Naturalness redux: The case of the neutrino seesaw mechanism

Abstract

The idea of naturalness, as originally conceived, refers only to the finite renormalization of the Higgs boson mass induced by the introduction of heavier states. In this respect, naturalness is still a useful heuristic principle in model building beyond the standard model whenever new massive states are coupled to the Higgs field. The most compelling case is provided by the generation of neutrino masses. In this paper, we confront this problem from a new perspective. The right-handed sector responsible for the seesaw mechanism---which introduces a large energy threshold above the electroweak scale---is made supersymmetric to comply with naturalness, while the standard model is left unchanged and nonsupersymmetric. Cancellations necessary to the naturalness requirement break down only at two loops, thus offering the possibility to increase the right-handed neutrino mass scale up to 1 order of magnitude above the usual values allowed by naturalness. If also the weak boson sector of the standard model is made supersymmetric, cancellations break down at three loops, and the scale of new physics can be further raised. In the type-I seesaw, this implementation provides right-handed neutrino masses that are natural and at the same time large enough to give rise to baryogenesis (via leptogenesis). The model contains a dark matter candidate and distinctive new physics in the leptonic sector.