Linear seesaw model with a modular $S_4$ flavor symmetry

We discuss a linear seesaw model with as minimum field content as possible, introducing a modular $S_4$ with the help of gauged $U(1)_{B-L}$ symmetries. Due to rank two neutrino mass matrix, we have a vanishing neutrino mass eigenvalue, and only the normal mass hierarchy of neutrinos is favored through the modular $S_4$ symmetry.In our numerical $\Delta \chi^2$ analysis, we especially find rather sharp prediction on sum of neutrino masses to be around $60$ meV in addition to the other predictions. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Article funded by SCOAP3 and published under licence by Chinese Physical Society and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science and the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and IOP Publishing Ltd.

A road towards a beyond the Standard Model model

In this talk we describe examples of renormalizable strongly interacting field theories where chiral symmetry, broken at the UV cutoff by the presence of some irrelevant d > 4 operators in the fundamental Lagrangian, is recovered at low energy owing to the tuning of certain Lagrangian parameters. The interference of UV effects with IR features coming from the spontaneous breaking of the recovered chiral symmetry yields non perturbatively generated elementary fermion masses parametrically expressed by formulae of the kind mq ~ Cq(α)ΛRGI with α the gauge coupling constant and ΛRGI the RGI scale of the theory. Upon introducing EW interactions, this mechanism can be extended to give mass to EW bosons and leptons and can thus be used as an alternative to the Higgs scenario. In order to give the top quark and the weak gauge bosons a mass of the phenomenologically correct order of magnitude, the model must necessarily include (yet unobserved) super-strongly interacting massive fermions endowed, besides ordinary Standard Model interactions, with super-strong interactions with a RGI scale, ΛT ΛQCD in the few TeV range. Though limited in its scope (here we ignore hypercharge and leptons and discuss only the case of one family neglecting weak isospin splitting), the model opens the way to a solution of the naturalness problem and an understanding of the fermion mass hierarchy.

Electroweak phase transition triggered by fermion sector

To realize first-order electroweak phase transition, it is necessary to generate a barrier in the thermal Higgs potential, which is usually triggered by scalar degree of freedom. We instead investigate phase transition patterns in pure fermion extensions of the standard model, and find that additional fermions with mass hierarchy and mixing could develop such a barrier and realize a strongly first-order phase transition in such models. In the Higgs potential with polynomial parametrization, the barrier can be generated in the following two patterns by fermionic reduction effects: (I) positive quadratic term, negative cubic term and positive quartic term or (II) positive quadratic term, negative quartic term and positive higher dimensional term, such as dimensional 6 operator.

Dark matter, supernova neutrinos and other backgrounds in direct dark matter searches. The ANDES laboratory prospects

Dark Matter particles can be detected directly via their elastic scattering with nuclei. Next generation experiments can eventually find physical evidences about dark matter candidates. With this motivation in mind, we have calculated the expected signals of dark matter particles in xenon detectors. The calculations were performed by considering different masses and parameters within the minimal supersymmetric standard model. Since the detectors can also detect neutrinos, we have analyzed the supernova neutrino signal including a sterile neutrino in the formalism. Using this [Formula: see text] scheme, we make predictions for both the normal and inverse mass hierarchy. In order to perform a study of the response of planned direct-detection experiments, to be located in ANDES (Agua Negra Deep Experimental Site), we have calculated the neutrino contributions to the background by taken into account reactor’s neutrinos and geoneutrinos at the site of the lab. As a test detector, we take a Xenon1T-like array.

KM3NeT sensitivity to low energy astrophysical neutrinos

KM3NeT, a new generation of neutrino telescope, is currently being deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. While its two sites, ORCA and ARCA, were respectively designed for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and high-energy neutrino astronomy, this contribution presents a study of the detection potential of KM3NeT in the MeV-GeV energy range. At these low energies, the data rate is dominated by low-energy atmospheric muons and environmental noise due to bioluminescence and K-40 decay. The goal of this study is to characterize the environmental noise in order to optimize the selection of low-energy neutrino interactions and increase the sensitivity of KM3NeT to transient astrophysical phenomena, such as close-by core-collapse supernovae, solar flares, and extragalactic transients. In this contribution, we will study how using data science tools might improve the sensitivity of KM3NeT in these low-energy neutrino searches. We will first introduce the data sets and the different variables used to characterize KM3NeT’s response to the environmental noise. We will then compare the efficiency of various tools in identifying different components in the environmental noise and in disentangling low-energy neutrino interactions from the background events. We will conclude with the implication of low-energy neutrinos for future astrophysical transient searches.

Probing baryogenesis with neutron-antineutron oscillations

In the near future, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and the European Spallation Source aim to reach unprecedented sensitivity in the search for neutron-antineutron (n-$$ \overline{n} $$ n ¯ ) oscillations, whose observation would directly imply |∆B| = 2 violation and hence might hint towards a close link to the mechanism behind the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe. In this work, we explore the consequences of such a discovery for baryogenesis first within a model-independent effective field theory approach. We then refine our analysis by including a source of CP violation and different hierarchies between the scales of new physics using a simplified model. We analyse the implication for baryogenesis in different scenarios and confront our results with complementary experimental constraints from dinucleon decay, LHC, and meson oscillations. We find that for a small mass hierarchy between the new degrees of freedom, an observable rate for n-$$ \overline{n} $$ n ¯ oscillation would imply that the washout processes are too strong to generate any sizeable baryon asymmetry, even if the CP violation is maximal. On the other hand, for a large hierarchy between the new degrees of freedom, our analysis shows that successful baryogenesis can occur over a large part of the parameter space, opening the window to be probed by current and future colliders and upcoming n-$$ \overline{n} $$ n ¯ oscillation searches.

Analysis of the first KM3NeT-ORCA data

ORCA, Oscillation Research with Cosmics in the Abyss, is the low energy KM3NeT neutrino underwater detector, located in the French Mediterranean Sea. It comprises a dense array of optical modules designed to detect Cherenkov light emitted from charged particles resulting from neutrino interactions in the vicinity of the detector. Its main physics goal is the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy by quantifying the matter-induced effect on the oscillation probabilities of atmospheric neutrinos in the energy range, 3–50 GeV, where the effects of neutrino oscillation phenomena are dominant. In 2019, four detection units were operational. Two more had been added in early 2020. This work presents an overview of the detector performance in the 2019 configuration, as well as its sensitivity to neutrino oscillations.

Summary of the R&D of 20-inch MCP-PMTs for neutrino detection

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) in China aiming to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy is under construction. A new kind of large area microchannel-plate photomultiplier tube (MCP-PMT) was put forward for the JUNO by the researchers in Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in China. After breaking through several core technotical barriers, the 20-inch MCP-PMT prototype with great performance was successfully produced by the MCP-PMT group in China and got 75% PMT orders (15,000 pics) from JUNO. The mass production line and batch test system was completed in North Night Vision Technology Co., Ltd. (NNVT). The performance of the MCP-PMT including the gain, the quantum efficiency, the P/V ratio, the dark count rate and the transit time spread can be batch tested. During the mass production process, the technical progress in the cathode deposition method improved the quantum efficiency of the photocathode from 30% to 35%. The aging behaviour, temperature effect, the after-pulse distribution and the flash signal of the 20-inch MCP-PMT are all detailly studied. By August of 2020, the 15,000 MCP-PMTs, which will be installed as the central liquid scintillator detector of JUNO, have been completed and delivered to Jiangmen. The average QE at 400 nm for the 15,000 pieces of MCP-PMTs is 32%.

Multiple mass hierarchies from complex fixed point collisions

A pair of complex-conjugate fixed points that lie close to the real axis generates a large mass hierarchy in the real renormalization group flow that passes in between them. We show that pairs of complex fixed points that are close to the real axis and to one another generate multiple hierarchies, some of which can be parametrically enhanced. We illustrate this effect at weak coupling with field-theory examples, and at strong coupling using holography. We also construct complex flows between complex fixed points, including flows that violate the c-theorem.

Fermion mass hierarchy and g − 2 anomalies in an extended 3HDM Model

We propose an extension of the three-Higgs-doublet model (3HDM), where the Standard Model (SM) particle content is enlarged by the inclusion of two inert SU2L scalar doublets, three inert and two active electrically neutral gauge singlet scalars, charged vector like fermions and Majorana neutrinos. These additional particles are introduced to generate the SM fermion mass hierarchy from a sequential loop suppression mechanism. In our model the top and exotic fermion masses appear at tree level, whereas the remaining fermions get their masses radiatively. Specifically, bottom, charm, tau and muon masses appear at 1-loop; the masses for the light up, down and strange quarks as well as for the electron at 2-loop and masses for the light active neutrinos at 3-loop. Our model successfully accounts for SM fermion masses and mixings and accommodates the observed Dark Matter relic density, the electron and muon anomalous magnetic moments, as well the constraints arising from charged Lepton Flavor Violating (LFV) processes. The proposed model predicts charged LFV decays within the reach of forthcoming experiments.