Quark-Lepton Connections in $Z^\prime$ Mediated FCNC Processes: Gauge Anomaly Cancellations at Work

TL;DR

This paper explores how gauge anomaly cancellations in models with a heavy Z' boson with flavor non-universal couplings create correlations between various flavor-changing neutral current processes in quarks and leptons, including rare decays and magnetic moments.

Contribution

It introduces models with anomaly cancellation involving all three generations, linking quark and lepton flavor violations through a minimal set of parameters and analyzing their phenomenological implications.

Findings

Identifies correlations between FCNC processes and lepton flavor violation.

Shows constraints from rare decays impact Z' parameter space.

Highlights the role of anomaly cancellation in flavor physics models.

Abstract

We consider scenarios with a heavy $Z^\prime$ gauge boson with flavour non-universal quark and lepton couplings with the goal to illustrate how the cancellation of gauge anomalies generated by the additional U(1)$^\prime$ gauge symmetry would imply correlations between FCNC processes in the quark sector, in the lepton sector and most interestingly between quark flavour and lepton flavour violating processes. We present scenarios with only left-handed flavour-violating $Z^\prime$ couplings and those with also right-handed flavour-violating couplings. These are characterized by a small number of free parameters but in contrast to gauge anomaly cancellation in the Standard Model, that takes place separately within each generation, in our scenarios anomaly cancellation involves simultaneously quarks and leptons of all three generations. Our models involve, beyond the ordinary quarks and leptons, three heavy right-handed neutrinos. The models with only left-handed FCNCs of $Z^\prime$ involve beyond $g_{Z^\prime}$ and $M_{Z^\prime}$ two real parameters characterizing the charges of all fermions under the U(1)$^\prime$ gauge symmetry and the CKM and PMNS ones in the quark and lepton sectors, respectively. The models with the right-handed FCNCs of $Z^\prime$ involve few additional parameters. Imposing constraints from well measured $\Delta F=2$ observables we identify interesting correlations that involve e.g. $\varepsilon'/\varepsilon$, $B_{s,d}\to\mu^+\mu^-$, $B\to K(K^*) \ell^+\ell^-$, $K^+\rightarrow\pi^+\nu\bar\nu$, $K_{L}\rightarrow\pi^0\nu\bar\nu$ and purely lepton flavour violating decays like $\mu\to e\gamma$, $\mu\to 3 e$, $\tau\to 3\mu$ and $\mu-e$ conversion} among others. Also $(g-2)_{\mu,e}$ are considered. The impact of the experimental $\mu\to e\gamma$, $\mu\to 3 e$ and in particular $\mu-e$ conversion bounds on rare $K$ and $B$ decays is emphasized.