Combined fit of low energy constraints to minimal supersymmetry and discovery potential at LEP II

Within the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) it is possible to predict the low energy gauge couplings and masses of the 3. generation particles from a few parameters at the GUT scale. In addition the MSSM predicts electroweak symmetry breaking due to large radiative corrections from Yukawa couplings, thus relating theZ ⁰ boson mass to the top quark mass. From ax ² analysis, in which these constraints can be considered simultaneously, one can calculate the probability for each point in the MSGUT parameter space. The recently measured top quark mass prefers two solutions for the mixing angle in the Higgs sector: tanβ in the range between 1 and 3 or alternatively tanβ≈25?50. For both cases we find a uniquex ² minimum in the parameter space. From the corresponding most probable parameters at the GUT scale, the masses of all predicted particles can be calculated at low energies using the RGE, albeit with rather large errors due to the logarithmic nature of the running of the masses and coupling constants. Our fits include full second order corrections for the gauge and Yukawa couplings, low energy threshold effects, contributions of all (s)particles to the Higgs potential and corrections tom _b from gluinos and higgsinos, which exclude (in our notation) positive values of the mixing parameterμ in the Higgs potential for the large tanβ region. Further constraints can be derived from the branching ratio for the radiative (penguin) decay of theb-quark intosγ and the lower limit on the lifetime of the universe, which requires the dark matter density due to the Lightest Super-symmetric Particle (LSP) not to overclose the universe. For the low tanβ solution these additional constraints can be fulfilled simultaneously for quite a large region of the parameter space. In contrast, for the high tanβ solution the correct value for theb→sγ rate is obtained only for small values of the gaugino scale and electroweak symmetry breaking is difficult, unless one assumes the minimal SU(5) to be a subgroup of a larger symmetry group, which is broken between the Planck scale and the unification scale. In this case small splittings in the Yukawa couplings are expected at the unification scale and electroweak symmetry breaking is easily obtained, provided the Yukawa coupling for the top quark is slightly above the one for the bottom quark, as expected e.g. if the larger symmetry group would be SO(10). For particles, which are most likely to have masses in the LEP II energy range, the cross sections are given for the various energy scenarios at LEP II. For low tanβ the production of the lightest Higgs boson, which is expected to have a mass below 103 GeV, is the most promising channel, while for large tanβ the production of charginos and/or neutralinos covers the preferred parameter space.     

Electroweak radiative corrections to the top quark decay

The top quark, once produced, should be an important window to the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. We compute electroweak radiative corrections to the decay processt→b+W ⁺ in order to extract information on the Higgs sector and to fix the background in searches for a possible new physics contribution. The large Yukawa coupling of the top quark induces a new form factor through vertex corrections and causes discrepancy from the tree-level longitudinalW-boson production fraction, but the effect is of order 1% or less form _H<1 TeV.     

Predictions of SUSY masses in the minimal supersymmetric grand unified theory

The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) distinguishes itself from other GUT's by a successful prediction of many unrelated phenomena with a minimum number of parameters. Among them: a) Unification of the gauge couplings constants; b) Unification of the b-quark and τ-lepton masses; c) Proton stability; d) Electroweak symmetry breaking at a scale far below the unification scale and the corresponding relation between the gauge boson masses and the top quark mass. A combined fit of the free parameters in the MSSM to these low energy constraints shows that the MSSM model can satisfy these constraints simultaneously. From the fitted parameters the masses of the as yet unobserved superpartners of the SM particles are predicted, the top mass is constrained to a range between 140 and 200 GeV, and the second order QCD coupling constant is required to be between 0.108 and 0.132. The complete second order renormalization group equations for the gauge and Yukawa couplings are used and analytical solutions for the neutral gauge boson, the Higgs masses and the sparticle masses are derived, taking into account the one-loop corrections to the Higgs potential.     

Top quark mass in exophobic Pati-Salam heterotic string model

We analyse the phenomenology of an exemplary exophobic Pati-Salam heterotic string vacuum, in which no exotic fractionally charged states exist in the massless string spectrum. Our model also contains the Higgs representations that are needed to break the gauge symmetry to that of the Standard Model and to generate fermion masses at the electroweak scale. We show that the requirement of a leading mass term for the heavy generation, which is not degenerate with the mass terms of the lighter generations, places an additional strong constraint on the viability of the models. In many models a top quark Yukawa may not exist at all, whereas in others two or more generations may obtain a mass term at leading order. In our exemplary model a mass term at leading order exist only for one family. Additionally, we demonstrate the existence of supersymmetric F- and D-flat directions that give heavy mass to all the colour triplets beyond those of the Standard Model and leave one pair of electroweak Higgs doublets light. Hence, below the Pati-Salam breaking scale, the matter states in our model that are charged under the observable gauge symmetries, consist solely of those of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.     

LEP constraints on grand unified theories

Recent developments on grand unified theories (GUTs) in the context of the LEP measurements of the coupling constants will be reviewed. The three coupling constants at the electroweak scale have been measured at LEP quite precisely. One can allow these couplings to evolve with energy following the renormalization group equations for the various groups and find out whether all the coupling constants meet at any energy. It was pointed out that the minimalSU (5) grand unified theory fails to satisfy this test. However, various extensions of the theory are still allowed. These extensions include (i) supersymmetricSU (5) GUT, with some arbitrariness in the susy breaking scale arising from the threshold corrections, (ii) non-susySU (5) GUTs with additional fermions as well as Higgs multiplets, which has masses of the order of TeV, and (iii) non-renormalizable effect of gravity with a fine tuned relation among the coupling constants at the unification energy. The LEP results also constrain GUTs with an intermediate symmetry breaking scale. By adjusting the intermediate symmetry breaking scale, one usually can have unification, but these theories get constrained. For example, the left-right symmetric theories coming from GUTs can be broken only at energies higher than about ～ 10¹⁰ GeV. This implies that if right handed gauge bosons are found at energies lower than this scale, then that will rule out the possibility of grand unification. Another recent interesting development on the subject, namely, low energy unification, will be discussed in this context. All the coupling constants are unified at energies of the order of ～ 10⁸ GeV when they are embedded in anSU (15) GUT, with some particular symmetry breaking pattern. But even in this case the results of the intermediate symmetry breaking scale remain unchanged.     

Superconformal technicolor

In supersymmetric theories with a strong conformal sector, soft supersymmetry breaking at the TeV scale naturally gives rise to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking at the same scale. We consider two such scenarios, one where the strong dynamics induces vacuum expectation values for elementary Higgs fields, and another where the strong dynamics is solely responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. In both cases, the mass of the Higgs boson can exceed the LEP bound without tuning, solving the supersymmetry naturalness problem. A good precision electroweak fit can be obtained, and quark and lepton masses are generated without flavor-changing neutral currents. In addition to standard supersymmetry signals, these models predict production of multiple heavy standard model particles (t, W, Z, and b) from decays of resonances in the strong sector.     

Universal seesaw from left–right and Peccei–Quinn symmetry breaking

To generate the lepton and quark masses in the left–right symmetric models, we can consider a universal seesaw scenario by integrating out heavy fermion singlets which have the Yukawa couplings with the fermion and Higgs doublets. The universal seesaw scenario can also accommodate the leptogenesis with Majorana or Dirac neutrinos. We show that the fermion singlets can obtain their heavy masses from the Peccei–Quinn symmetry breaking.     

Supersymmetry for Fermion Masses

It is proposed that supersymmetry （SUSY） may be used to understand fermion mass hierarchies. A family symmetry ZSL is introduced, which is the cyclic symmetry among the three generation SU（2） doublets. SUSY breaks at a high energy scale - 10^11 GeV. The electroweak energy scale- 100 GeV is unnaturally small No additional global symmetry, like the R-parlty, is imposed. The Yukawa couplings and R-parity violating couplings all take their natural values, which are О（10^0 -10^-2）. Under the family symmetry, only the third generation charged ferrnions get their masses. This family symmetry is broken in the soft SUSY breaking terms, which result in a hierarchical pattern of the fermion masses. It turns out that for the charged leptons, the r mass is from the Higgs vacuum expectation value （VEV） and the sneutrino VEVs, the muon mass is due to the sneutrino VEVs, and the electron gains its mass due to both ZZL and SUSY hreaking. The large neutrino mixing are produced with neutralinos playing the partial role of right-handed neutrinos. │Ve3│, which is for Ve-Vr mixing, is expected to be about 0.1. For the quarks, the third generation masses are from the Higgs VEVs, the second generation masses are from quantum corrections, and the down quark mass due to the sneutrino VEVs. It explains me/ms, ms/me, md 〉 mu and so on. Other aspects of the model are discussed.     

Heavy SUSY Higgs bosons at e + e − linear colliders

The production mechanisms and decay modes of the heavy neutral and charged Higgs bosons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model are investigated at future e ⁺ e ^? colliders in the TeV energy regime. We generate supersymmetric particle spectra by requiring the MSSM Higgs potential to produce correct radiative electroweak symmetry breaking, and we assume a common scalar mass m₀, gaugino mass m_1/2 and trilinear coupling A, as well as gauge and Yukawa coupling unification at the Grand Unification scale. Particular emphasis is put on the low tan β solution in this scenario where decays of the Higgs bosons to Standard Model particles compete with decays to supersymmetric charginos/neutralinos as well as sfermions. In the high tan β case, the supersymmetric spectrum is either too heavy or the supersymmetric decay modes are suppressed, since the Higgs bosons decay almost exclusively into b and τ pairs. The main production mechanisms for the heavy Higgs particles are the associated AH production and H ⁺H^? pair production with cross sections of the order of a few fb.     

Electroweak radiative corrections toe + e −→γZ 0

We calculated the explicit analytic expressions for the electroweak radiative corrections to the differential cross sectione ⁺ e ^?→γZ ⁰ to one-loop in the framework of the Glashow-Salam-Weinberg model. Special attention is payed to the dependence on the Higgs and top quark masses.     

Flavon inflation

We propose an entirely new class of particle physics models of inflation based on the phase transition associated with the spontaneous breaking of family symmetry responsible for the generation of the effective quark and lepton Yukawa couplings. We show that the Higgs fields responsible for the breaking of family symmetry, called flavons, are natural candidates for the inflaton field in new inflation, or the waterfall fields in hybrid inflation. This opens up a rich vein of possibilities for inflation, all linked to the physics of flavour, with interesting cosmological and phenomenological implications. Out of these, we discuss two examples which realise flavon inflation: a model of new inflation based on the discrete non-Abelian family symmetry group A₄$A_4$ or Δ₂₇${\mathrm{\Delta }}_{27}$, and a model of hybrid inflation embedded in an existing flavour model with a continuous SU(3)$\mathit{SU}(3)$ family symmetry. With the inflation scale and family symmetry breaking scale below the Grand Unification Theory (GUT) scale, these classes of models are free of the monopole (and similar) problems which are often associated with the GUT phase transition.     

Recent results from large electron positron collider

We summarize here the recent results from the four experiments at the large electron positron collider (LEP). These experiments provide precise measurements of theW and Z boson properties and their couplings to leptons and quarks. These measurements, together with measurements of the top quark andW boson masses in the Tevatron collider provide a stringent test of the standard electroweak theory. Searches for Higgs boson and supersymmetric particles have yielded null results so far giving rise to lower bounds in the parameter space.     

Measurement of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling at a linear e<Superscript>+</Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript> collider

Understanding the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking and the origin of boson and fermion masses is among the most pressing questions raised in contemporary particle physics. If these issues involve one (several) Higgs boson(s), a precise measurement of all its (their) properties will be of prime importance. Among those, the Higgs coupling to matter fermions (the Yukawa coupling). At a linear collider, the process e⁺e^-→tt̄H will allow a direct measurement of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. We present a realistic feasibility study of the measurement in the context of the TESLA collider. Four channels are studied and the analysis is repeated for several Higgs mass values within the range 120–200 GeV/c ². PACS 13.66.Jn; 14.65.Ha; 14.80.Bn     

Electroweak chiral Lagrangian for left–right symmetric models: The matter sector

The matter sector of electroweak chiral Lagrangian up to dimension four operators for left–right symmetric models with a neutral light Higgs is provided. The connection of these operators to Yukawa couplings, anomalous gauge couplings and parameters in the matter sector of conventional electroweak chiral Lagrangian is made. It is shown that there exists proper parameter space to loosen constraint for the mass of right handed gauge boson from the mass difference of neutral K meson.     

Quasifixed-point scenario in a modified nonminimal supersymmetric standard model

The modified next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model is the simplest model that is obtained as an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model and which is compatible with the LEP II experimental constraint on the mass of the lightest Higgs boson at tan β～1. The renormalization of Yukawa coupling constants and of the parameters of a soft breakdown of supersymmetry is investigated within this model. The possibility of unifying the Yukawa coupling constants for the b quark and the τ lepton at the Grand Unification scale M _X is studied. The spectrum of particles is analyzed in the vicinity of a quasifixed point where solutions to the renormalization-group equations are concentrated at the electroweak scale.     

Higgs as a pseudo-Goldstone boson, the mu problem and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking

We study the interplay between the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry of the Higgs sector and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, in the framework of a supersymmetric model with global SU(3) symmetry. In addition to solving the supersymmetric flavor problem and alleviating the little hierarchy problem, this scenario automatically triggers the breaking of the global symmetry and provides an elegant solution to the μ/Bμ problem of gauge mediation. We study in detail the processes of global symmetry and electroweak symmetry breaking, including the contributions of the top/stop and gauge-Higgs sectors to the one-loop effective potential of the pseudo-Goldstone Higgs boson. While the joint effect of supersymmetry and of the global symmetry allows in principle the electroweak symmetry to be broken with little fine-tuning, the simplest version of the model fails to bring the Higgs mass above the LEP bound due to a suppressed tree-level quartic coupling. To cure this problem, we consider the possibility of additional SU(3)-breaking contributions to the Higgs potential, which results in a moderate fine-tuning. The model predicts a rather low messenger scale, a small tanβ value, a light Higgs boson with Standard Model-like properties, and heavy higgsinos.     

Symmetry-breaking scenarios of Wilson-loop broken E6

In superstring theories formulated on a multiply-connected manifold, E₆ gauge symmetry can be broken at the Planck scale to an extended standard model via an effective Higgs adjoint. It is possible to arrange for the coloured components of a Higgs 27 to gain a large mass via this Wilson-Loop breaking while leaving some colour singlet components massless. The remaining light Higgs representations can then be applied to break the extended electroweak symmetry at a lower scale. We investigate some of the symmetry-breaking scenarios for a rank-six extended group. We find that the Higgs multiplets left light after Wilson-loop breaking are not sufficient to break the extended electroweak symmetry to U₁^em     

A modest proposal for generating Yukawa couplings from gauge interactions

We propose that the quark and lepton Yukawa superpotential couplings to Higgs supermultiplets arise from non-perturbative gauge interactions. This is possible in models with an SU(N) × G gauge group. We present a three-generation model based on SU(8) × G, and indicate how such a scenario could lead to a realistic hierarchy of quark and lepton masses.     

Renormalization group analysis and the top quark mass in the SU(4) × O(4) string model

We perform a two-loop renormalization group analysis for the gauge couplings in the SU(4) × O(4) model. We use the string theory prediction for the unification scale and the experimentally acceptable low energy values for ₃ and sin² θ_w, to determine the magnitudes of the various symmetry breaking scales as well as the value of the common gauge coupling at the unification scale. We solve the coupled differential system for the gauge and top and bottom Yukawa couplings, and determine the top mass as a function of two parameters which could be chosen to be the ratio of the Higgs VEV's that give masses to the up and down quarks and the value of the top coupling at the unification scale. We find a relatively heavy top quark mass which lies in the range 130m_t180 GeV.