Search for heavy Majorana neutrinos at future lepton colliders

A nonzero neutrino mass may be a sign of new physics beyond the standard model (SM). To explain the small neutrino mass, we can extend the SM using right-handed Majorana neutrinos in a low-scale seesaw mechanism, and the CP violation effect can be induced due to the CP phase in the interference of heavy Majorana neutrinos. The existence of heavy Majorana neutrinos may lead to lepton number violation processes, which can be used to search for the signals of heavy Majorana neutrinos. In this paper, we focus on the CP violation effect related to two generations of heavy Majorana neutrinos at \begin{document}$ 15 $\end{document} GeV \begin{document}$ <m_{N_1}< 70 $\end{document} GeV in the pair production of W bosons and rare decays. It is valuable to investigate Majorana neutrino production signals and the related CP violation effects in rare W boson decays at future lepton colliders.     

Chiral symmetry and dileptons in heavy ion collisions

The cross section in terms of three independent radiative gluon correction form factors related to angular dependence and angular asymmetry is calculated as functions of the maximum recorded scaled gluon momentumX _g, with 0X _g 1. The effects of longitudinal and transversal polarization of the initial electron and positron are taken into account. For the same geometry the two independent thrust form factors are obtained as functions of the minimum thrustT _m recorded, with 2/3T _m <1. similarly=" the=" related=" invariant=" mass=" form=" factors=" are=" obtained.=" in=" particular,=" the=" regions=" of=" infrared="> , and of near infrared gluons, , are discussed.     

Detection of heavy Majorana neutrinos and right-handed bosons

The SU _c (3) ⊗ SU _L (2) ⊗ SU _R (2) ⊗ U(1) left-right (LR) symmetric model explains the origin of the parity violation in weak interactions and predicts the existence of additional gauge bosons W _R and Z′. In addition, heavy right-handed Majorana neutrino states N arise naturally within the LR symmetric model. The states N could be partners of light neutrino states, related to their nonzero masses through the seesaw mechanism. This makes the searches for W _R , Z′, and N interesting and important. In the framework of the minimal LR model, we study the possibility to observe signals from N and W _R production in pp collisions after three years of running at low LHC luminosity. We show that their decay signals can be identified with a small background, especially in the case of same-sign leptons in the final state. For the integral LHC luminosity of L _t = 30 fb⁻¹, the 5σ discovery of W _R boson and heavy Majorana neutrinos N _e with masses up to 4 TeV and up to 2.4 TeV, respectively, is found to be possible. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Dirac and Majorana heavy neutrinos at LEP II

The possibility of detecting single heavy Dirac and/or Majorana neutrinos at LEP II is investigated for heavy neutrino masses in the range . We study the process as a clear signature for heavy neutrinos. Numerical estimates for cross sections and distributions for the signal and the background are calculated and a Monte Carlo reconstruction of final state particles after hadronization is presented. Received: 20 September 2001 / Published online: 12 November 2001     

Unravelling γγ dileptons in central relativistic heavy ion collisions

Using an impact parameter formulation, differential production probabilities for γγ dileptons in central relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies are calculated and compared to Drell-Yan and thermal ones. The angular distributions of the leptons give a handle for the discrimination. Nuclear stopping leads, apart from Bremsstrahlung pair production, to a modification of the pure γγ dilepton production. These modifications are studied in a simple model and are found to be of minor influence.     

Constraints on the masses and couplings of heavy Majorana right-handed neutrinos

The masses and couplings of heavy unstable right-handed Majorana neutrinos can be constrained using existing and expected future results from both accelerator and astrophysics experiments. In particular we examine limits on rare decay modes of particles containing s, c, and b quarks as well as the τ lepton and interpret these in terms of a hypothetical massive neutrino. In addition, cosmological limits result from a consideration of the nucleosynthesis epoch in the early universe.     

Signatures for Majorana neutrinos at hadron colliders

The Majorana nature of neutrinos may only be experimentally verified via lepton-number violating processes involving charged leptons. We explore the Delta L = 2 like-sign dilepton production at hadron colliders to search for signals of Majorana neutrinos. We find significant sensitivity for resonant production of a Majorana neutrino in the mass range of 10-80 GeV at the current run of the Tevatron with 2 fb(-1) integrated luminosity and in the range of 10-400 GeV at the CERN LHC with 100 fb(-1).     

Majorana neutrinos in rare meson decays

The rare meson decays K ⁺ → π ^??⁺?′⁺ and D ⁺ → K ^??⁺?′⁺ (?, ?′ = e, μ), which are induced by Majorana neutrino exchange and which are accompanied by lepton-number nonconservation, are considered. The effects of the meson structure are taken into account on the basis of the Gaussian model for the respective Bethe-Salpeter amplitudes. It is shown that existing direct experimental constraints on the decay branching ratios are overly lenient and therefore give no way to set realistic limits on effective Majorana masses. On the basis of the constraints on the lepton-mixing parameters and neutrino masses from precision measurements of electroweak processes, neutrino-oscillation experiments, searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay of nuclei, and cosmological data, indirect constraints on the branching ratios for the decays in question are obtained and found to be much more stringent than the above direct constraints.     

Dirac and Majorana neutrinos in matter

We consider the matter effects on neutrinos moving in background on the basis of the corresponding quantum wave equations. Both Dirac and Majorana neutrino cases are discussed. The effects for Dirac neutrino reflection and trapping as well as neutrino—antineutrino annihilation and ν pair creation in matter at the interface between two media with different densities are considered. The spin light of neutrinos in matter is also discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Thermal dileptons in high-energy nuclear collisions

Clear signs of excess dileptons above the known sources have been found at the SPS for a long time. However, a real clarification of these observations was only recently achieved by NA60, measuring dimuons with unprecedented precision in 158A GeV In-In collisions. The excess mass spectrum in the region is consistent with a dominant contribution from π⁺π⁻→ρ→μ⁺μ⁻ annihilation. The associated ρ spectral function shows a strong broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. In the region , the excess is found to be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production. The inverse slope parameter associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the ρ, followed by a sudden decline above. While the initial rise, coupled to a hierarchy in hadron freeze-out, points to radial flow of a hadronic decay source, the decline above signals a transition to a low-flow source, presumably of partonic origin. The mass spectra show a steep rise towards low masses characteristic of Planck-like radiation. The polarization of the excess referred to the Collins Soper frame is found to be isotropic. All observations are consistent with a global interpretation of the excess as thermal radiation. We conclude with a short discussion of a possible link to direct photons.     

Some QCD estimates of the production of heavy quark flavours in hadron-hadron collisions

Quantum chromodynamic perturbation theory is used to investigate the hadronic production of heavy quark flavours. The theory is applied principally to the data on charmed meson production. Particular emphasis is placed on comparing data with this calculation in the specific region of phase space in which the data are taken. The general results of this approach are presented so that comparisons with data from future experiments on charm and heavier flavour production should be possible.     

The shape of dilepton spectra in heavy ion collisions as a signature of quark-gluon plasma

The formation of quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions should manifest itself by the increase of the ratio of medium to large mass dileptons, the former being produced predominantly in the QGP and the mixed phase whereas the latter are produced mostly by the Drell-Yan process. The increase of this ratio should be visible either when comparing collisions of lighter with heavier ions, e.g. O+O with Pb+Pb or when comparing low and large transverse energy events in heavy ion e.g. Pb+Pb collisions.