In this thesis we focus on Grand Unified Theories based on the SO(10) gauge group and, in particular, on the viability of the minimal nonsupersymmetric SO(10) models. Technically, this amounts to a detailed assessment of their vac- uum stability and related (non-)tachyonicity of their scalar spectrum. It turns out that the one-loop scalar mass corrections are important for elimination of the tachyonic behaviour of certain pseudo-Goldstone bosons. In this work these issues are briefly reviewed and two distinct methods for the calculation of the critical radiative corrections are discussed. More specifically, besides the revision of the effective potential approach to the 45 ⊕ 16 Higgs model also the standard perturbative theory method is employed for this purpose. The latter approach is particularly suitable for the more realistic 45 ⊕ 126 Higgs model since it appears to be practically impossible to construct the corresponding effective potential in that case. Consequently, diagrammatic methods are used to calculate the SO(10)- invariant leading scalar quantum correction to the problematic pseudo-Goldstone masses in the 45 ⊕ 126 model. 1

<p>As successful as the Standard Model has been in describing particle interactions, there are still many open questions it does not answer; the strong CP violation and the existence of dark matter among them. To address these issues many extensions to the Standard Model have been devised. Some of these extensions propose a new force mediating particle; a massive particle results in a potential described by a Yukawa-like interaction, while a massless exchange particle leads to power law type potentials. Limits on the strength of these interactions at the sub-micron range of separation between two particles are poorly characterized, but previous experiments conducted at IUPUI placed the best limits to date on the strength of a Yukawa-like interaction. Those experiments used a spherical test mass and a planar source mass. However, if a cylindrical test mass was used, the increased interaction volume of the cylinder would result in an increased sensitivity of about an order of magnitude over the spherical test mass experiment. Building such a system presents many challenges, namely the alignment of the cylinder with respect to the planar source mass. A capacitance based scheme to determine the alignment of a cylinder with respect to a plane will be discussed. The thesis concludes with an outline for a new type of measurement system. The new experiment attempts to induce a gravitational Π-pulse in a nanoshphere to probe extensions to the Standard Model.</p> <p> </p>

<p>In this work, we consider the addition of a single neutral massive vector boson to the Standard Model (SM). This boson, which we refer to as N⁰, induces dipolar transitions between electrons and muons. We obtain bounds on the strength of its coupling and its mass: from the scattering process e+e- to mu+mu-; from its contribution to muonium-antimuonium oscillations; and from its possible contribution to the rare muon decay mu- to e+e-e-. In particular, we examine the two cases where the mediator is both heavy and light compared with the scattering energies for, and place constraints on the relevant parameters based on their contributions to the cross section and the forward-backward asymmetry. For muonium-antimuonium oscillations, we consider only the case where the mediator is heavy compared to all other scales, reducing its effect to an effective contact interaction. Finally, we consider an SU(2) invariant theory from which the N⁰ interaction emerges, and find that flavour diagonal interactions also emerge, giving a tree-level path for the decay mu- to e+e-e-. We find that the heavy N⁰ is not strongly constrained by this contribution, while the light N⁰ is very strongly constrained by it. Very generally, we find that the heavy N⁰ is much less constrained than other lepton flavour violating processes, while the constraints on the light N0 vary in strength between processes.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)