Implications of neutrino mass generation from QCD confinement

Abstract

We consider the possibility that the quark condensate formed by QCD confinement generates Majorana neutrino masses mν via dimension seven operators. No degrees of freedom beyond the Standard Model are necessary, below the electroweak scale. Obtaining experimentally acceptable neutrino masses requires the new physics scale Λ∼TeV, providing a new motivation for weak-scale discoveries at the LHC. We implement this mechanism using a Z3 symmetry which leads to a massless up quark above the QCD chiral condensate scale. We use non-helicity-suppressed light meson rare decay data to constrain Λ. Experimental constraints place a mild hierarchy on the flavor structure of dimension seven operators and the resulting neutrino mass matrix.