves as the basis for calculations of low-energy observables. The form of the effective interactions depends on the chiral properties of these operators. We develop a power-counting scheme and calculate within this scheme, as an example, the parity- and time-reversal-violating pion–nucleon form factor. We also discuss the electric dipole moments of the nucleon and light nuclei.     

Observation of a parity violation in cesium

We have measured a parity violation in the 6S–7S transition of Cs in an electric field. Our result is Im $\text{E}{}_1{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>pv</mtext>}}\text{β}\text{= -1.34 ± 0.22}$$\text{(}\text{rms statistical deviation}\text{) ± ～0.11 (}\text{systematic uncertainty}\text{)}\text{mV}\text{cm;}\text{E}{}_1{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>pv</mtext>}}$ is the parity violating electric dipole amplitude, ß is the vector polarizability. This result is consistent with the Weinberg-Salam prediction.     

Fermions and parity violation in dimensional reduction schemes

Dimensional reduction, previously applied to Yang-Mills theories, is extended to gauge theories with spinor fields. It is shown that a fairly realistic model in Minkowski space can be obtained from the simplest initial lagrangian, defined in a space-time with extra, compact dimensions. Left-right asymmetry in the fermion sector in four dimensions is possible, and its occurrence is related to a non-vanishing Atiyah-Singer index.     

The parity violation A4 experiment at forward and backward angles

The A4 Collaboration at the MAMI accelerator in Mainz measures the parity-violating asymmetry in the cross-section of elastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons off unpolarized protons from which the contribution of strange sea quarks to the vector form factors of the proton can be derived. Measurements at forward angles 30^° ⩽ θ ⩽ 40^° and two different momentum transfers Q² of 0.23 (GeV/c)² and 0.11 (GeV/c)² have been performed in the past. Measurements at backward angles 140^° ⩽ θ ⩽ 150^° are underway for a separate determination of the strange electric and the strange magnetic form factor at Q ² = 0.23(GeV/c)² .