Search

We review the theory and phenomenology of isosinglet vector-like quarks (VLQs). In recent years, interest in VLQs has been increasing, due to their contributions to new physics effects that can be tested in experiments at LHC and High-Luminosity LHC. The similarities of models with isosinglet VLQs and the seesaw framework in the leptonic sector are pointed out. The existence of VLQs leads to flavour-changing neutral currents at tree level and deviations from unitarity of the CKM matrix, introducing rich phenomenological implications. These new effects are naturally suppressed by the masses of the new quarks, that are constrained to be above the electroweak scale. In addition, striking new effects can be achieved with the inclusion of an extra complex scalar singlet. Such a minimal extension of the SM can give rise to new sources of CP violation with profound theoretical implications, allowing for a solution to the strong CP problem and a possible explanation for the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We list and explain strong motivations to consider this class of models. We also briefly review how models with VLQs can be matched to the SM effective field theory (SMEFT). A detailed analysis of flavour observables that can be affected by the presence of VLQs is presented. Current bounds from collider searches of VLQs are summarized. We point out that the discovery of VLQs can be within the reach of present or future colliders being planned., 116 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables. Work intended as a review. Comments and references added; typos corrected; sections 5 and 7 improved

We suggest a simple relation between the quark and the lepton mixing within the framework of type-I seesaw mechanism. We show that within our ansatz the empirical King-Mohapatra-Smirnov relation, which suggests a connection between the CKM and PMNS mixing where $|V^\text{PMNS}_{13}|\approx \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\sin(\theta_C) $, can be derived. This is possible within a restricted region of the Dirac and Majorana mass parameters., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

The seesaw extension of the SM explains the tiny neutrino masses and it is accompanied by many CP violating phases. We study the case where all leptonic CP violation arises from the soft breaking in the heavy Majorana mass matrix. Parameter counting reveals that one less parameter is needed to describe this case. This reduction leads to restrictions on the parameter space of heavy neutrinos. We analyze the minimal seesaw case in detail and find that mass degeneracy of heavy neutrinos are not possible for certain values of the CP phases., Comment: 29pp, 8 figures

We emphasise that even in the extreme chiral limit where only the top and bottom quarks acquire mass, quark mixing is physically meaningful. This implies that the natural value of $|V_{13}|^2 + |V_{23}|^2$ is of order one, which is to be compared to its experimental value of order $10^{-3}$ . We show how this fine-tuning problem of the Standard Model can be solved through an extension of the Standard Model where vector-like quarks and a complex singlet are introduced, together with a flavour symmetry. The mixings of the light quarks are generated through the mixing of the vector-like quarks with the standard quarks., Comment: 8 pages. Talk given at Corfu Summer Institute 2017, School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity, September 2017. To appear in conference proceedings

We extend the standard model with two extra Higgs doublets. Making use of a symmetry principle, we present flavour symmetries based on cycle groups $Z_N$ that oblige each Higgs doublet to contribute to the mass of only one generation, thus accommodating the quark mass hierarchy. We systematically search for all charge configurations that naturally lead to the alignment in flavour space of the quark sectors, resulting in a CKM matrix near to the identity, determined by the quark mass hierarchy, and with the correct overall phenomenological features. The minimal realisation is by the group $Z_7$. We show that only a limited number of solutions exist, and that any accidental global symmetry that may occur together with the discrete symmetry is necessarily anomalous. A phenomenological study of each class of solutions concerning predictions to the flavour changing neutral current (FCNC) phenomena is also performed: for some solutions, it is possible to obtain realistic quark masses and mixing, while the flavour violating neutral Higgs are sufficient lighter to be accessible at LHC., 19 pages, 2 figures References added, Figures updated. Matches version published in Phys.Rev.D

We address the question of deviations from $3\times 3$ unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix showing that, contrary to conventional wisdom, one may have significant deviations from unitarity in the framework of type I seesaw mechanism. In order for this scenario to be feasible, at least one of the heavy neutrinos must have a mass at the TeV scale, while the other two may have much larger masses. We present specific examples where deviations from $3\times 3$ unitarity are sufficiently small to conform to all the present stringent experimental bounds but are sufficiently large to have the potential for being detectable at the next round of experiments., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables

We point out that leptonic weak-basis invariants are an important tool for the study of the properties of lepton flavour models. In particular, we show that appropriately chosen invariants can give a clear indication of whether a particular lepton flavour model favours normal or inverted hierarchy for neutrino masses and what is the octant of $��_{23}$. These invariants can be evaluated in any conveniently chosen weak-basis and can also be expressed in terms of neutrino masses, charged lepton masses, mixing angles and CP violation phases., 10 pages, no figures

We point out that, in the context of the SM, $|V^2_{13}| + | V^2_{23}|$ is expected to be large, of order one. The fact that $|V^2_{13}| + |V^2_{23}| \approx 1.6 \times 10^{-3}$ motivates the introduction of a symmetry S which leads to $V_{CKM} ={1\>\!\!\!\mathrm{I}} $, with only the third generation of quarks acquiring mass. We consider two scenarios for generating the mass of the first two quark generations and full quark mixing. One consists of the introduction of a second Higgs doublet which is neutral under S. The second scenario consists of assuming New Physics at a high energy scale , contributing to the masses of light quark generations, in an effective field theory approach. This last scenario leads to couplings of the Higgs particle to $s\overline s$ and $c \overline c$ which are significantly enhanced with respect to those of the SM. In both schemes, one has scalar-mediated flavour- changing neutral currents which are naturally suppressed. Flavour violating top decays are predicted in the second scenario at the level $ \mbox{Br} (t \rightarrow h c ) \geq 5\times 10^{-5}$., 11 pages, 1 figure

We propose for the flavour structure of both the quark and lepton sectors, the principle of Universal Democracy (UD), which reflects the presence of a $Z_3$ symmetry. In the quark sector, we emphasize the importance of UD for obtaining small mixing and flavour alignment, while in the lepton sector, large mixing, including the recently measured value of $U_{e3}$, is obtained in the UD framework through the seesaw mechanism. An interesting correlation between the values of $U_{e3}$ and $\sin^2(\theta_{23})$ is pointed out, with the prediction of $\sin^2(\theta_{23})\approx 0.42$ in the region where $U_{e3}$ is in agreement with the DAYA-BAY experiment., Comment: 3 figures

We address the flavour problem by incorporating the hypothesis of universal strength of Yukawa couplings in the framework of a 5D GUT model compactified on an $S^1/(Z_2 \times Z_2^{\prime})$ orbifold. We show that a quantitatively successful picture of fermion masses and mixings emerges from the interplay between the bulk suppression factors of geometric origin and the phases of the Yukawa matrices. We give an explicit example, where we obtain a good fit for both the CKM and PMNS matrices., 8 pages, no figures; v2: minor changes, published in Phys Rev D (Rapid Communication)

We describe a method that is used to reduce, significantly, the number of CP violating complex phases in the Yukawa parameters. With this Reduction of Complex Phases (RCP) we obtain only one CP violating complex phase in the case where the neutrinos have an (effective) $3\times 3$ Majorana mass matrix. For the See Saw extension of the SM with three righthanded neutrinos, and in connection with CP violation in leptogenis, we reduce the usual 6 complex phases to only 2., Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX 2e

The exact democratic structure for the quark mass matrix, resulting from the action of the family symmetry group $A_{3L}\times A_{3R}$, is broken by the vaccum expectation values of heavy singlet fields appearing in non renormalizable dimension 6 operators. Within this specific context of breaking of the family symmetry we formulate a very simple ansatz which leads to correct quark masses and mixings., Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX

We give a new mechanism for generating very small, and almost degenerate, neutrino masses, without resorting to the see-saw mechanism or unnatural small Yukawa couplings. It requires the existence of at least 4 families with an almost democratic structure for the Yukawa couplings. It is also proven that this structure can account for large lepton mixings of the three light leptons., Comment: 3 pages, ReVTeX

The analysis of singly charmed hadrons has been extended to the case of doubly charmed baryons, $\Xi_{cc}^{++}$, $\Xi_{cc}^{+}$ and $\Omega_{cc}^{+}$. Doubly charmed baryons are described as a system containing a heavy $cc$-diquark and a light quark, similarly as in a heavy-light meson. This leads to preasymptotic effects in semileptonic and nonleptonic decays which are essentially proportional to the meson wave function. Interplay between preasymptotic effects in semileptonic and/or nonleptonic decay rates leads to very clear predictions for semileptonic branching ratios and lifetimes of doubly charmed baryons., Comment: 14 pages latex file, 4 figures, 1 table