Federica Bazzocchi

Neutrino mixings and the S4 discrete flavour symmetry

Discrete non-Abelian Symmetries have been extensively used to reproduce the lepton mixings. In particular, the S4 group turned out to be suitable to describe predictive mixing patterns, such as the well-known Tri-Bimaximal and the Bimaximal schemes, which all represent possible first approximations of the experimental lepton mixing matrix. We review the main application of the S4 discrete group as a flavour symmetry, first dealing with the formalism and later with the phenomenological implications. In particular, we summarize the main features of flavour models based on S4, commenting on their ability in reproducing a reactor angle in agreement with the recent data and on their predictions for lepton flavour violating transitions.

Calculable inverse-seesaw neutrino masses in supersymmetry

We provide a scenario where naturally small and calculable neutrino masses arise from a supersymmetry-breaking renormalization-group-induced vacuum expectation value. The construction consists of an extended version of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model and the mechanism is illustrated for a universal choice of the soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters. The lightest supersymmetric particle can be an isosinglet scalar neutrino state, potentially viable as WIMP dark matter through its Higgs new boson coupling. The scenario leads to a plethora of new phenomenological implications at accelerators including the Large Hadron Collider.

Leptogenesis in flavor models with type I and II seesaws

Abstract In type I seesaw models with flavor symmetries accounting for the lepton mixing angles the CP asymmetry in right-handed neutrino decays vanishes in the limit in which the mixing pattern is exact. We study the implications that additional degrees of freedom from type II seesaw may have for leptogenesis in such a limit. We classify in a model independent way the possible realizations of type I and II seesaw schemes, differentiating between classes in which leptogenesis is viable or not. We point out that even with the interplay of type I and II seesaws there are generic classes of minimal models in which the CP asymmetry vanishes. Finally we analyze the generation of the lepton asymmetry by solving the corresponding kinetic equations in the general case of a mild hierarchy between the light right-handed neutrino and the scalar triplet masses. We identify the possible scenarios in which leptogenesis can take place.

Bilinear R-parity violation with flavor symmetry

A bstractBilinear R-parity violation (BRPV) provides the simplest intrinsically super-symmetric neutrino mass generation scheme. While neutrino mixing parameters can be probed in high energy accelerators, they are unfortunately not predicted by the theory. Here we propose a model based on the discrete flavor symmetry A4 with a single R-parity violating parameter, leading to (i) correct Cabbibo mixing given by the Gatto-Sartori-Tonin formula, and a successful unification-like b-tau mass relation, and (ii) a correlation between the lepton mixing angles θ13 and θ23 in agreement with recent neutrino oscillation data, as well as a (nearly) massless neutrino, leading to absence of neutrinoless double beta decay.

Quark mixing in the discrete dark matter model

Abstract We consider a model in which dark matter is stable as it is charged under a Z 2 symmetry that is residual after an A 4 flavour symmetry is broken. We consider the possibility to generate the quark masses by charging the quarks appropriately under A 4 . We find that it is possible to generate the CKM mixing matrix by an interplay of renormalisable and dimension-six operators. In this set-up, we predict the third neutrino mixing angle to be large and the dark matter relic density to be in the correct range. Low energy observables – in particular meson–antimeson oscillations – are hard to facilitate. We find that only in a situation where there is a strong cancellation between the Standard Model contribution and the contribution of the new Higgs fields, B meson oscillations are under control.

Leptogenesis in the presence of exact flavor symmetries

A bstractIn models with flavor symmetries in the leptonic sector leptogenesis can take place in a very different way compared to the standard leptogenesis scenario. We study the generation of a B − L asymmetry in these kind of models in the flavor symmetric phase pointing out that successful leptogenesis requires (i) the right-handed neutrinos to lie in different irreducible representations of the flavor group; (ii) the flavons to be lighter at least that one of the right-handed neutrino representations. When these conditions are satisfied leptogenesis proceeds due to new contributions to the CP violating asymmetry and — depending on the specific model — in several stages. We demonstrate the validity of these arguments by studying in detail the generation of the B − L asymmetry in a scenario of a concrete A4 flavor model realization.

Phenomenology of the little flavon model

The phenomenology of the little-flavon model is discussed. Flavor changing neutral current and lepto-quark compositeness set the most stringent bounds to the lowest possible value for the scale at which the flavons arise as pseudo-Goldstone bosons.

Minimal Yukawa-gauge mediation

A bstractWe consider a scenario in which Supersymmetry breaking is communicated to the MSSM fields through the interplay of yukawa and gauge interactions. The MSSM spectrum resembles that of split SUSY scenarios, but on top of that it develops some peculiar features like heavy higgsinos and an inverted hierarchy of sfermion masses. The predictions obtained are consistent with the most recent LHC SUSY and Higgs boson searches.

Heavy Higgs boson from flavor and electroweak symmetry unification

We present a unified picture of flavor and electroweak symmetry breaking based on a nonlinear sigma model spontaneously broken at the TeV scale. Flavor and Higgs bosons arise as pseudo-Goldstone modes. Explicit collective symmetry breaking yields stable vacuum expectation values and masses protected at one loop by the little-Higgs mechanism. The coupling to the fermions generates well-defined mass textures - according to a U(1) global flavor symmetry - that correctly reproduce the mass hierarchies and mixings of quarks and leptons. The model is more constrained than usual little-Higgs models because of bounds on weak and flavor physics. The main experimental signatures testable at the LHC are a rather large mass m{sub h{sup 0}}=317{+-}80 GeV for the (lightest) Higgs boson and a characteristic spectrum of new bosons and fermions at the TeV scale.

Fermion masses and mixings in a based model

It has been recently claimed that the symmetry group S4 yields to the Tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing in a “natural” way from the group theory point of view. Approving of this feature as an indication, we build a supersymmetric model of lepton and quark masses based on this family symmetry group. In the lepton sector, a correct mass hierarchy among the charged leptons is achieved together to a neutrino mass matrix which can be diagonalized by the Tri-bimaximal pattern. Our model results to be phenomenologically inequivalent with respect to other proposals based on different flavour groups but still predicting the Tri-bimaximal mixing. In the quark sector a realistic pattern for masses and mixing angles is obtained. The flavour structures of the mass matrices in both the sectors come from the spontaneously symmetry breaking of S4, due to several scalar fields, which get non-zero vacuum expectation values. A specific vacuum alignment is required and it is shown to be a natural results of the minimization of the scalar potential and, moreover, to be stable under the corrections from the higher order terms.