Search

This paper investigates the search for heavy neutral leptons (HNL) in the type I seesaw mechanism at the Future Circular Collider in its $e^+e^-$ stage (FCC-ee), considering an integrated luminosity of 204 ab$^{-1}$ collected at the Z pole. The study examines two generations of heavy neutral leptons produced in association with Standard Model (SM) neutrinos and decaying to a purely leptonic final state. This theoretical framework can explain neutrino oscillations and other open questions of the SM, providing a broader perspective on the relevance of this experimental search. The analysis is performed using a fast simulation of the IDEA detector concept to study potential HNL interactions at the FCC-ee. The sensitivity contours are obtained from a selection of kinematic variables aimed at improving the signal-to-background ratio for the prompt production case. In the case of long-lived HNLs, the background can be almost fully eliminated by exploiting their displaced decay vertices. The study shows that the FCC-ee has a significant sensitivity to observing these objects in a region of the phase space not accessible by other experiments.

Extensions of the Standard Model featuring excited fermions present an interesting framework that motivates the search for exotic particles at the LHC. Additionally, these extensions offer potential explanations for the muon's anomalous magnetic moment and other precision observables, shedding light on the energy scale and key parameters of the new theory. Our analysis focuses on the one-loop radiative correction originating from excited lepton doublet and triplet states using the effective Lagrangian approach. The bounds derived from the $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly can be complemented with the ones arising from other observables like the electroweak precision observable $\Delta \rho$ and the signals from direct LHC searches to constraint the effective theory. Our results suggest that the $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly can be addressed within a very narrow region of the effective theory scale. Consequently, this imposes indirect constraints on the parameter space of excited fermions.

We present a detailed study concerning a new physics scenario involving four fermion operators of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio type characterized by a strong-coupling ultraviolet fixed point where composite particles are formed as bound states of elementary fermions at the scale $\Lambda ={\cal O}(\text{TeV})$. After implementing the model in the Universal FeynRules Output format, we focus on the phenomenology of the scalar leptoquarks at the LHC and the High-Luminosity option. Leptoquark particles have undergone extensive scrutiny in the literature and experimental searches, primarily relying on pair production and, more recently, incorporating single, t-channel, and lepton-induced processes. This study marks, for the first time, the examination of these production modes at varying jet multiplicities. Novel mechanisms emerge, enhancing the total production cross-section, especially for leptoquarks couplings to higher fermion generations. A global strategy is devised to capture all final state particles produced in association with leptoquarks or originating from their decay, which we termed ``exclusive'', in an analogy to the nomenclature used in nuclear reactions. The assessment of the significance in current and future LHC runs, focusing on the case of leptoquark coupling to a muon - $\textit{c}$ quark pair, reveals superior sensitivity compared to ongoing searches. Given this heightened discovery potential, we advocate the incorporation of exclusive leptoquark searches in future investigations at the LHC.

We study the contribution of a heavy right-handed Majorana neutrino to neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) via four-fermion effective interactions of Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) type. In this physical scenario, the sterile neutrino contributes to the nuclear transition through gauge, contact, and mixed interactions. Using the lower limit on the half-life of $0\nu\beta\beta$ from the KamLAND-Zen experiment, we then constrain the effective right-handed coupling between the sterile neutrino and the $W$ boson: $\mathcal{G}^{W}_{R}$. Eventually, we show that the obtained bounds are compatible with those found in the literature, which highlights the complementarity of this type of phenomenological study with high-energy experiments., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. Version published by JHEP; typos corrected, minor style changes, 3 repeated references removed, Acknowledgments section added

Composite-fermion models predict excited quarks and leptons with mass scales which can potentially be observed at high-energy colliders like the LHC; the most recent exclusion limits from the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations corner excited-fermion masses and the compositeness scale to the multi-TeV range. At the same time, hypothetical composite Majorana neutrinos would lead to observable effects in neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu \beta \beta$) experiments. In this work, we show that the current composite-neutrino exclusion limit $M_N>4.6$ TeV, as extracted from direct searches at the LHC, can indeed be further improved to $M_N>8.8$ TeV by including the bound on the nuclear transition $^{136}$Xe $\to$ $^{136}$Ba $+2e^-$. Looking ahead, the forthcoming HL-LHC will allow probing a larger portion of the parameter-space, nevertheless, it will still benefit from the complementary limit provided by $0 \nu \beta \beta$ future detectors to explore composite-neutrino masses up to $12.6$ TeV.

In this paper, we present the one-loop radiative corrections to the electroweak precision observable $\Delta \rho$ coming from the $I_W=1$ multiplet excited leptons. We have calculated the couplings of the exotic lepton triplet to the vector bosons and ordinary leptons using effective Lagrangian approach. These couplings are then used to estimate the excited lepton triplet contribution to the $\Delta \rho$ parameter. The mass degenerate excited lepton contribution to $\Delta \rho $ is small and can be neglected. However, if the excited leptons are non-degenerate, their contribution can be large which can result in more stringent constraints on the excited fermion parameter space compared to the constraints from present experimental searches and perturbative unitarity condition.

We report on the status of efforts to improve the reinterpretation of searches and measurements at the LHC in terms of models for new physics, in the context of the LHC Reinterpretation Forum. We detail current experimental offerings in direct searches for new particles, measurements, technical implementations and Open Data, and provide a set of recommendations for further improving the presentation of LHC results in order to better enable reinterpretation in the future. We also provide a brief description of existing software reinterpretation frameworks and recent global analyses of new physics that make use of the current data., Comment: 58 pages, minor revision following comments from SciPost referees

We use the extension problem proposed by Caffarelli and Silvestre to study the quantization of a scalar nonlocal quantum field theory built out of the fractional Laplacian. We show that the quantum behavior of such a nonlocal field theory in $d$-dimensions can be described in terms of a local action in $d+1$ dimensions which can be quantized using the canonical operator formalism though giving up local commutativity. In particular, we discuss how to obtain the two-point correlation functions and the vacuum energy density of the nonlocal fractional theory as a brane limit of the bulk correlators. We show explicitly how the quantized extension problem reproduces exactly the same particle content of other approaches based on the spectral representation of the fractional propagator. We also briefly discuss the inverse fractional Laplacian and possible applications of this approach in general relativity and cosmology., Comment: 28 pages, no figures

In this paper we present the partial wave unitarity bound in the parameter space of dimension-5 and dimension-6 effective operators that arise in a compositeness scenario. These are routinely used in experimental searches at the LHC to constraint contact and gauge interactions between ordinary Standard Model fermions and excited (composite) states of mass $M$. After deducing the unitarity bound for the production process of a composite neutrino, we implement such bound and compare it with the recent experimental exclusion curves for Run 2, the High-Luminosity and High-Energy configurations of the LHC. Our results also applies to the searches where a generic single excited state is produced via contact interactions. We find that the unitarity bound, so far overlooked, is quite complelling and significant portions of the parameter space ($M,\Lambda$) become excluded in addition to the standard request $M \le \Lambda$., Comment: This version of the paper merges the previous version published in Phys. Lett. B 795 (2019) 644-649 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.06.042) with the subsequent Erratum currently in press in Physics Letters B (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.134990)

This is the third out of five chapters of the final report [1] of the Workshop on Physics at HL-LHC, and perspectives on HE-LHC [2]. It is devoted to the study of the potential, in the search for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, of the High Luminosity (HL) phase of the LHC, defined as $3~\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ of data taken at a centre-of-mass energy of $14~\mathrm{TeV}$, and of a possible future upgrade, the High Energy (HE) LHC, defined as $15~\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ of data at a centre-of-mass energy of $27~\mathrm{TeV}$. We consider a large variety of new physics models, both in a simplified model fashion and in a more model-dependent one. A long list of contributions from the theory and experimental (ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) communities have been collected and merged together to give a complete, wide, and consistent view of future prospects for BSM physics at the considered colliders. On top of the usual standard candles, such as supersymmetric simplified models and resonances, considered for the evaluation of future collider potentials, this report contains results on dark matter and dark sectors, long lived particles, leptoquarks, sterile neutrinos, axion-like particles, heavy scalars, vector-like quarks, and more. Particular attention is placed, especially in the study of the HL-LHC prospects, to the detector upgrades, the assessment of the future systematic uncertainties, and new experimental techniques. The general conclusion is that the HL-LHC, on top of allowing to extend the present LHC mass and coupling reach by $20-50\%$ on most new physics scenarios, will also be able to constrain, and potentially discover, new physics that is presently unconstrained. Moreover, compared to the HL-LHC, the reach in most observables will generally more than double at the HE-LHC, which may represent a good candidate future facility for a final test of TeV-scale new physics., Comment: Report from Working Group 3 on the Physics of the HL-LHC, and Perspectives at the HE-LHC; v2: final version updated with the latest contributions and summaries; 239 pages + refs; v3: typos and character misprint in Fig. 7.2 fixed; v4: added one missing author

Within a mirror type assignment for the excited composite fermions the neutrino mass term is built up from a Dirac mass, $m_*$, which gives the mass of charged lepton component of the $SU(2)$, right-handed, doublet, and a Majorana mass, $m_L$, for the left-handed component (singlet) of the excited neutrino. The mass matrix is diagonalized leading to two Majorana mass eigenstates. The active neutrino field $\nu^*_R$ is thus a superposition of the two mass eigenstates with mixing coefficients which depend on the ratio $m_L/m_*$. We discuss the prospects of discovery of these physical states at the HL-LHC as compared with the previous searches of composite Majorana neutrinos at the LHC based on sequential type Majorana neutrinos., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures

A new physics scenario shows that four-fermion operators of Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) type have a strong-coupling UV fixed point, where composite fermions $F$ (bosons $\Pi$) form as bound states of three (two) SM elementary fermions and they couple to their constituents via effective contact interactions at the composite scale $\Lambda \approx {\cal O} $(TeV). We present a phenomenological study to investigate such composite particles at the LHC by computing the production cross sections and decay widths of composite fermions in the context of the relevant experiments at the LHC with $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}={\rm 13}$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}={\rm 14}$ TeV. Systematically examining all the different composite particles $F$ and the signatures with which they can manifest, we found a vast spectrum of composite particles $F$ that has not yet been explored at the LHC. Recasting the recent CMS results of the resonant channel $pp\rightarrow e^+F \rightarrow e^+e^- q\bar{q}'$, we find that the composite fermion mass $m_F$ below 4.25 TeV is excluded for $\Lambda$/$m_F$ = 1. We further highlight the region of parameter space where this specific composite particle $F$ can appear using 3 ab$^{-1}$, expected by the High-Luminosity LHC, computing 3 and 5 $\sigma$ contour plots of its statistical significance., Comment: To appear in EPJC. This revised version expands the search for composite fermion F considering all its possible flavors and topologies and highlighting the signatures not yet investigated at LHC

Leptogenesis is an appealing framework to account for the baryon asymmetry in the universe. To this end physics beyond the Standard Model is demanded. In this paper we investigate the possibility to attain successful leptogenesis with composite Majorana neutrinos. We work in the framework of effective gauge mediated and contact interactions without any reference to an underlying compositeness theory. This approach is the one adopted in all current experimental searches for composite fermions at colliders. In the case of gauge mediated interactions, we calculate the CP asymmetry in heavy composite neutrino decays. Both the direct and indirect CP asymmetry are derived and resonant leptogenesis is also discussed. We find that the Sakharov conditions can be met and, for some choice of the parameters, the correct order of magnitude of the baryon asymmetry is reproduced., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, references updated

We consider the production at the LHC of exotic composite quarks of charge $Q=+(5/3) e$ and $Q=-(4/3) e$. Such states are predicted in composite models of higher isospin multiplets ($I_W=1$ or $I_W=3/2$). Given their exotic charges (such as $5/3$), their decays proceed through the electroweak interactions. We compute decay widths and rates for resonant production of the exotic quarks at the LHC. Partly motivated by the recent observation of an excess by the CMS collaboration in the $e\not p_T jj$ final state signature we focus on $ pp \to U^+ j \to W^+ + j\, j\, \to \ell^+\not p_T jj$ and then perform a fast simulation of the detector reconstruction based on DELPHES. We then scan the parameter space of the model ($m_*=\Lambda$) and study the statistical significance of the signal against the relevant standard model background ($Wjj$ followed by leptonic decay of the $W$ gauge boson) providing the luminosity curves as function of $m_*$ for discovery at 3- and 5-$\sigma$ level., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures

We investigate the search for heavy Majorana neutrinos stemming from a composite model scenario at the upcoming LHC Run II at a center of mass energy of 13 TeV. While previous studies of the composite Majorana neutrino were focussed on gauge interactions via magnetic type transition coupling between ordinary and heavy fermions (with mass $m^*$) here we complement the composite model with contact interactions at the energy scale $\Lambda$ and we find that the production cross sections are dominated by such contact interactions by roughly two/three orders of magnitude. This mechanism provides therefore very interesting rates at the prospected luminosities. We study the same sign di-lepton and di-jet signature ($pp \to \ell\ell jj$) and perform a fast detector simulation based on Delphes. We compute 3$\sigma$ and 5$\sigma$ contour plots of the statistical significance in the parameter space ($\Lambda,m^*$). We find that the potentially excluded regions at $\sqrt{s} =13$ TeV are quite larger than those excluded so far at Run I considering searches with other signatures., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Minor comments and few references added. Version accepted by the European Physical Journal C (EPJC)

Doubly charged excited leptons give rise to interesting signatures for physics beyond the standard model at the present Large Hadron Collider. These exotic states are introduced in extended isospin multiplets which couple to the ordinary leptons and quarks either with gauge or contact effective interactions or a combination of both. In this paper we study the production and the corresponding signatures of doubly charged leptons at the forthcoming linear colliders and we focus on the electron-electron beam setting. In the framework of gauge interactions, the interference between the $t$ and $u$ channel is evaluated that has been neglected so far. A pure leptonic final state is considered ($e^{-} \, e^{-} \rightarrow e^{-} \, e^{-} \, \nu_{e} \, \bar{\nu}_{e}$) that experimentally translates into a like-sign dilepton and missing transverse energy signature. We focus on the standard model irreducible background and we study the invariant like-sign dilepton mass distribution for both the signal and background processes. Finally, we provide the 3 and 5-sigma statistical significance exclusion curves in the model parameter space. We find that for a doubly charged lepton mass $m^*\approx 2 $ TeV the expected lower bound on the compositeness scale at CLIC, $\Lambda > 25$ TeV, is much stronger than the current lower bound from LHC ($\Lambda > 5$ TeV) and remains highly competitive with the bounds expected from the run II of the LHC., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Version accepted for publication in the Physical Review D. Contains an improved treatment of the irreducible standard model backgrounds, which now takes into account all interferences of contributing diagrams. Linear Collider exclusion regions in the parameter space considerably improved

We study the production of doubly charged excited leptons at the LHC. These exotic states are predicted in extended weak isospin composite models. A recent analysis of such exotic states was based on a pure gauge model with magnetic type interactions. We include here the mechanism of contact interactions and show that this turns out to dominate the production of the doubly charged leptons. We perform a feasibility analysis of the observation of the tri-lepton signature associated with the production of the exotic doubly charged lepton simulating the response of a generic detector. We give exclusion plots in the parameter space, within statistical uncertainties, at different luminosities., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, submitted for publication

The production at the LHC of exotic excited leptons of charge $Q = +2e$ is considered. Such states are predicted in composite models with extended isospin multiplets ($I_{W}=1$ and $I_{W}=3/2$). The coupling among these doubly charged leptons and Standard Model fermions may occurs either via gauge or contact interactions. In the former case the decay channels are more constrained. We study the production cross section at the LHC of $L^{++}$ ($pp \rightarrow L^{++} \, \ell^{-}$) and focus on the leptonic signature deriving from the subsequent decays $L^{++} \rightarrow W^{+} \ell^{+} \rightarrow \ell^{+} \ \ell^{+} \, \nu_l $. The invariant mass distribution of the like-sign dilepton exhibits a sharp end-point corresponding to excited doubly charged lepton mass $m^{*}$. A preliminary study for the production of doubly charged leptons at the future linear colliders, by considering the process $e^{-} e^{-} \rightarrow L_{e}^{--} \, \nu_{e}$, is carried out. Both the contact and gauge interaction mechanisms are investigated and compared., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted as a proceeding for the LC13 Conference (ECT*, Trento), updated bibliography

In this paper we present the un-Casimir effect, namely the study of the Casimir energy in the presence of an unparticle component in addition to the electromagnetic field contribution. The distinctive feature of the un-Casimir effect is a fractalization of metallic plates. This result emerges through a new dependence of the Casimir energy on the plate separation that scales with a continuous power controlled by the unparticle dimension. As long as the perfect conductor approximation is valid, we find bounds on the unparticle scale that are independent of the effective coupling constant between the scale invariant sector and ordinary matter. We find regions of the parameter space such that for plate distances around $5\mu$m and larger the un-Casimir bound wins over the other bounds., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures; v2: improved discussion, additional references, v3: title slightly changed, version matching that in press on Physics Letters B

We introduce new observables for the study of the inclusive same sign dileptons production at LHC which are built out of ratios of the observed number of same-sign dileptons, both with same $N(\ell,\ell)$ and different flavor $N(\ell,\ell')$. As a case study we apply them to the stau coannihilation region of the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model. We show that the new variables depend rather mildly on the center of mass energy and how these can be used to constraint the parameter space in the $(m_{1/2},\tan\beta)$ plane., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Notes and references added as for the published version

We consider the production at the LHC of exotic composite leptons of charge Q=+2e. Such states are allowed in composite models which contain extended isospin multiplets (Iw=1 and Iw=3/2). These doubly charged leptons couple with Standard Model [SM] fermions via gauge interactions, thereby delineating and restricting their possible decay channels. We discuss the production cross section at the LHC of L++ (p p --> L++, l-) and concentrate on the leptonic signature deriving from the cascade decays L++ --> W+, l+ --> l+, l+, \nu_l i.e. p p --> l-, l+, l+, \nu_l showing that the invariant mass distribution of the like-sign dilepton has a sharp end point corresponding to excited lepton mass m*. We find that the sqrt{s}=7 TeV run is sensitive at the 3-sigma (5-sigma) level to a mass of the order of 600 GeV if L=10 fb^-1 (L=20 fb^-1). The sqrt{s}=14 TeV run can reach a sensitivity at 3-sigma (5-sigma) level up to m*=1 TeV for L=20 fb^-1 (L=60 fb^-1)., Comment: Contains a new section (section IV) that discusses pair production of the exotic doubly charged leptons. Version to appear in the Physical Review D

We study the corrections to the Casimir effect in the classical geometry of two parallel metallic plates, separated by a distance $a$, due to the presence of a minimal length ($\hbar\sqrt{(\beta)}$) arising from quantum mechanical models based on a Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP). The approach for the quantization of the electromagnetic field is based on projecting onto the maximally localized states of a few specific GUP models and was previously developed to study the Casimir-Polder effect. For each model we compute the lowest order correction in the minimal length to the Casimir energy and find that it scales with the fifth power of the distance between the plates $a^{-5}$ as opposed to the well known QED result which scales as $a^{-3}$ and, contrary to previous claims, we find that it is always attractive. The various GUP models can be in principle differentiated by the strength of the correction to the Casimir energy as every model is characterized by a specific multiplicative numerical constant., Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure

We study the formation and detection at the next linear $e^+e^-$ collider of bound states of level-1 quark Kaluza-Klein excitations ${\cal B}_{KK}$ within a scenario of universal extra-dimensions (UED)., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. Contributed paper to the proceedings of LC09: e+e- physics at the TeV scale and the Dark Matter connection. 21-24 September 2009, Perugia, Italy

For a bound state internal wave function respecting parity symmetry, it can be rigorously argued that the mean electric dipole moment must be strictly zero. Thus, both the neutron, viewed as a bound state of three quarks, and the water molecule, viewed as a bound state of ten electrons two protons and an oxygen nucleus, both have zero mean electric dipole moments. Yet, the water molecule is said to have a nonzero dipole moment strength $d=e\Lambda $ with $\Lambda_{H_2O} \approx 0.385\ \dot{A}$. The neutron may also be said to have an electric dipole moment strength with $\Lambda_{neutron} \approx 0.612\ fm$. The neutron analysis can be made experimentally consistent, if one employs a quark-diquark model of neutron structure., Comment: four pages, two figures

We present a detailed study of the effect of internal bremsstrahlung photons in the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard models and their impact on gamma-ray dark matter annihilation searches. We find that although this effect has to be included for the correct evaluation of fluxes of high energy photons from neutralino annihilation, its contribution is relevant only in models and at energies where the lines contribution is dominant over the secondary photons. Therefore, we find that the most optimistic supersymmetric scenarios for dark matter detection do not change significantly when including the internal bremsstrahlung. As an example, we review the gamma-ray dark matter detection prospects of the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy for the MAGIC stereoscopic system and the CTA project. Though the flux of high energy photons is enhanced by an order of magnitude in some regions of the parameter space, the expected fluxes are still much below the sensitivity of the instruments., Comment: 5 pages, twocolumn format, 3 figures:3 references added, accepted as Brief Report in PRD

We examine the prospects for the detection of Higgs mediated lepton flavor violation at LHC and at a photon collider in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with large lepton flavor violating mass insertions in the $\mu-\tau$ sector constraining the parameter space with several experimental bounds. We find rates probably too small to be observed at future experiments if models have to accommodate for a neutralino relic density as measured by WMAP and explain the $(g-2)_{\mu}$ anomaly: better prospects are found if these two constraints are applied only as upper bounds. The spin-independent neutralino-nucleon cross section in the studied constrained parameter space is just below the present CDMS limit while gamma rates from neutralino annihilation in the halo are strongly suppressed., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Prepared for the proceedings of the workshop: "LC09: $e^+ e^-$ Physics at the TeV Scale and the Dark Matter Connection", 21-24 September 2009, Perugia, Italy

We consider the minimal supersymmetric standard model within a scenario of large $\tan\beta$ and heavy squarks and gluinos, with masses of the heavy neutral Higgs bosons below the TeV scale. We allow for the presence of a large, model independent, source of lepton flavor violation (LFV) in the slepton mass matrix in the $\tau-\mu$ sector by the mass insertion approximation. We constrain the parameter space using the $\tau$ LFV decays together with the $B$-mesons physics observables, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and the dark matter relic density. We further impose the exclusion limit on spin-independent neutralino-nucleon scattering from CDMS and the recent CDF limit from direct search of the heavy neutral Higgs at the TEVATRON. We re-examine the prospects for the detection of Higgs mediated LFV at LHC, at a photon collider and in LFV decays of the $\tau$ such as $\tau\to\mu\eta$, $\tau\to\mu\gamma$. We find rates probably too small to be observed at future experiments if models have to accommodate for the relic density measured by WMAP and explain the $(g-2)_{\mu}$ anomaly: better prospects are found if these two constraints are applied only as upper bounds. The spin-independent neutralino-nucleon cross section in the studied constrained parameter space is just below the present CDMS limit and the running XENON100 experiment will cover the region of the parameter space where the lightest neutralino has large gaugino-higgsino mixing., Comment: 9 pages, two-column format, six figures: changes added to match the published version

The process gamma gamma \to mu tau b bbar is studied in the minimal supersymmetric standard model within a large tan_beta scenario imposing on the parameter space present direct and indirect constraints from B physics and rare LFV tau-decays. At a photon collider based on an e+e- linear collider with a center of mass energy of 800 GeV with the parameters of the TESLA proposal (expected integrated gamma-gamma luminosity L=200-500 inverse fb) the LFV signal can be probed for masses of the heavy neutral Higgs bosons A,H from 300 GeV up to the kinematical limit ~ 600 GeV for tan_beta in the range 30,60., Comment: Prepared for "Incontri di Fisica delle Alte Energie", IFAE 2009, Bari, Italy, 15-17 Aprile 2009. To appear in the proceedings to be published by the Societa' Italiana di Fisica in the Nuovo Cimento C - Colloquia on Physics

We study a new signature of lepton flavor violation (LFV) at the Photon Collider (PC) within Supersymmetric (SUSY) theories. We consider the minimal supersymmetric standard model within a large $\tan\beta$ scenario with all superpartner masses in the ${\cal O}$(TeV) while the heavy Higgs bosons masses lie below the TeV and develop sizable loop induced LFV couplings to the leptons. We consider a photon collider based on an $e^+e^-$ linear collider with $\sqrt{s}=800$ GeV with the parameters of the TESLA proposal and show that, with the expected integrated $\gamma\gamma$-luminosity $L_{\gamma\gamma}=200\div 500$ fb$^{-1}$, the "$\mu\tau$ fusion" mechanism is the dominant channel for the process $\gaga\to\mu\tau b\bar{b}$ providing detailed analytical and numerical studies of the signal and backgrounds. We impose on the parameter space present direct and indirect constraints from $B$ physics and rare LFV $\tau$-decays and find that the LFV signal can be probed for masses of the heavy neutral Higgs bosons $A,H$ from 300 GeV up to the kinematical limit $\simeq 600$ GeV for 30$\leq\tan\beta\leq$60., Comment: 12 pages, twocolumn, 7 figures, revtex4

It is shown that in reaction \gamma\gamma\to\ell^+\ell^-+\nu's at \sqrt{s}>200 GeV with polarized photons, large and well observable differences arise in the distribution of positive and negative charged leptons (\ell=\mu^\pm, e^\pm), (charge asymmetry). The modification due to the contribution of the cascade processes with intermediate \tau-lepton in \gamma \gamma \to W^\pm\ell^\mp + \nu's reaction is taken into account. This charge asymmetry is potentially sensitive to effects of physics beyond the standard model at the anticipated luminosity of the Photon Collider mode of the future international linear collider., Comment: Revtex4 two column format, 14 figures, added some comments to match the published version

We study the formation and detection at the next linear e^+e^- collider of bound states of level-1 quark Kaluza-Klein excitations B_KK within a scenario of universal extra-dimensions (UED). The interactions of such Kaluza-Klein excitations are modeled by an alpha_s driven Coulomb potential. In order to obtain the threshold cross-section, we employ the Green function method which is known to properly describe the peaks below threshold and to yield a net increase in the continuum region (above threshold) relative to the naive Born cross-section. We study such effect at different values of the scale (R^-1) of the extra-dimensions with an explicit calculation of the mass spectrum as given by radiative corrections. The overall effect is roughly 2.7 at R^-1=300 GeV and goes down to 2.2 at R^-1=1000 GeV and a relatively large number of events is expected from N_events ~ 2.5*10^4 at R^-1=300 GeV down to N_events ~ 10^3 at R^-1=1000 GeV at the anticipated annual integrated luminosity of L_0= 100 fb^-1. We finally discuss some potentially observable signatures such as the multilepton channels 2j + 2l + missing energy, and 2j + 4l + missing energy for which we estimate statistical significance >~ 2 for R^-1 up to 600 ~ 700 GeV., Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. Enhanced version. 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

Generalized uncertainty relations are known to provide a minimal length $\hbar\sqrt{\beta}$. The effect of such minimal length in the Casimir-Polder interactions between neutral atoms (molecules) is studied. The first order correction term in the minimal uncertainty parameter is derived and found to describe an attractive potential scaling as $r^{-9}$ as opposed to the well known $r^{-7}$ long range retarded potential., Comment: 1 Figure. Version published by Physical Review D. Few references added, typos corrected

The loop level lepton flavor violating signals $\gamma \gamma \to \ell \ell' (\ell=e,\mu,\tau, \ell \neq \ell^\prime)$ are studied in a scenario of low-energy, R-parity conserving, supersymmetric seesaw mechanism within the context of a high energy photon collider. Lepton flavor violation is due to off diagonal elements in the left s-lepton mass matrix induced by renormalization group equations. The average slepton masses ${\widetilde{m}}$ and the off diagonal matrix elements $\Delta m$ are treated as model independent free phenomenological parameters in order to discover regions in the parameter space where the signal cross section may be observable. At the energies of the $\gamma \gamma$ option of the future high-energy linear collider the signal has a potentially large standard model background, and therefore particular attention is paid to the study of kinematical cuts in order to reduce the latter at an acceptable level. We find, for the ($e\tau$) channel, non-negligible fractions of the parameter space ($\delta_{LL}=\Delta m^2/\widetilde{m}^2 \gtrsim 10^{-1}$) where the statistical significance ($SS$) is $SS \gtrsim 3$., Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, Revtex4

We discuss the possibility of formation and subsequent detection of a supersymmetric bound state composed of a slepton--antislepton pair at the next linear collider. The Green function method is used within a non-relativistic approximation to estimate the threshold production cross-section of the $2P$ bound state. The parameter space of Gauge Mediated Symmetry Breaking (GMSB) models allow a particular scenario in which a charged slepton ($\widetilde{e}_R, \widetilde{\mu}_R$ or $\widetilde{\tau}_1$) is the NLSP. Within this scenario the produced $2P$ bound-state decays, through a dipole transition, into the $1S$ ground-state with branching ratio $\approx 100% $ emitting a very soft ($\approx 1 $ MeV) photon which goes undetected. The spectroscopy of the $1S$-state shows that it decays into two photons with $Br \approx 0.5$ up to $m_{NLSP} \approx 1$ TeV. Thus NLSP sleptonium threshold production gives rise to the signal $e^+e^- \to 2P \to 1S + "soft \gamma " \to \gamma \gamma$ which when compared with the standard model two-photon process ($ e^+e^- \to \gamma \gamma$) has a statistical significance ($SS$=signal/noise) which, at an energy offset from threshold of E=20 GeV, goes from $SS=11$ to $SS=2$ when the mass of the NLSP ranges in the interval $[100,200]$ GeV., Comment: 8 figures, 31 pages, latex2e, requires revtex4. Published in PRD

The $e^- e^-$ mode with lepton number $L=+2$ of the initial state is particularly suitable for studying lepton and flavor number violating reactions (LFV). In this brief report we give a summary of the study of two loop-level reactions which violate lepton and flavor numbers: we first consider seesaw type models with heavy Majorana neutrinos at the TeV scale and study the reactions $e^{-}e^{-} \to \ell^{-}\ell^{-}$, and then similar reactions $e^{-}e^{-} \to \ell^{-}e^{-}$ ($\ell=\mu,\tau$) in supersymmetric models where LFV is due to slepton mixing., Comment: 5 pages, talk presented by M. Cannoni at LCWS04, International Conference on Linear Collider, 19-23 Aprile 2004, Paris, France, to appear in the proceedings

The difference in distributions of $\mu^+$ and $\mu^-$ in reactions $\gamma \gamma \to \mu^+\mu^-+\nu\bar\nu$ and $\gamma \gamma \to W^\pm\mu^\mp +\nu(\bar\nu)$ with polarized photons at $\sqrt{s}>200$ GeV is a large observable effect which is sensitive to New Physics phenomena., Comment: 4 pages, talk presented by I. F. Ginzburg at LCWS04, International Conference on Linear Collider, 19-23 April 2004, Paris, France, to appear in the Proceedings

We present a study of loop-level lepton flavor vioalting signals in models with heavy Majorana neutrinos and in the supersymmetric extension of the standard model. The attention is focused to the $e^- e^-$ option of the next generation of linear colliders and its potential of discovering new physics is emphasized., Comment: 12 pages, to appear in JHEP Proceedings of "International Workshop on Astroparticles and High Energy Physics", AHEP2003, October 14 - 18, 2003, Valencia, Spain

The lepton flavour violating signals $e^{+}e^{-}\to \ell^{+}e^{-}$ and $e^{-}e^{-}\to \ell^{-}e^- (\ell=\mu,\tau)$ are studied in the context of low energy R-parity conserving supersymmetry at center of mass energies of interest for the next generation of linear colliders. Loop level amplitudes receive contributions from electroweak penguin and box diagrams involving sleptons and gauginos. Lepton flavour violation is due to off diagonal elements in $SU(2)_L$ doublet slepton mass matrix. These masses are treated as model independent free phenomenological parameters in order to discover regions in parameter space where the signal cross section may be observable. The results are compared with (a) the experimental bounds from the non-observation of rare radiative lepton decays $\mu, \tau \to e\gamma$ and (b) the general mSUGRA theoretical scenario with seesaw mechanism where off diagonal slepton matrix entries are generated by renormalization group evolution of neutrino Yukawa couplings induced by the presence of new energy scales set by the heavy $SU(2)_L$ singlet neutrino masses. It is found that in $e^- e^-$ collisions the ($e\tau$) signal can be observable with a total integrated luminosity of 100 fb$^{-1}$ and the that the background can be easily suppressed. In $e^+ e^-$ collisions the cross section is smaller and higher luminosities are needed. The experimental bound on the decay $\mu \to e \gamma$ prevents the ($e\mu$) signal from being observable., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, Revtex4

It is shown that the difference in the distributions of positive ($\mu^+$) and negative charged leptons ($\mu^-$) in reactions $\gamma \gamma \to \mu^+\mu^-+\nu\bar\nu$ and $\gamma \gamma \to W^\pm\mu^\mp +\nu(\bar\nu)$ at $\sqrt{s}>200$ GeV leads to observable {\em charge asymmetry} of muons which is sensitive to New Physics effects., Comment: Talk presented by I. F. Ginzburg at Photon 2003: International Conference on the Structure and Interactions of the Photon and 15th International Workshop on Photon-Photon Collisions, Frascati, Italy, 7-11 Apr 2003

The cross section for the reaction $e^{-}e^{-} \to \ell^-\ell^-$ ($\ell=\mu,\tau$) is calculated in models with heavy Majorana neutrinos mediating lepton number violating amplitudes at the loop level. The contributing four-point functions are evaluated exactly (numerically) taking into account the full propagator dependence on external momenta, thereby extending %an earlier approximate low energy calculation to the energy range of interest for the next linear colliders an earlier approximate low energy calculation. The amplitude shows a non-decoupling behaviour relative to the heavy Majorana neutrino masses, but due to the stringent bounds on heavy-light mixing the signal cross section attains observable values only for the less constrained $\tau$ signal. The cross section induced by lepton number violation in the $SU(2)_L$ doublet sneutrino sector of supersymmetric extensions of the standard model is constrained by the upper limits on neutrino masses and probably too tiny to be observable., Comment: Revtex 4, 5 figures

An investigation of two-time correlation functions is reported within the framework of (i) Stochastic Quantum Mechanics and (ii) conventional Heisenberg-Schr\"odinger Quantum Mechanics. The spectral functions associated with the two-time electric dipole correlation functions are worked out in detail for the case of the hydrogen atom. While the single time averages are identical for stochastic and conventional quantum mechanics, differences arise in the two approaches for multiple time correlation functions., Comment: Version published by the Eur. Phys. J. B. Few references added. Minor typos corrected

The lepton number violating signal of like-sign-dileptons (LSD), p p \to \ell^\pm\ell^\pm + 2 jets, is investigated within a model of mixing in the neutrino sector assuming the existence of heavy Majorana neutrino states with a left--handed coupling to the light leptons. The LSD signal receives contributions both from the resonant production of a heavy Majorana neutrino (N) and from the exchange of a virtual N in the WW fusion mechanisms. These two possibilities are discussed in detail and compared. Helicity amplitudes are given pointing out differences with calculations previously reported by other authors. The signal cross--sections are computed at the energy of the LHC collider (sqrt{S}=14 TeV) at CERN and within the existing experimental limits on the mixing couplings, including those coming from neutrinoless double beta decay. Detailed angular distributions of signal reactions which are complementary to previous studies on the argument are presented., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, Revtex3

Lepton number violation could be manifest in the sneutrino sector of supersymmetric extensions of the standard model with conserved R-parity. Then sneutrinos decay partly into the ``wrong sign charged lepton'' final state, if kinematically accessible. In sneutrino pair production or associated single sneutrino production, the signal then is a like sign dilepton final state. Under favourable circumstances, such a signal could be visible at the LHC or a next generation linear collider for a relative sneutrino mass-splitting of order ${\cal O}(0.001)$ and sneutrino width of order ${\cal O}$(1 GeV). On the other hand, the like sign dilepton event rate at the TEVATRON is probably too small to be observable., Comment: 19 pages, 14 Figures. Section about LSD at LHC and TEVATRON added. Previous Title "Single sneutrino production and the wrong charged lepton signal"

Decays of sneutrinos are considered in the case that in the presence of lepton-number violation in the sneutrino sector the lighter tau-sneutrino is the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle and the Cold Dark Matter in the Universe. In such circumstances the signals from sparticle decays differ considerably from the ``standard'' case where the lightest neutralino is the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle and it is found that in a wide range of parameters compatible with the sneutrino Cold Dark Matter hypothesis signatures characteristic for such a scenario should be easily observable at for example a Next Linear Collider., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

The production of Like-Sign-Di-leptons (LSD), in the high energy lepton number violating ($\Delta L = +2$) reaction, p p --> 2jets + l+l+ (l=e,\mu,\tau) of interest for the experiments to be performed at the forthcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is investigated in detail, taking up a composite model scenario in which the exchanged virtual composite neutrino is assumed to be a Majorana particle that couples to the light leptons via the $SU(2)\times U(1)$ gauge bosons through a magnetic type coupling ($\sigma_{\mu\nu}$). An helicity projection method is used to evaluate exactly the tree-level amplitudes of the contributing parton subprocesses ($2\to 4$), which allows to take into account all exchange diagrams and occurring interferences. Numerical estimates of the corresponding signal cross-section that implement kinematical cuts needed to suppress the Standard Model background, are presented which show that in some regions of the parameter space the total number of LSD events is well above the background. Assuming non-observation of the LSD signal it is found that LHC would exclude a composite Majorana neutrino up to 850 GeV (if one requires 10 events for discovery). The sensitivity of LHC experiments to the parameter space is then compared to that of the next generation of neutrinoless double beta decay ($\beta\beta_{0\nu}$) experiment, GENIUS, and it is shown that they will provide constraints of the same order of magnitude and will play a complementary role., Comment: Revtex style, 31 pages, 8 postscript figures. Few typos corrected

Active Galactic Nuclei are considered as sources of neutrinos, with neutrino energies extending up to 10^{18} eV. It is expected that these highly energetic cosmic neutrinos will be detected by the neutrino telescopes, presently under construction. The detection process is very sensitive to the total muon neutrino cross-section. We examine how the total cross section changes at high energies, by the single production of excited fermions (excited muon and muon-neutrino). For parameters (masses, couplings) of the excited fermions allowed by the experimental constraints, we find that for energies of the incoming muon-neutrino above 100 TeV the cross-section for single production of (excited muon and muon-neutrino) supersedes the standard total cross-section., Comment: 12 pages and 2 figures; typset using revtex; postscript files for the figures provided

We study in detail the contribution of heavy composite Majorana neutrinos to neutrino-less double beta decay. Our analysis confirms the result of a previous estimate by two of the authors. Excited neutrinos couple to the electroweak gauge bosons through a magnetic type effective Lagrangian. The relevant nuclear matrix element is related to matrix elements available in the literature and current bounds on the half-life of neutrino-less double beta decay are converted into bounds on the compositeness scale and/or the heavy neutrino mass. Our bounds are of the same order of magnitude as those available from accelerator experiments., Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures. RevTex file and 3 postscript figures. Numerical error corrected. This implies a slight change on the numerical results and in the figures. The conclusions are not affected. Uses an updated experimental input relative to the version to be published by the Physical Review D

Left-right symmetric models provide a natural framework for neutrinoless double beta ($\znbb$) decay. In the analysis of $\znbb$ decay in left-right symmetric models, however, it is usually assumed that all neutrinos are light. On the other hand, heavy {\it right-handed} neutrinos appear quite naturally in left-right symmetric models and should therefore not be neglected. Assuming the existence of at least one right-handed heavy neutrino, absence of $\znbb$ decay of $^{76}$Ge currently provides the following limits on the mass and mixing angle of right-handed W-bosons: $m_{W_R}\ge 1.1 $ TeV and $\tan(\zeta) \le 4.7 \times 10^{-3}$ for a particular value of the effective right-handed neutrino mass, $\emnv = 1$ TeV, and in the limit of infinitly massive doubly charged Higgs ($\Delta^{--}$). The effects of the inclusion of the Higgs triplet on $\znbb$ decay are also discussed., Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 3 figures

Using the general helicity formula for $\gamma^* \gamma^*$ collisions, we are showing that it should be possible to determine a number of independent ``structure functions'', i.e. linear combinations of elements of the two-photon helicity tensor, through azimuthal correlations in two-body or quasi two-body reactions induced by the photon-photon interaction, provided certain experimental conditions are satisfied. Numerical results of our computations are presented for some particular processes and dynamic models., Comment: 23 pages; Revtex file; Postscript files of the 6 figures appended in a uuencoded file

We give a brief review of the existing bounds on effective couplings for excited states ($e^*, \nu^*, u^*, d^* $) of the ordinary quarks and leptons arising from a composite model scenario. We then explore the phenomenological implications of the hypothesis that the excited neutrino $\nu^*$ might be of Majorana type. Recent bounds on the half-life of the $\Delta L =2 $ neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta $) are used to constraint the compositeness effective couplings. We show that the bounds so obtained are roughly of the same order of magnitude as those available from high energy experiments., Comment: 20 pages; Latex file and World Scientific style files (uuendoded in a single file). 9 figures appended in a uuencoded file. Uses epsfig.sty; Invited Talk Presented at the International Workshop on Double Beta Decay, ECT*, April 24 - May 5 1995, Trento, Italy. To appear in the Proceedings