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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
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DOE OSTI2013

GENERAL-RELATIVISTIC SIMULATIONS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVAE

We study the three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamics of the post-core-bounce phase of the collapse of a 27 M{sub Sun} star and pay special attention to the development of the standing accretion shock instability (SASI) and neutrino-driven convection. To this end, we perform 3D general-relativistic simulations with a three-species neutrino leakage scheme. The leakage scheme captures the essential aspects of neutrino cooling, heating, and lepton number exchange as predicted by radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. The 27 M{sub Sun} progenitor was studied in 2D by Mueller et al., who observed strong growth of the SASI while neutrino-driven convection was suppressed. In our 3D simulations, neutrino-driven convection grows from numerical perturbations imposed by our Cartesian grid. It becomes the dominant instability and leads to large-scale non-oscillatory deformations of the shock front. These will result in strongly aspherical explosions without the need for large-scale SASI shock oscillations. Low-l-mode SASI oscillations are present in our models, but saturate at small amplitudes that decrease with increasing neutrino heating and vigor of convection. Our results, in agreement with simpler 3D Newtonian simulations, suggest that once neutrino-driven convection is started, it is likely to become the dominant instability in 3D. Whether it is the primary instability after bounce will ultimately depend on the physical seed perturbations present in the cores of massive stars. The gravitational wave signal, which we extract and analyze for the first time from 3D general-relativistic models, will serve as an observational probe of the postbounce dynamics and, in combination with neutrinos, may allow us to determine the primary hydrodynamic instability.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Search for 0ν2β of {sup 100}Mo by NEMO-3 and status of SuperNEMO

The NEMO-3 experiment was devoted to the research of the neutrinoless double beta decay and the precise measurement of the two-neutrino double beta decay of seven isotopes. The detector took data in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) from 2003 to 2011. The unique combination of a 3D-tracker and a calorimeter allowed to fully reconstruct the double beta decay events topology and strongly reduces the backgrounds. This feature also permitted to characterize the remaining backgrounds in independent analysis channels. With an exposure of 34.7 kg·y of {sup 100}Mo no evidence for the 0ν2β signal has been found, yielding a limit for the light Majorana neutrino mass mechanism of T{sub 1/2}(0ν2β) > 1.1 10{sup 24} years (90 % C.L.) once both statistical and systematic uncertainties are taken into account. Depending on the Nuclear Matrix Elements this corresponds to an upper limit on the Majorana effective neutrino mass of |m{sub ββ}| < 0.3 − 0.9 eV (90 % C.L.). Constraints on other lepton number violating mechanisms of 0ν2β decays are also given. Searching for high-energy double electron events in all suitable sources of the detector, no event in the energy region [3.2-10] MeV is observed for an exposure of 47 kg·y. The next generation experiment, SuperNEMO, will use the same experimental technique to extend the sensitivity on the neutrinoless double beta decay search. Several aspects have been improved compared to NEMO-3: choice of the isotope, energy resolution, energy losses… but the main challenge is the background reduction. All the detector materials have been selected for their low natural radioactivity contaminations through High Purity Germanium (HPGe) gamma spectroscopy. The double beta sources after enrichment are being prepared with extreme care and the ultimate contaminations will be characterized by the most sensitive BiPo detector. External radon tightness and internal radon emanation have been studied to ensure a very low level in the tracker with very sensitive complementary detectors: diffusion apparatus, concentration line and emanation tanks. The construction of the first detector, called the demonstrator, has started in 2012. Studying 7 kg of {sup 82}Se, the demonstrator will reach the NEMO-3 sensitivity in only 5 months and improve it by at least a factor 6 in 2.5 years. Underground installation will start fall 2014 and physics data taking should start by summer 2015.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay with 130 Te with CUORE-0

This thesis describes the design, operation and results of an experimental search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0$\nu\beta\beta$) of $^{130}$Te using the CUORE-0 detector. The discovery of 0$\nu\beta\beta$ would have profound implications for particle physics and our understanding of the Universe. Its discovery would demonstrate the violation of lepton number and imply that neutrinos are Majorana fermions and therefore their own anti-particles. Combined with other experimental results, the discovery of 0$\nu\beta\beta$ could also have implications for understanding the absolute neutrino mass scale as well as the presently unknown neutrino mass hierarchy. The CUORE experiment is a ton-scale search for 0$\nu\beta\beta$ in $^{130}$Te expected to begin operation in late 2015. The first stage of this experiment is a smaller 39-kg active-mass detector called CUORE-0. This detector contains 11 kg of $^{130}$Te and operates in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso lab in Italy from 2013 -- 2015. The results presented here are based on a $^\text{nat}$TeO$_2$ exposure of 35.2 kg$\cdot$yr, or 9.8 kg$\cdot$yr exposure of $^{130}$Te collected between 2013 -- 2015. We see no evidence of 0$\nu\beta\beta$ and place an upper limit on the 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decay rate of $\Gamma_\text{0$\nu\beta\beta$}<0.25\times10^{-24}$ yr$^{-1}$ (90 % C.L.), corresponding to a lower limit on the half-life of $T^{0\nu}_{1/2}>2.8\times10^{24}$ yr (90 % C.L.). We combine the present result with the results of previous searches in $^{130}$Te. Combining it with the 1.2 kg$\cdot$yr $^{130}$Te exposure from the Three Towers Test run we place a half-life limit of $T_{1/2}^{0\nu}>3.3\times10^{24}$ yr (90 % C.L.). And combining these results with the 19.75 kg$\cdot$yr $^{130}$Te exposure from CUORE-0ino, we place the strongest limit on the 0$\nu\beta\beta$ half-life of $^{130}$Te to date, at $T^{0\nu}_{1/2}>4.5\times10^{24}$ yr (90 % C.L.). Using the present nuclear matrix element calculations for $^{130}$Te, this result corresponds to a 90 % upper limit range on the effective Majorana mass of $m_{\beta\beta}<250-710$ meV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Search for heavy neutral leptons in decays of W bosons produced in 13 TeV pp collisions using prompt signatures in the ATLAS detector

The existence of right-handed neutrinos with Majorana masses below the electroweak scale could help address the origins of neutrino masses, the matter–antimatter asymmetry, and dark matter. In this paper, leptonic decays of W bosons from 140 fb-1$$^{-1}$$ of 13 TeV proton–proton collisions at the LHC, reconstructed in the ATLAS experiment, are used to search for heavy neutral leptons produced through their mixing with muon or electron neutrinos in a scenario with lepton number violation. The search is conducted using prompt leptonic decay signatures. The considered final states require two same-charge leptons or three leptons, while vetoing three-lepton same-flavour topologies. No significant excess over the expected Standard Model backgrounds is found, leading to constraints on the heavy neutral lepton’s mixing with muon and electron neutrinos for heavy-neutral-lepton masses. The analysis excludes |Ue|2$$|U_{e}|^2$$ values above 8×10-5$$8\times 10^{-5}$$ and |Uμ|2$$|U_{\mu }|^2$$ values above 5.0×10-5$$5.0 \times 10^{-5}$$ in the full mass range of 8–65 GeV. The strongest constraints are placed on heavy-neutral-lepton masses in the range 15–30 GeV of |Ue|2<1.1×10-5$$|U_{e}|^2 < 1.1 \times 10^{-5}$$ and |Uμ|2<5×10-6$$|U_{\mu }|^2 < 5 \times 10^{-6}$$.

Aad, G↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electroweak-like baryogenesis with new chiral matter

We propose a framework where a phase transition associated with a gauge symmetry breaking that occurs (not far) above the electroweak scale sets a stage for baryogenesis similar to the electroweak baryogenesis in the Standard Model. A concrete realization utilizes the breaking of SU(2) R × U(1) X → U(1) Y . New chiral fermions charged under the extended gauge symmetry have nonzero lepton numbers, which makes the B - L symmetry anomalous. The new lepton sector contains a large flavor-dependent CP violation, similar to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase, without inducing sizable electric dipole moments of the Standard Model particles. A bubble wall dynamics associated with the first-order phase transition and SU(2) R sphaleron processes generate a lepton asymmetry, which is transferred into a baryon asymmetry via the ordinary electroweak sphaleron process. Unlike the Standard Model electroweak baryogenesis, the new phase transition can be of the strong first order and the new CP violation is not significantly suppressed by Yukawa couplings, so that the observed asymmetry can be produced. The model can be probed by collider searches for new particles and the observation of gravitational waves. One of the new leptons becomes a dark matter candidate. The model can be also embedded into a left-right symmetric theory to solve the strong CP problem.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Parity solution to the strong CP problem and a unified framework for inflation, baryogenesis, and dark matter

It has been known for some time that asymptotic parity invariance of weak interactions can provide a solution to the strong CP problem without the need for the axion. Left-right symmetric theories which employ a minimal Higgs sector consisting of a left-handed and a right-handed doublet is an example of such a theory wherein all fermion masses arise through a generalized seesaw mechanism. In this paper we present a way to understand the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry as well as the dark matter content of the universe in these theories using the Affleck-Dine (AD) leptogenesis mechanism and inflaton decay, respectively. Three gauge singlet fermions are needed for this purpose, two of which help to implement the Dirac seesaw for neutrino masses while the third one becomes the non-thermal dark matter candidate. A soft lepton number breaking term involving the AD scalar field is used to generate lepton asymmetry which suffers no wash-out effects and maintains the Dirac nature of neutrinos. This framework thus provides a unified description of many of the unresolved puzzles of the standard model that require new physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

$|\Delta \mathcal{B}| =2$: A State of the Field, and Looking Forward--A brief status report of theoretical and experimental physics opportunities

The origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry apparently obligates the laws of physics to include some mechanism of baryon number ($\mathcal{B}$) violation. Searches for interactions violating $\mathcal{B}$ and baryon-minus-lepton number $\mathcal{(B-L)}$ represent a rich and underutilized opportunity. These are complementary to the existing, broad program of searches for $\mathcal{L}$-violating modes such as neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay which could provide deeper understandings of the plausibility of leptogenesis, or $\mathcal{B}$-violating, $\mathcal{(B-L)}$-conserving processes such as proton decay. In particular, a low-scale, post-sphaleron violation mechanism of $\mathcal{(B-L)}$ could provide a \textit{testable} form of baryogenesis. Though theoretically compelling, searches for such $\mathcal{(B-L)}$-violating processes like $\Delta\mathcal{B}=2$ dinucleon decay and $n\rightarrow\bar{n}$ remain relatively underexplored experimentally compared to other rare processes. By taking advantage of upcoming facilities such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and the European Spallation Source, this gap can be addressed with new intranuclear and free searches for neutron transformations with very high sensitivity, perhaps greater than three orders of magnitude higher than previous experimental searches. This proceedings reports on recent theoretical and experimental advances and sensitivities of next-generation searches for neutron transformations were detailed as part of the Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions Workshop, "Theoretical Innovations for Future Experiments Regarding Baryon Number Violation," directly coordinated with the Rare Processes and Precision Measurements Frontier.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Testing the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism with lepton flavor and number violating processes

The Froggatt-Nielsen (FN) mechanism offers an elegant explanation for the observed masses and mixings of Standard Model fermions. In this work, we systematically study FN models in the lepton sector, identifying a broad range of charge assignments (“textures”) that naturally yield viable masses and mixings for various neutrino mass generation mechanisms. Using these textures, we consider higher-dimensional operators consistent with a FN origin and find that natural realizations predict distinct patterns in lepton flavor- and number-violating observables. For Dirac and Majorana neutrinos, FN-related correlations can lead to detectable rates of charged lepton flavor violation at next-generation low-energy experiments. Majorana and type-I seesaw models predict measurable rates of neutrinoless double beta decay. Determination of inverted neutrino mass ordering would exclude the Dirac neutrino FN scenario. Only a small minority of purely leptonic FN models predict detectable flavor violation at future muon colliders, though it is possible that a combined analysis with the quark sector will reveal motivated signals. These findings highlight the power of the FN mechanism to link neutrino mass generation to testable leptonic observables, offering new pathways for the experimental exploration of lepton number and underscoring the importance of next-generation low-energy probes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Neutrino Masses from Generalized Symmetry Breaking

We explore generalized global symmetries in theories of physics beyond the standard model. Theories of Z ′ bosons generically contain “noninvertible” chiral symmetries, whose presence indicates a natural paradigm to break this symmetry by an exponentially small amount in an ultraviolet completion. For example, in models of gauged lepton family difference such as the phenomenologically well motivated U ( 1 ) L μ − L τ , there is a noninvertible lepton number symmetry which protects neutrino masses. We embed these theories in gauged non-Abelian horizontal lepton symmetries, e.g., U ( 1 ) L μ − L τ ⊂ SU ( 3 ) H , where the generalized symmetries are broken nonperturbatively by the existence of lepton family magnetic monopoles. In such theories, either Majorana or Dirac neutrino masses may be generated through quantum gauge theory effects from the charged lepton Yukawas, e.g., y ν ∼ y τ exp ( − S inst ) . These theories require no bevy of new fields nor additional global symmetries but are instead simple, natural, and predictive: The discovery of a lepton family Z ′ at low energies will reveal the scale at which L μ − L τ emerges from a larger gauge symmetry. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Córdova, Clay (ORCID:0000000205793295)↗
DOE OSTI2017

Advantages of unity with SU(4)-color: Reflections through neutrino oscillations, baryogenesis and proton decay

As a tribute to Abdus Salam, I recall the initiation in 1972-73 of the idea of grand unification based on the view that lepton number is the fourth color. Motivated by aesthetic demands, these attempts led to the suggestion that the existing SU (2) x U (1) symmetry be extended minimally to the quark-lepton and left-right symmetric non-Abelian gauge structure G (2,2,4) = SU (2) L x SU (2) R x SU (4)-color. This served to unify members of a family within a single L-R self-conjugate multiplet. It also explained: the quantization of electric charge, the co-existence of quarks and leptons, and that of their three basic forces $-$ weak, electromagnetic, and strong $-$ while providing the appealing possibility that nature is fundamentally left-right symmetric (parity-conserving). The minimal extension of the symmetry G (2,2,4) to a simple group is given by the attractive symmetry SO (10) that came a year later. The advantages of the core symmetry G (2,2,4), including those listed above (which are of course retained by SO (10) as well), are noted. These include the introductions of: (i) the right-handed neutrino as a compelling member of each family, (ii) (B-L) as a local symmetry, and (iii) the mass relation m (ν τ ) Dirac = m top (M GUT ). These three features, all arising due to SU(4)-color, as well as the gauge coupling uni cation scale (identi ed with the (B-L)- breaking scale), are crucially needed to understand the tiny mass-scales of the neutrino oscillations within the seesaw mechanism, and to implement successfully the mechanism of baryogenesis via leptogenesis. Implications of a well-motivated class of models based on supersymmetric SO(10) or a string-unified G(2, 2, 4) symmetry in 4D for (a) gauge coupling uni cation, (b) fermion masses and mixings, (c) neutrino osillations, (d) baryogenesis via leptogenesis, and last but not least (e) proton decay are presented. Recent works on the latter providing upper limits on proton lifetimes suggest that the potential for discovery of proton decay in the next-generation detectors would be high.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sensitivity of the NEXT experiment to Xe-124 double electron capture

Double electron capture by proton-rich nuclei is a second-order nuclear process analogous to double beta decay. Despite their similarities, the decay signature is quite different, potentially providing a new channel to measure the hypothesized neutrinoless mode of these decays. The Standard-Model-allowed two-neutrino double electron capture (2$\nu$EC EC) has been predicted for a number of isotopes, but only observed in 78 Kr, 130 Ba and, recently, 124 Xe. The sensitivity to this decay establishes a benchmark for the ultimate experimental goal, namely the potential to discover also the lepton-number-violating neutrinoless version of this process, 0$\nu$EC EC. Here we report on the current sensitivity of the NEXT-White detector to 124 Xe 2$\nu$EC EC and on the extrapolation to NEXT-100. Using simulated data for the 2$\nu$EC EC signal and real data from NEXT-White operated with 124 Xe-depleted gas as background, we define an optimal event selection that maximizes the NEXT-White sensitivity. We estimate that, for NEXT-100 operated with xenon gas isotopically enriched with 1 kg of 124 Xe and for a 5-year run, a sensitivity to the 2$\nu$EC EC half-life of 6 × 10 22 y (at 90% confidence level) or better can be reached.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Reconciling large- and small-scale structure in Twin Higgs models

Here, we study possible extensions of the Twin Higgs model that solve the Hierarchy problem and simultaneously address problems of the large- and small-scale structures of the Universe. Besides naturally providing dark matter (DM) candidates as the lightest charged twin fermions, the twin sector contains a light photon and neutrinos, which can modify structure formation relative to the prediction from the ΛCDM paradigm. We focus on two viable scenarios. First, we study a Fraternal Twin Higgs model in which the spin-3/2 baryon $\hat{Ω}$~($\hat{b}$$\hat{b}$$\hat{b}$) and the lepton twin tau $\hat{τ}$ contribute to the dominant and subcomponent dark matter densities. A non-decoupled scattering between the twin tau and twin neutrino arising from a gauged twin lepton number symmetry provides a drag force that damps the density inhomogeneity of a dark matter subcomponent. Next, we consider the possibility of introducing a twin hydrogen atom $\hat{H}$ as the dominant DM component. After recombination, a small fraction of the twin protons and leptons remains ionized during structure formation, and their scattering to twin neutrinos through a gauged U(1) B-L force provides the mechanism that damps the density inhomogeneity. Both scenarios realize the Partially Acoustic dark matter (PAcDM) scenario and explain the σ 8 discrepancy between the CMB and weak lensing results. Moreover, the self-scattering neutrino behaves as a dark fluid that enhances the size of the Hubble rate H 0 to accommodate the local measurement result while satisfying the CMB constraint. For the small-scale structure, the scattering of $\hat{Ω}$ ’s and $\hat{H}$’s through the twin photon exchange generates a self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) model that solves the mass deficit problem from dwarf galaxy to galaxy cluster scales. Furthermore, when varying general choices of the twin photon coupling, bounds from the dwarf galaxy and the cluster merger observations can set an upper limit on the twin electric coupling.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Higgs inflation, vacuum stability, and leptogenesis

We consider the introduction of a complex scalar field carrying a global lepton number charge to the Standard Model and the Higgs inflation framework. The conditions are investigated under which this model can simultaneously ensure Higgs vacuum stability up to the Planck scale, successful inflation, non-thermal Leptogenesis via the pendulum mechanism, and light neutrino masses. These can be simultaneously achieved when the scalar lepton is minimally coupled to gravity, that is, when standard Higgs inflation and reheating proceed without the interference of the additional scalar degrees of freedom. If the scalar lepton also has a non-minimal coupling to gravity, a multi-field inflation scenario is induced, with interesting interplay between the successful inflation constraints and those from vacuum stability and Leptogenesis. The parameter region that can simultaneously achieve the above goals is explored.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Physical, numerical, and computational challenges of modeling neutrino transport in core-collapse supernovae

The proposal that core collapse supernovae are neutrino driven is still the subject of active investigation more than 50 years after the seminal paper by Colgate and White. The modern version of this paradigm, which we owe to Wilson, proposes that the supernova shock wave is powered by neutrino heating, mediated by the absorption of electron-flavor neutrinos and antineutrinos emanating from the proto-neutron star surface, or neutrinosphere. Neutrino weak interactions with the stellar core fluid, the theory of which is still evolving, are flavor and energy dependent. The associated neutrino mean free paths extend over many orders of magnitude and are never always small relative to the stellar core radius. Thus, neutrinos are never always fluid like. Instead, a kinetic description of them in terms of distribution functions that determine the number density of neutrinos in the six-dimensional phase space of position, direction, and energy, for both neutrinos and antineutrinos of each flavor, or in terms of angular moments of these neutrino distributions that instead provide neutrino number densities in the four-dimensional phase-space subspace of position and energy, is needed. In turn, the computational challenge is twofold: (i) to map the kinetic equations governing the evolution of these distributions or moments onto discrete representations that are stable, accurate, and, perhaps most important, respect physical laws such as conservation of lepton number and energy and the Fermi–Dirac nature of neutrinos and (ii) to develop efficient, supercomputer-architecture-aware solution methods for the resultant nonlinear algebraic equations. In this review, we present the current state of the art in attempts to meet this challenge.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fast flavor instability in hypermassive neutron star disk outflows

Here, we examine the effect of neutrino flavor transformation by the fast flavor instability (FFI) on long-term mass ejection from accretion disks formed after neutron star mergers. Neutrino emission and absorption in the disk set the composition of the disk ejecta, which subsequently undergoes r-process nucleosynthesis upon expansion and cooling. Here we perform 28 time-dependent, axisymmetric, viscous-hydrodynamic simulations of accretion disks around hypermassive neutron stars (HMNSs) of variable lifetime, using a 3-species neutrino leakage scheme for emission and an annular-lightbulb scheme for absorption. We include neutrino flavor transformation due the FFI in a parametric way, by modifying the absorbed neutrino fluxes and temperatures, allowing for flavor mixing at various levels of flavor equilibration, and also in a way that aims to respect the lepton-number preserving symmetry of the neutrino self-interaction Hamiltonian. We find that for a promptly-formed black hole (BH), the FFI lowers the average electron fraction of the disk outflow due to a decrease in neutrino absorption, driven primarily by a drop in electron neutrino/antineutrino flux upon flavor mixing. For a long-lived HMNS, the disk emits more heavy lepton neutrinos and reabsorbs more electron neutrinos than for a BH, with a smaller drop in flux compensated by a higher neutrino temperature upon flavor mixing. The resulting outflow has a broader electron fraction distribution, a more proton-rich peak, and undergoes stronger radiative driving. Disks with intermediate HMNS lifetimes show results that fall in between these two limits. In most cases, the impact of the FFI on the outflow is moderate, with changes in mass ejection, average velocity, and average electron fraction of order ~10%, and changes in the lanthanide/actinide mass fraction of up to a factor ~2.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dark matter catalyzed baryon destruction

WIMP-type dark matter may have additional interactions that break baryon number, leading to induced nucleon decays which are subject to direct experimental constraints from proton decay experiments. In this work, we analyze the possibility of continuous baryon destruction, deriving strong limits from the dark matter accumulating inside old neutron stars, as such a process leads to excess heat generation. We construct the simplest particle dark matter model that breaks the baryon and lepton numbers separately but conserves B - L. Virtual exchange by DM particles in this model results in dinucleon decay via nn → $n\overline{v}$ and np → ne⁺ processes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

The theory of R-parity, unification and SUSY at the LHC

The simplest gauge theories for the conservation of R-parity in supersymmetry are discussed. We show how the minimal theory based on the B-L gauge symmetry predicts that R-parity must be spontaneously broken at the TeV scale. The most striking signals of these theories at the Large Hadron Collider are discussed. We present a realistic theory where the local baryon and lepton numbers are spontaneously broken at the supersymmetry breaking scale. The possibility to understand the conservation of R-parity in grand unified theories defined in four dimensions is mentioned.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

An F-theory realization of the chiral MSSM with Z 2 -parity

Using F-theory we construct 4D N=1 SUGRA theories with the Standard Model gauge group, three chiral generations, and matter parity in order to forbid all dimension four baryon and lepton number violating operators. The underlying geometries are derived by constructing smooth genus-one fibered Calabi-Yau fourfolds using toric tops that have a Jacobian fibration with rank one Mordell-Weil group and SU( 3 ) × SU( 2 ) singularities. The necessary gauge backgrounds on the smooth fourfolds are shown to be fully compatible with the quantization condition, including positive integer D3-tadpoles. This construction realizes for the first time a consistent UV completion of an MSSM-like model with matter parity in F-theory. Moreover our construction is general enough to also exhibit other relevant Z 2 charge extensions of the MSSM such as lepton and baryon parity. Such models however are rendered inconsistent by non-integer fluxes, which are necessary for producing the exact MSSM chiral spectrum. As a result, these inconsistencies turn out to be intimately related to field theory considerations regarding a UV-embedding of the Z 2 into a U( 1 ) and the resulting discrete anomalies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗