University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Scale of Fermion Mass Generation

Niczyporuk, Janusz Michael

This item is only available for download by members of the University of Illinois community. Students, faculty, and staff at the U of I may log in with your NetID and password to view the item. If you are trying to access an Illinois-restricted dissertation or thesis, you can request a copy through your library's Inter-Library Loan office or purchase a copy directly from ProQuest.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/31345

Description

Title
Scale of Fermion Mass Generation
Author(s)
Niczyporuk, Janusz Michael
Issue Date
2002
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Willenbrock, S.
Department of Study
Physics
Discipline
Physics
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • fermion mass generation
  • electroweak symmetry breaking
  • dirac fermions
Language
en
Abstract
U nitarity of longitudinal weak vector boson scattering implies an upper bound on the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking, ΛEWSB = Sqr Rt(8πυ) ~ 1 TeV. Appelquist and Chanowitz have derived an analogous upper bound on the scale of fermion mass generation, proportional to v2/mj, by considering the scattering of same-helicity fermions into pairs of longitudinal weak vector bosons in a theory without a standard Higgs boson. We show that there is no upper bound, beyond that on the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking, in such a theory. This result is obtained by considering the same process, but with a large number of longitudinal weak vector bosons in the final state. We further argue that there is no scale of (Dirac) fermion mass generation in the standard model. In contrast, there is an upper bound on the scale of Majorana-neutrino mass generation, given by AMaj - 47rv2 /mv. In general, the upper bound on the scale of fermion mass generation depends on the dimensionality of the interaction responsible for generating the fermion mass. We explore the scale of fermion mass generation in a variety of excursions from the standard model: models with fermions in nonstandard representations, a theory with higher-dimension interactions, a two-Riggs-doublet model, and models without a Higgs boson.
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/31345
Copyright and License Information
©2002 Niczyporuk

Owning Collections

Dissertations and Theses - Physics PRIMARY
Dissertations in Physics