Quark sector of S3 models: classification and comparison with experimental data
S3 models offer a low energy approach to describe the observed pattern of masses and mixing, of both quarks and leptons. In this work, we first revisit an S3 model with only one Higgs electroweak doublet, where the flavour symmetry must be broken in order to produce an acceptable pattern of masses and mixing for fermions. Then, we analyse different S3 models, where the flavour symmetry is preserved as an exact, but hidden symmetry of the low energy spectra, after the electroweak symmetry breaking. The latter models require the addition of two more Higgs electroweak doublets which are accommodated in an S3 doublet. We also explore the consequences of adding a fourth Higgs electroweak doublet, thus occupying all three irreducible representations of S3. We show how the various S3-invariant mass matrices of the different models can reproduce the two texture zeroes and Nearest Neighbour Interaction matrix forms, which have been found to provide a viable and universal treatment of mixing for both quarks and leptons. We also find analytical and exact expressions for the CKM matrix of the models in terms of quark mass ratios. Finally, we compare the expressions of the CKM matrix of the different S3 models with the most up to date values of masses and mixing in the quark sector, via a chi^2 analysis. We find that the analytical expressions we derived reproduce remarkably well the most recent experimental data of the CKM matrix, suggesting that S3 is a symmetry of the quark sector.

title: Finite unified theories and the top quark mass
abstract: We present results of a study of two phenomenologically interesting SU (5) supersymmetric Grand Unified models, which are finite to all-loops before spontaneous symmetry breaking. The finiteness conditions provide us with relationships among the Yukawa and gauge couplings at the unification point, which in turn predict a heavy top quark mass (∼ 175 – 190 GeV).

title: Finite unification at all-loops

title: Finite GUTs within conventional N=1 gauge theories
abstract: Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are conventional N=1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories, which can be made all-loop finite, both in the dimensionless (gauge and Yukawa couplings) and dimensionful (soft supersymmetry breaking terms) sectors. This remarkable property leads to a drastic reduction in the number of free parameters, which in turn leads to an accurate prediction of the top quark mass in the dimensionless sector, and predictions for the Higgs boson mass and the s-spectrum in the dimensionful sector. Among the characteristics of the latter ones are: 1) The lightest Higgs boson mass is predicted to be in the window 120–130 GeV, in case the LSP is neutralino, while in case the LSP is the τ (which can be consistently accommodated in presence of bilinear R-parity violating terms) it can be as light as 111 GeV. 2) The s-spectrum starts above several hundreds of GeV.

title: Conditions for vacuum stability in an S3 extension of the Standard Model
abstract: In this work we study the Higgs sector in the minimal S3 extension of the Standard Model. The S3 extended Standard Model, which has three Higgs doublets fields that belong to the three-dimensional reducible representation of the permutation group S3, has naturally new phenomena: there are several Higgs bosons, charged, neutral and pseuodscalar ones, and more than one potential minimum. We analyzed the stability of the minimal S3 invariant extension of the Higgs potential and show that at tree-level, the potential minimum preserving electric charge and CP symmetries, when it exists, is the global one.

title: Top quark mass predictions from gauge Yukawa unification
abstract: Gauge-Yukawa Unification (GYU) is a renormalization group invariant functional relation among gauge and Yukawa couplings which holds beyond the unification point in Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). Here, GYU is obtained by requiring finiteness and reduction of couplings to all orders in perturbation theory. We examine the consequences of GYU in various supersymmetric GUTs and in particular the predictions for the top quark mass. These predictions are such that they distinguish already GYU from ordinary GUTs. Moreover, when more accurate measurements of the top quark mass are available, it is expected that it will be possible to discriminate among the various GYUs.

title: Search for standard model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson at CDF
abstract: We present a search for standard model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in proton-antiproton collisions (p{bar p} {yields} W{sup {+-}}H {yields} {ell}{nu}b{bar b}) at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The search employs data collected with the CDF II detector which correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 1 fb{sup -1}. We select events consistent with a signature of a single lepton (e{sup {+-}}/{mu}{sup {+-}}), missing transverse energy, and two jets. Jets corresponding to bottom quarks are identified with a secondary vertex tagging method and a neural network filter technique. The observed number of events and the dijet mass distributions are consistent with the standard model background expectations, and we set 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio ranging from 3.9 to 1.3 pb for Higgs boson masses from 110 to 150 GeV/c{sup 2}, respectively.

title: Top-quark mass measurement using events with missing transverse energy and jets at CDF.
abstract: We present a measurement of the top-quark mass using a sample of t ̄t events in 5.7 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity from p ̄p collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron with √s=1.96 TeV and collected by the CDF II Detector. We select events having large missing transverse energy, and four, five, or six jets with at least one jet tagged as coming from a b quark, and reject events with identified charged leptons. This analysis considers events from the semileptonic t ̄t decay channel, including events that contain tau leptons. The measurement is based on a multidimensional template method. We fit the data to signal templates of varying top-quark masses and background templates, and measure a top-quark mass of M(top)=172.32±2.4(stat)±1.0(syst)  GeV/c(2).

title: Measurement of branching ratio and $B_s^0$ lifetime in the decay $B_s^0 \rightarrow J/\psi f_0(980)$ at CDF
abstract: We present a study of Bs0 decays to the CP-odd final state J/ψ f0(980) with J/ψ → µ+µ- and f0(980) → π+π-. Using pp collision data with an integrated luminosity of 3.8 fb-1 collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron we measure a Bs0 lifetime of τ(B0s → J/ψ f0(980)) = 1.70-0.11+0.12(stat) ± 0.03(syst) ps. This is the first measurement of the Bs0} lifetime in a decay to a CP eigenstate and corresponds in the standard model to the lifetime of the heavy Bs0 eigenstate. We also measure the product of branching fractions of B0s → J/ψ f0(980) and f0(980) → π+π- relative to the product of branching fractions of B0s → J/ψφ and φ→K+K- to be Rf0/ψ = 0.257 ± 0.020(stat) ± 0.014(syst), which is the most precise determination of this quantity to date.