U(2) Is Right for Leptons and Left for Quarks.

We posit that the distinct patterns observed in fermion masses and mixings are due to a minimally broken U(2)_{q+e} flavor symmetry acting on left-handed quarks and right-handed charged leptons, giving rise to an accidental U(2)^{5} symmetry at the renormalizable level without imposing selection rules on the Weinberg operator. We show that the symmetry can be consistently gauged by explicit examples and comment on realizations in SU(5) unification. Via a model-independent analysis of a standard model viewed as an effective field theory, we find that selection rules due to U(2)_{q+e} enhance the importance of charged lepton flavor violation as a probe, where significant experimental progress is expected in the near future.

Gravitational Imprints of Flavor Hierarchies.

The mass hierarchy among the three generations of quarks and charged leptons is one of the greatest mysteries in particle physics. In various flavor models, the origin of this phenomenon is attributed to a series of hierarchical spontaneous symmetry breakings, most of which are beyond the reach of particle colliders. We point out that the observation of a multipeaked stochastic gravitational wave signal from a series of cosmological phase transitions could well be a unique probe of the mechanism behind flavor hierarchies.

Mono-τ Signatures at the LHC Constrain Explanations of B-decay Anomalies.

We investigate the crossing-symmetry relation between b→cτ^{-}ν[over ¯] decay and bc[over ¯]→τ^{-}ν[over ¯] scattering to derive direct correlations of new physics in semitauonic B-meson decays and the mono-tau signature at the LHC (pp→τ_{h}X+MET). Using an exhaustive set of effective operators and heavy mediators we find that the current ATLAS and CMS data constrain scenarios addressing anomalies in B decays. Pure tensor solutions, completed by leptoquark, and right-handed solutions, completed by W_{R}^{'} or leptoquark, are challenged by our analysis.

Global Constraints on Anomalous Triple Gauge Couplings in the Effective Field Theory Approach.

We present a combined analysis of LHC Higgs data (signal strengths) together with LEP-2 WW production measurements. To characterize possible deviations from the standard model (SM) predictions, we employ the framework of an effective field theory (EFT) where the SM is extended by higher-dimensional operators suppressed by the mass scale of new physics Λ. The analysis is performed consistently at the order Λ(-2) in the EFT expansion keeping all the relevant operators.