Searching for the flavon at current and future colliders

Abstract

The $ B_3 - L_2$ $ Z' $ model may explain certain features of the fermion mass spectrum as well as the $b \rightarrow s \mu^+ \mu^-$ anomalies. The $ Z' $ acquires its mass via a TeV-scale scalar field, the flavon, whose vacuum expectation value spontaneously breaks the family non-universal gauged $ U(1)_{B_3 - L_2} $ symmetry. We review the key features of the model, with an emphasis on its scalar potential and the flavon field, and use experimental data and perturbativity arguments to place bounds upon the Higgs-flavon mixing angle. Finally, we discuss flavonstrahlung as a means to discover the flavon experimentally and compute flavonstrahlung cross-sections at current and future colliders.