Manifestation of Nonuniversality of Lepton Interactions in Spontaneously Violated Mirror Symmetry

Abstract

Data from the LHCb experiments are indicative of a substantial distinction between the B → K (or K*) + e⁺e⁻ and B → K (or K*) + μ⁺μ⁻ branching ratios (April 2017). The branching ratio for the e+e− channel is substantially greater than that for the μ⁺μ⁻ channel, whereas Standard Model (SM) calculations require that they be equal to each other. The above distinction may suggest the existence of a new interaction changing generations and discriminating between leptons that has couplings that are much greater than and are inverse in strength to the SM fermion couplings to the Higgs boson. Under conditions of spontaneously violated mirror symmetry, the coupling of SM particles to the second Higgs scalar that is inevitably present there and which is in principle heavy possesses precisely these properties. An inverse character of this coupling and its strength are not an additional hypothesis but a necessary condition for qualitatively reproducing, in addition, the observed charged-lepton mass hierarchy and the structure of weak lepton mixing—the Pontecorvo–Maki–Nakagawa–Sakata (PMNS) matrix. Within the mirror model being considered, all properties of the new interaction, including its inverse character, are due to the hierarchical character of the quark and charged-lepton mass spectrum.