Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Light sterile neutrinos: a critical overview

  Ivan Esteban

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 026 (2019) · published 20 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Light sterile neutrinos, first proposed after the results of the LSND experiment, have been a polemical topic for the last decades after seemingly contradictory data appeared from different experiments. In this overview, I review the experimental hints that point towards sterile neutrinos as well as their statistical compatibility. Even though the muon neutrino disappearance experiments strongly rule out vanilla sterile neutrinos, each oscillation channel remains internally mostly consistent. In any case, in the near future a series of independent and precise experiments should finally settle down this issue.

• LHC searches motivated by recent $B$-anomalies

  Darius Alexander Faroughy

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 021 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We discuss the physics case for the LHC motivated by the $B$-physics anomalies. After correlating semi-tauonic $B$ decays to di-tau production at the LHC, and discussing the possible models solving the $B$-anomalies, we show how existing LHC data in $\tau\bar\tau$ tails exclude most beyond the SM scenarios except for a handful of leptoquark (LQ) models. We analyze the impact of LHC searches for some of these LQ solutions using current data. In particular, we focus on the well known $U_1$ vector LQ as well as the GUT-inspired scalar LQs, $R_2$ and $S_3$. By exploiting the complementarity between di-tau searches and the lepton flavor violating decays $B\to K\mu\tau$ and $\tau\to\mu\phi$ we argue that these model can be cornered by the LHC, Belle~II and LHCb in the near future.

  2 citations

• Monte Carlo, fitting and Machine Learning for Tau leptons

  Vladimir Cherepanov, Elzbieta Richter-Was, Zbigniew Was

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 018 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Status of tau lepton decay Monte Carlo generator TAUOLA, and its main recent applications are reviewed. It is underlined, that in recent efforts on development of new hadronic currents, the multi-dimensional nature of distributions of the experimental data must be taken with a great care. Studies for H to tau tau; tau to hadrons indeed demonstrate that multi-dimensional nature of distributions is important and available for evaluation of observables where tau leptons are used to constrain experimental data. For that part of the presentation, use of the TAUOLA program for phenomenology of H and Z decays at LHC is discussed, in particular in the context of the Higgs boson parity measurements with the use of Machine Learning techniques. Some additions, relevant for QED lepton pair emission and electroweak corrections are mentioned as well.

  2 citations

• Lepton flavour violation and neutrino masses

  Ana M. Teixeira

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 015 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Neutrino oscillations provided the first evidence for the violation of flavour in the lepton sector, and established a clear need to consider extensions of the Standard Model. Many new phenomena can emerge from these New Physics (NP) constructions, among which processes violating lepton number and charged lepton flavour, all clear signals of New Physics. Following a short overview of the status of experimental searches, we comment on the prospects of several models of massive neutrinos, from minimal constructions to complete NP models, to the above mentioned observables.

• Charged lepton flavour violating processes

  Adrian Signer

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 014 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Charged lepton flavour violating processes are naturally present in many extensions of the Standard Model. After a brief overview on the experimental situation, an effective-field-theory framework is described that allows to interpret and compare the various experiments in a consistent way. The usefulness of this approach is then illustrated in the context of a specific model with a doubly charged scalar.

• Probing lepton universality with (semi)-leptonic B decays

  Giovanni Banelli, Robert Fleischer, Ruben Jaarsma and Gilberto Tetlalmatzi-Xolocotzi

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 013 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The most recent measurements of the observables $R_{D^{(*)}}$ are in tension with the Standard Model offering hints of New Physics in $b\rightarrow c \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ transitions. Motivated by these results, in this work we present an analysis on their $b\rightarrow u \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ counterparts (for $\ell=e, ~\mu, ~\tau$). Our study has three main objectives. Firstly, using ratios of branching fractions, we assess the effects of beyond the Standard Model scalar and pseudoscalar particles in leptonic and semileptonic $B$ decays ($B^-\rightarrow \ell^- \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$, $\bar{B}\rightarrow \pi \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$ and $\bar{B}\rightarrow \rho \ell \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$). Here a key role is played by the leptonic $B$ processes, which are highly sensitive to new pseudoscalar interactions. In particular, we take advantage of the most recent measurement of the branching fraction of the channel $B^-\rightarrow \mu^-\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ by the Belle collaboration. Secondly, we extract the CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ while accounting simultaneously for New Physics contributions. Finally, we provide predictions for the branching fractions of yet unmeasured leptonic and semileptonic $B$ decays.

  1 citation

• Tau polarimetry in B meson decays

  Rodrigo Alonso, Jorge Martin Camalich, Susanne Westhoff

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 012 (2019) · published 19 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  This article summarizes recent developments in $B\to D^{(\ast)}\tau\nu$ decays. We explain how to extract the tau lepton's production properties from the kinematics of its decay products. The focus is on hadronic tau decays, which are most sensitive to the tau polarizations. We present new results for effects of new physics in tau polarization observables and quantify the observation prospects at BELLE II.

  5 citations

• NLO prediction for the decays $\tau \to \ell \ell'\ell' \nu \bar \nu$ and $\mu \to e e e \nu \bar\nu$

  Matteo Fael

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 009 (2019) · published 18 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  These proceedings present the differential decay rates and the branching ratios of the tau and muon decays $\tau \to \ell \ell' \ell' \nu \bar\nu$ (with $\ell,\ell'=\mu,e$) and $\mu \to e e e \nu \bar \nu$ in the Standard Model at NLO. These five-body leptonic decays are a tool to study the Lorentz structure of weak interactions and to test lepton flavour universality. They are also a source of SM background to searches for the lepton-flavour-violating decays $\mu \to e e e$ and $\tau \to \ell \ell' \ell'$. Even if the shift in the branching ratios induced by radiative corrections turns out to be small and of order 1% - mainly due to a running effect of the fine structure constant - locally in the phase space these corrections can reach the 5 - 10% level, depending on the applied cuts. We found for instance that in the phase space region where the neutrino energies are small, and the momenta of the three charged leptons have a similar signature as in $\mu \to eee$ and $\tau \to \ell \ell'\ell'$, the NLO corrections decrease the leading-order prediction by about 10 - 20%.

• Non-standard interactions in $\tau^- \to (\pi^-\eta,\pi^-\pi^0)\nu_{\tau}$ decays

  Gabriel López Castro

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 008 (2019) · published 18 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Originally thought as clean processes to study the hadronization of the weak currents, semileptonic tau lepton decays can be useful to set constraints on non-standard (NS) weak interactions. In this talk we summarize our recent studies on the effects of NS interactions in $\tau^- \to (\pi^-\pi^0,\pi^-\eta)\nu_{\tau}$ decays. We find that experimental data on these decays provide strong constraints on NS scalar and tensor interactions, respectively. Further improved measurements at Belle II and a better knowledge of necessary tensor and scalar form factors will allow to set limits on these NS interactions that are similar or better to contraints obtained from other low-energy processes

  4 citations

• A no-go theorem for non-standard explanations of the $\tau\to K_S\pi\nu_\tau$ CP asymmetry

  Vincenzo Cirigliano, Andreas Crivellin, Martin Hoferichter

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 1, 007 (2019) · published 18 February 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A new tensor interaction is the only possibility to explain the $2.8\sigma$ tension observed by the BaBar collaboration in the CP asymmetry in $\tau\to K_S\pi\nu_\tau$ with physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) realized above the electroweak scale. However, the strong phase generated by the interference between vector and tensor phases is suppressed by at least two orders of magnitude due to Watson's final-state-interaction theorem, and the strength of the CP-violating tensor interaction is strongly constrained by bounds from the neutron electric dipole moment and $D$-$\bar{D}$ mixing. As a result, a confirmation of the tension at Belle II would point to light BSM physics.

  7 citations