Search

We study current experimental bounds on charged lepton flavor violating (CLFV) $\mu$-$e$ interactions in the model-independent framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). Assuming a generic flavor structure in the quark sector, we consider the contributions of CLFV operators to low-energy observables, including $\mu\to e\gamma$ and $\mu\to e$ conversion for quark-flavor conserving operators and CLFV meson decays for quark-flavor violating operators. At high energy, we consider limits on CLFV decays of the Higgs and Z bosons and of the top quark, and obtain bounds on operators with light quarks by recasting searches for production of $e\mu$ pairs in $pp$ collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We connect observables at low- and high-energy by taking into account renormalization group running and matching between CLFV operators. We also discuss the sensitivity of the future Electron-Ion Collider, where the prospective bounds are derived by imposing simple cuts on final state particles. We find that, in a single operator scenario, bounds on purely leptonic operators are dominated by $\mu \rightarrow e \gamma$ and $\mu \rightarrow e$ conversion. Semileptonic operators with down-type quarks are also dominantly constrained by low-energy observables, while LHC searches lead the bounds on up-type quark-flavor violating operators. Taking simplified multiple-coupling scenarios, we show that it is easy to evade the strongest low-energy bounds from spin-independent $\mu \rightarrow e$ conversion, and that collider searches are competitive and complementary to constraints from spin-dependent $\mu \rightarrow e$ conversion and other low-energy probes., Comment: 43 pages, 7 figures

Sterile neutrinos with masses at the $\mathrm{keV}$ scale and mixing to the active neutrinos offer an elegant explanation of the observed dark matter (DM) density. However, the very same mixing inevitably leads to radiative photon emission and the non-observation of such peaked $X$-ray lines rules out this minimal sterile neutrino DM hypothesis. We show that in the context of the Standard Model effective field theory with sterile neutrinos ($\nu$SMEFT), higher dimensional operators can produce sterile neutrino DM in a broad range of parameter space. In particular, $\nu$SMEFT interactions can open the large mixing parameter space due to their destructive interference, through operator mixing or matching, in the $X$-ray emission. We also find that, even in the zero mixing limit, the DM density can always be explained by $\nu$SMEFT operators. The testability of the studied $\nu$SMEFT operators in searches for electric dipole moments, neutrinoless double beta decay, and pion decay measurements is discussed., Comment: 28 pages + 4 pages appendix, 9 figures

We study the $\mu\to e$ conversion process in nuclear targets arising in models of axion-like particles (ALPs) with hadronic and charged lepton flavor violating (CLFV) interactions. Contributions to this process generally fall into two categories: spin-independent (SI) and spin-dependent (SD). While the SI contribution can be generated by a dipole operator through purely leptonic ALP interactions, the SD contribution can also be present through ALP-quark interactions at tree-level. It is naively anticipated that the SI contribution would be dominant due to its coherent enhancement. In this $\textit{letter}$, we show that is not generically the case; in particular, for naturally-sized ALP couplings to quarks of order $\sim\!m_q/f_a$, the SD interaction induced by ALP-$\pi^0$ mixing turns out to be the leading contribution to $\mu\to e$ conversion. Intuitively, this stems from the suppressed dipole contribution by the QED one-loop factor which counters the effect of SI coherent enhancement. Our study highlights the importance of $\mu\to e$ conversion searches in exploring the parameter space of generic ALP models, and demonstrates the competitiveness of these searches in probing the CLFV ALP parameter space in the heavy mass range of $m_a\gtrsim m_{\mu}$., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Charged lepton flavor violation has long been recognized as unambiguous signature of New Physics. Here we describe the physics capabilities and discovery potential of New Physics models with charged lepton flavor violation in the tau sector as its experimental signature. Current experimental status from the B-Factory experiments BaBar, Belle and Belle II, and future prospects at Super Tau Charm Factory, LHC, EIC and FCC-ee experiments to discover New Physics via charged lepton flavor violation in the tau sector are discussed in detail. Submitted to the Proceedings of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021), Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures, Contribution to Snowmass 2021

Within a class of models in which lepton flavor violation is induced dominantly by scalar particle exchanges, we estimate the $\mu \to e$ conversion rate in several nuclei. We include next-to-leading order (NLO) terms in the one- and two-nucleon interactions in chiral effective theory, rectifying some incorrect results in the previous literature. We provide an uncertainty budget for the conversion rates and we find that NLO contributions affect the amplitudes at the level of $10\%$, which could be larger than the uncertainty on the leading order couplings, dominated by the strange and non-strange nucleon sigma terms. We study the implications of our results for testing Higgs-mediated CLFV in the future by combining results from various experimental searches, such as $\mu \to e$ conversion in multiple target nuclei and $\mu \to e \gamma$., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

Effective field theory arguments suggest that if BSM sectors contain new sources of CP-violation that couple to QCD, these sources will renormalize the $\theta$ term and frustrate ultraviolet solutions to the strong CP problem. Simultaneously, they will generate distinctive patterns of low-energy electric dipole moments in hadronic, nuclear, atomic, and molecular systems. Observing such patterns thus provides evidence that strong CP is solved by an infrared relaxation mechanism. We illustrate the renormalization of $\theta$ and the collections of EDMs generated in a several models of BSM physics, confirming effective field theory expectations, and demonstrate that measurements of ratios of electric dipole moments at planned experiments can provide valuable input on the resolution of the strong CP problem., Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures

We investigate contributions to the anomalous magnetic moments of charged leptons in the neutrino-extended Standard Model Effective Field Theory ($\nu$SMEFT). We discuss how $\nu$SMEFT operators can contribute to a lepton's magnetic moment at one- and two-loop order. We show that only one operator can account for existing electronic and muonic discrepancies, assuming new physics appears above $1$ TeV. In particular, we find that a right-handed charged current in combination with minimal sterile-active mixing can explain the discrepancy for sterile neutrino masses of $\mathcal O(100)$ GeV while avoiding direct and indirect constraints. We discuss how searches for sterile neutrino production at the (HL-)LHC, measurements of $h\rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^-$ and searches for $h\rightarrow e^+ e^-$, neutrinoless double beta decay experiments, and improved unitarity tests of the CKM matrix can further probe the relevant parameter space., Comment: Journal version. 37 pages (incl. references), 6 figures, 4 tables. vSMEFT FeynRules UFO available from https://feynrules.irmp.ucl.ac.be/wiki/HeavyN

We present a comprehensive analysis of the potential sensitivity of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) to charged lepton flavor violation (CLFV) in the channel $ep\to \tau X$, within the model-independent framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We compute the relevant cross sections to leading order in QCD and electroweak corrections and perform simulations of signal and SM background events in various $\tau$ decay channels, suggesting simple cuts to enhance the associated estimated efficiencies. To assess the discovery potential of the EIC in $\tau$-$e$ transitions, we study the sensitivity of other probes of this physics across a broad range of energy scales, from $pp \to e \tau X$ at the Large Hadron Collider to decays of $B$ mesons and $\tau$ leptons, such as $\tau \to e \gamma$, $\tau \to e \ell^+ \ell^-$, and crucially the hadronic modes $\tau \to e Y$ with $Y \in \{ \pi, K, \pi \pi, K \pi, ...\}$. We find that electroweak dipole and four-fermion semi-leptonic operators involving light quarks are already strongly constrained by $\tau$ decays, while operators involving the $c$ and $b$ quarks present more promising discovery potential for the EIC. An analysis of three models of leptoquarks confirms the expectations based on the SMEFT results. We also identify future directions needed to maximize the reach of the EIC in CLFV searches: these include an optimization of the $\tau$ tagger in hadronic channels, an exploration of background suppression through tagging $b$ and $c$ jets in the final state, and a global fit by turning on all SMEFT couplings, which will likely reveal new discovery windows for the EIC., Comment: 108 pages, 25 beautiful figures, 27 tables, matches published version

We study discovery prospects for a real triplet extension of the Standard Model scalar sector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and a possible future 100 TeV $pp$ collider. We focus on the scenario in which the neutral triplet scalar is stable and contributes to the dark matter relic density. When produced in $pp$ collisions, the charged triplet scalar decays to the neutral component plus a soft pion or soft lepton pair, yielding a disappearing charged track in the detector. We recast current 13TeV LHC searches for disappearing tracks, and find that the LHC presently excludes a real triplet scalar lighter than 248 (275) GeV, for a mass splitting of 172 (160) MeV with $\mathcal{L}=\rm36\,$fb$^{-1}$. The reach can extend to 497 (520) GeV with the collection of $3000\,$fb$^{-1}$. We extrapolate the 13 TeV analysis to a prospective 100 TeV $pp$ collider, and find that a $\sim3$ TeV triplet scalar could be discoverable with $\mathcal{L}=30$ ab$^{-1}$, depending on the degree to which pile up effects are under control. We also investigate the dark matter candidate in our model and corresponding present and prospective constraints from dark matter direct detection. We find that currently XENON1T can exclude a real triplet dark matter lighter than $\sim3$ TeV for a Higgs portal coupling of order one or larger, and the future XENON20T will cover almost the entire dark matter viable parameter space except for vanishingly small portal coupling., Comment: 27 pages, 8 plots; match the published version

We investigate neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) in the presence of sterile neutrinos with Majorana mass terms. These gauge-singlet fields are allowed to interact with Standard-Model (SM) fields via renormalizable Yukawa couplings as well as higher-dimensional gauge-invariant operators up to dimension seven in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory extended with sterile neutrinos. At the GeV scale, we use Chiral effective field theory involving sterile neutrinos to connect the operators at the level of quarks and gluons to hadronic interactions involving pions and nucleons. This allows us to derive an expression for $0\nu\beta\beta$ rates for various isotopes in terms of phase-space factors, hadronic low-energy constants, nuclear matrix elements, the neutrino masses, and the Wilson coefficients of higher-dimensional operators. The needed hadronic low-energy constants and nuclear matrix elements depend on the neutrino masses, for which we obtain interpolation formulae grounded in QCD and chiral perturbation theory that improve existing formulae that are only valid in a small regime of neutrino masses. The resulting framework can be used directly to assess the impact of $0\nu\beta\beta$ experiments on scenarios with light sterile neutrinos and should prove useful in global analyses of sterile-neutrino searches. We perform several phenomenological studies of $0\nu\beta\beta$ in the presence of sterile neutrinos with and without higher-dimensional operators. We find that non-standard interactions involving sterile neutrinos have a dramatic impact on $0\nu\beta\beta$ phenomenology, and next-generation experiments can probe such interactions up to scales of $\mathcal O(100)$ TeV., Comment: 83 pages, 13 figures. Matches version accepted for publication in JHEP

We elucidate a cancellation mechanism for the electric dipole moment of the electron in the general two Higgs doublet model. The impressive improvement by the ACME Collaboration in 2018 suggests the presence of a new electron Yukawa coupling that brings in exquisite cancellations among dangerous diagrams, broadening the solution space for electroweak baryogenesis driven by an extra top Yukawa coupling. The cancellation mechanism calls for the new Yukawa couplings to have hierarchical structures that echo the observed pattern of the Standard Model Yukawa couplings., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: some clarifications and references added, version accepted for publication as a Rapid Communication in PRD

We introduce a scenario for CP-violating (CPV) dark photon interactions in the context of non-abelian kinetic mixing. Assuming an effective field theory that extends the Standard Model (SM) field content with an additional $U(1)$ gauge boson ($X$) and a $SU(2)_L$ triplet scalar, we show that there exist both CP-conserving and CPV dimension five operators involving these new degrees of freedom and the SM $SU(2)_L$ gauge bosons. The former yields kinetic mixing between the $X$ and the neutral $SU(2)_L$ gauge boson (yielding the dark photon), while the latter induces CPV interactions of the dark photon with the SM particles. We discuss experimental probes of these interactions using searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) and di-jet correlations in high-energy $pp$ collisions. It is found that the experimental limit on the electron EDM currently gives the strongest restriction on the CPV interaction. In principle, high energy $pp$ collisions provide a complementary probe through azimuthal angular correlations of the two forward tagging jets in vector boson fusion. In practice, observation of the associated CPV asymmetry is likely to be challenging.

In the Standard Model, the renormalization of the QCD vacuum angle $\theta$ is extremely tiny, and small $\theta$ is technically natural. In the general Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), however, $\Delta\theta$ is quadratically divergent, reflecting the fact that new sources of hadronic CP-violation typically produce $\mathcal O(1)$ threshold corrections to $\theta$. The observation of such CP-violating interactions would therefore be in tension with solutions to the strong CP problem in which $\theta=0$ is an ultraviolet boundary condition, pointing to the Peccei-Quinn mechanism as the explanation for why $\theta$ is small in the infrared. We study the quadratic divergences in $\theta$ arising from dimension-6 SMEFT operators and discuss the discovery prospects for these operators at electric dipole moment experiments, the LHC, and future proton-proton colliders., Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures. Comments welcome!

We analyze the implications of CP-violating scalar leptoquark (LQ) interactions for experimental probes of parity- and time-reversal violating properties of polar molecules. These systems are predominantly sensitive to the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron and nuclear-spin-independent (NSID) electron-nucleon interaction. The LQ model can generate both a tree-level NSID interaction as well as the electron EDM at one-loop order. Including both interactions, we find that the NSID interaction can dominate the molecular response. For moderate values of couplings, the current experimental results give roughly two orders of magnitude stronger limits on the electron EDM than one would otherwise infer from a sole-source analysis., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We propose a hidden gauged $U(1)_H$ $Z'$ model to explain deviations from the Standard Model (SM) values in lepton flavor universality known as $R_K$ and $R_D$ anomalies. The $Z'$ only interacts with the SM fermions via their mixing with vector-like doublet fermions after the $U(1)_H$ symmetry breaking, which leads to $b \to s \mu\mu$ transition through the $Z^{\prime}$ at tree level. Moreover, introducing an additional mediator, inert-Higgs doublet, yields $b\to c \tau \nu$ process via charged scalar contribution at tree level. Using flavio package, we scrutinize adequate sizes of the relevant Wilson coefficients to these two processes by taking various flavor observables into account. It is found that significant mixing between the vector-like and the second generation leptons is needed for the $R_K$ anomaly. A possible explanation of the $R_D$ anomaly can also be simultaneously addressed in a motivated situation, where a single scalar operator plays a dominant role, by the successful model parameters for the $R_K$ anomaly., Comment: 34 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables

We derive present constraints on, and prospective sensitivity to, the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the top quark ($d_t$) implied by searches for the EDMs of the electron and nucleons. Above the electroweak scale $v$, the $d_t$ arises from two gauge invariant operators generated at a scale $\Lambda \gg v$ that also mix with the light fermion EDMs under renormalization group evolution at two-loop order. Bounds on the EDMs of first generation fermion systems thus imply bounds on $|d_t|$. Working in the leading log-squared approximation, we find that the present upper bound on $|d_t|$ is roughly $10^{-19}$ $e$ cm for $\Lambda = 1$ TeV, except in regions of finely tuned cancellations that allow for $|d_t|$ to be up to fifty times larger. Future $d_e$ and $d_n$ probes may yield an order of magnitude increase in $d_t$ sensitivity, while inclusion of a prospective proton EDM search may lead to an additional increase in reach., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

We study electroweak baryogenesis driven by the top quark in a general two Higgs doublet model with flavor-changing Yukawa couplings, keeping the Higgs potential $CP$ invariant. With Higgs sector couplings and the additional top Yukawa coupling $\rho_{tt}$ all of $\mathcal{O}$(1), one naturally has sizable $CP$ violation that fuels the cosmic baryon asymmetry. Even if $\rho_{tt}$ vanishes, the favor-changing coupling $\rho_{tc}$ can still lead to successful baryogenesis. Phenomenological consequences such as $t\to ch$, $\tau \to \mu\gamma$, electron electric dipole moment, $h\to\gamma\gamma$, and $hhh$ coupling are discussed., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2: updated to match version published in PLB

Inspired by a recent work of Tye and Wong, we examine an effect of a band structure on baryon number preservation criteria requisite for successful electroweak baryogenesis. Action of a reduced model is fully constructed including a time component of the gauge field that is missing in the original work. The band structure is estimated more precisely in wider energy range based on WKB framework with three connection formulas to find that the band structure has little effect on the criteria at around 100 GeV temperature. We also address an issue of suppression factors peculiar to the $(B+L)$-changing process in high-energy collisions at zero temperature., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

We investigate the feasibility of electroweak baryogenesis in a two-Higgs doublet model with lepton flavor violation. By scrutinizing the heavy Higgs boson mass spectrum, regions satisfying both strong first-order electroweak phase transition and the muon $g-2$ anomaly are identified. We also estimate the baryon number density by exploiting extra Yukawa couplings in the $\mu$-$\tau$ sector. It is found that a CP-violating source term can be enhanced by the $\mu$-$\tau$ flavor-violating coupling together with the extra $\tau$ coupling. With $\mathcal{O}(1)$ Yukawa couplings and CP-violating phases, the observed baryon number density is marginally produced under a generous assumption for the bubble wall profile., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; v2: references added and typos corrected; v3: new figure added, version to appear in Phys.Lett.B

Anomalous b --> s transitions from LHCb data may suggest a new massive gauge boson Z' that couples to the left-handed b --> s current, which in turn implies a coupling to the t --> c current. In this paper, we study flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) decays of the top quark induced by a Z' boson, namely t --> c Z', based on a model of the gauged L_mu - L_tau symmetry (the difference between the muon and tauon numbers) with vector-like quarks, which was introduced to explain the anomalous LHCb data. We illustrate that searching for t --> c Z' via Z' --> mu^+ mu^- with LHC Run 1 data can already probe a parameter region which is unexplored by B physics for the Z' mass around O(10) GeV or more. We further extend the model to very light Z' with mass below 400 MeV, which is motivated by the muon g-2 anomaly. Taking rare B and K meson decay data into account, we give upper limits on the t --> c Z' branching ratio for the light Z' case, and discuss about its observability at the LHC. We also scrutinize the possibility that the decay K_L --> pi^0 Z' with Z' --> nu nubar may lead to apparent violation of the usual Grossman-Nir bound of B(K_L --> pi^0 nu nubar) < 1.4 x 10^-9., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures; accepted by PRD, references updated

We study general aspects of the CP-violating effects on the baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) and electric dipole moments (EDMs) in models extended by an extra Higgs doublet and a singlet, together with electroweak-interacting fermions. In particular, the emphasis is on the structure of the CP-violating interactions and dependences of the BAU and EDMs on masses of the relevant particles. In a concrete mode, we investigate a relationship between the BAU and the electron EDM for a typical parameter set. As long as the BAU-related CP violation predominantly exists, the electron EDM has a strong power in probing electroweak baryogenesis. However, once a BAU-unrelated CP violation comes into play, the direct correlation between the BAU and electron EDM can be lost. Even in such a case, we point out that verifiability of the scenario still remains with the help of Higgs physics., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

We study the electroweak phase transition and the critical bubble in the scale-invariant two Higgs doublet model taking the recent LHC data into account. The sphaleron energy in this model is evaluated for the first time. It is found that the strong first-order electroweak phase transition is the inevitable consequence to be consistent with the observed 125 GeV Higgs boson. In such a case, the signal strength of the Higgs decay to two gammas and the triple Higgs boson coupling could deviate from the SM values by $-10$% and $+82$%, respectively., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Talk given at Rencontres de Moriond QCD and High Energy Interactions 2015, March 21-28, 2015, La Thuile, Italy

We revisit the electroweak phase transition and the critical bubble in the scale invariant two Higgs doublet model in the light of recent LHC data. Moreover, the sphaleron decoupling condition is newly evaluated in this model. The analysis is done by using the resumed finite-temperature one-loop effective potential. It is found that the 125 GeV Higgs boson inevitably leads to the strong first-order electroweak phase transition, and the strength of which is always large enough to satisfy the sphaleron decoupling condition, $v_N/T_N > 1.2$, where $T_N$ denotes a nucleation temperature and $v_N$ is the Higgs vacuum expectation value at $T_N$. In this model, even if the Higgs boson couplings to gauge bosons and fermions are similar to the standard model values, the signal strength of the Higgs decay to two photons is reduced by 10% and the triple Higgs boson coupling is enhanced by 82% compared to the standard model prediction., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Weakly interacting K --> pi X^0 emission with m_{X^0} \simeq m_{pi^0} is out of sight of the current K^+ --> pi^+ nu nubar study, but it can be sensed by the K_L --> pi^0 nu nubar search. This evades the usual Grossman-Nir bound of B(K_L --> pi^0 nu nubar) < 1.4 x 10^-9, thus the KOTO experiment is already starting to probe New Physics. An intriguing possibility is the Z' gauge boson of a weak leptonic force that couples to L_mu - L_tau (the difference between the muon and tauon numbers), which may explain the long-standing "muon g-2" anomaly, but is constrained by nu_mu N --> nu_mu N mu^+ mu^- scattering to m_{Z'} \lesssim 400 MeV. An explicit model for K --> pi Z' is given, which illustrates the link between rare kaon and B --> K mu^+ mu^-, K^{(*)} nu nubar decays. Complementary to these searches and future lepton experiments, the LHC might discover the scalar boson phi responsible for light m_{Z'} generation via phi --> Z' Z' --> 2(mu^+ mu^-)., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, title changed, version to appear in PRL

We improve the sphaleron decoupling condition in the real singlet-extended standard model. The sphaleron energy is obtained using the finite temperature one-loop effective potential with daisy resummation. For moderate values of the model parameters, the sphaleron decoupling condition is found to be $v_C/T_C>(1.1-1.2)$, where $T_C$ denotes a critical temperature and $v_C$ is the corresponding vacuum expectation value of the doublet Higgs field at $T_C$. We also investigate the deviation of the triple Higgs boson coupling from its standard model value in the region where the improved sphaleron decoupling condition is satisfied. As a result of the improvement, the deviation of the triple Higgs boson coupling gets more enhanced. In a typical case, if the Higgs couplings to the gauge bosons/fermions deviate from the SM values by about 3 (10)%, the deviation of the triple Higgs boson coupling can be as large as about 16 (50)%, which is about 4 (8)% larger than that based on the conventional criterion $v_C/T_C>1$., Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures

Recent results from the LHC experiments, both for the Higgs mass measurement and the direct search for supersymmetric (SUSY) particles, might indicate that the SUSY breaking scale is much higher than the electroweak scale. Although it is difficult to investigate such a scenario at collider experiments, the measurement of the hadronic electric dipole moments is one of promising ways to detect the effects of the SUSY particles. These effects are expressed in terms of the CP-violating effective operators defined at the SUSY breaking scale, which involve quarks, gluons, photons, and gluinos. In this paper, we discuss the QCD corrections to the effective operators in the high-scale SUSY scenario. To appropriately evaluate the radiative corrections in the presence of large mass hierarchy among the SUSY particles, we exploit an effective theoretical approach based on the renormalization-group equations. As a result, it is found that the low-energy quark electric and chromoelectric dipole moments may differ from those evaluated in previous works by O(100) % and O(10) %, respectively., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; v2: typos corrected

We have revisited the calculation of the neutron electric dipole moment in the presence of the CP-violating operators up to dimension five based on the chiral perturbation theory. Especially, we focus on the contribution of strangeness content. In the calculation, we extract the nucleon matrix elements of scalar-type quark operators from the results of the lattice QCD simulations, while those of the dipole-type quark-gluon operators are evaluated by using the method of the QCD sum rules. As a result, it is found that although the strangeness quantity in nucleon is small, the contribution of the chromoelectric dipole moment of strange quark may be still sizable, and thus may offer a sensitive probe for the CP-violating interactions in physics beyond the Standard Model., Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures