Alex L. Kagan

I joined the Cincinnati High Energy Theory group in 1994.I have been involved in flavor physics since the mid-90's, with an emphasis on the sensitivity of CP violation in rare B decays to extensions of the Standard Model.  With the increasing precision of the B factory experiments it became paramount to improve our understanding of the theoretical uncertainties, due to non-perturbative strong interaction effects, which enter the description of rare B decays. This has led me to study the role of power corrections in B decays to light meson pairs.  The existing data on meson pair production in e+ e- collisions at nearby energies is used to learn what is the natural size for such effects. Some recent results can be found in Power Corrections in e+ e- -> pi+ pi-, K+ K- and B -> K pi,
pi pi.

With the recent observation of neutral D meson mixing, and the continued improvements expected at the B factories, at the LHC-b experiment,and at future high luminosity flavor factories, we are on the cusp of the precision era in charm physics. CP violation measurements in neutral D meson mixing and D meson decays are a particularly clean and promising way to detect signals of extensions of the Standard Model. I have coauthored two papers in this exciting area of flavor physics, On Indirect CP Violation and Implications for D0 and Bs mixing and New Physics and CP Violation in Singly Cabibbo Suppressed D Decays.

Now that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) era has begun, I am primarily focused on model-building and electroweak symmetry breaking, with an emphasis on the phenomenological implications fort the LHC, LHC-b, and the high luminosity flavor factories. I am working on a class of models which combines technicolor and supersymmetry. A preliminary discussion can be found in a talk that I gave at the KITP program on Physics of the Large Hadron Collider in the Spring of 2008, Colored Resonances from Low Scale Bosonic Tecnicolor. I am also interested in a class of supersymmetric models which provides an ideal framework for solving the strong CP and supersymmetric weak CP problems via spontaneous CP violation. A preliminary discussion can be found in a talk that I gave at the 2009 Aspen Winter conference on Particle Physics, Strong and Weak CP in R-symmetric Supersymmetry.


Recently, I have collaborated on a project on Minimal Flavor Violation, a candidate paradigm for understanding how new physics could appear at the LHC without leading to violation of the tight constraints on flavor violation, see General Minimal Flavor Violation.

Grant: #AP1-3220 Investigators:Kagan, Alexander 01-01-2003 -12-31-2005 Department of State b-Quark Decays as a Test of the Standard Model Role:PI $5,900.00 Closed Level:Federal

Grant: #DE-SC0011784 Investigators:Argyres, Philip; Johnson, Randy; Kagan, Alexander; Kinoshita, Kay; Schwartz, Alan; Sousa, Alexandre 06-01-2014 -05-31-2017 Department of Energy Research in Particle Theory and Experiment at the University of Cincinnati Role:Collaborator $914,000.00 Awarded Level:Federal

Grant: #DE-SC0011784 _ 2017 Investigators:Argyres, Philip; Kagan, Alexander; Kinoshita, Kay; Schwartz, Alan; Sousa, Alexandre; Wijewardhana, L.C.R.; Zupan, Jure 04-01-2017 -03-31-2020 Department of Energy Research in Particle Theory and Experiment at the University of Cincinnati Role:Collaborator $927,000.00 Active Level:Federal

Grant: #DE-SC0011784 Investigators:Argyres, Philip; Aurisano, Adam; Bischoff, Colin; Brod, Joachim; Kagan, Alexander; Kinoshita, Kay; Schwartz, Alan; Sousa, Alexandre; Wijewardhana, L.C.R.; Zupan, Jure 04-01-2020 -03-31-2023 Department of Energy Research in Particle and Cosmology Theory and Experiment at the University of Cincinnati Role:Collaborator $1,250,000.00 Awarded Level:Federal