Decay Of Right-handed Neutrinos Research Articles

Towards a systematic study of non-thermal leptogenesis from inflaton decays

This paper investigates non-thermal leptogenesis from inflaton decays in the minimal extension of the canonical type-I seesaw model, where a complex singlet scalar ϕ is introduced to generate the Majorana masses of right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) and to play the role of inflaton. First, we systematically study non-thermal leptogenesis with the least model dependence. We give a general classification of the parameter space and find four characteristic limits by carefully examining the interplay between inflaton decay into RHNs and the decay of RHNs into the standard-model particles. Three of the four limits are truly non-thermal, with a final efficiency larger than that of thermal leptogenesis. Two analytic estimates for these three limits are provided with working conditions to examine the validity. In particular, we find that the strongly non-thermal RHNs scenario occupies a large parameter space, including the oscillation-preferred K range, and works well for a relatively-low reheating temperature TRH ≥ 103 GeV, extending the lower bound on the RHN mass to 2 × 107 GeV. The lepton flavor effects are discussed. Second, we demonstrate that such a unified picture for inflation, neutrino masses, and baryon number asymmetry can be realized by either a Coleman-Weinberg potential (for the real part of ϕ) or a natural inflation potential (for the imaginary part of ϕ). The allowed parameter ranges for successful inflation and non-thermal leptogenesis are much more constrained than those without inflationary observations. We find that non-thermal leptogenesis from inflaton decay offers a testable framework for the early Universe. It can be further tested with upcoming cosmological and neutrino data. The model-independent investigation of non-thermal leptogenesis should be useful in exploring this direction.

Thermal effects in freeze-in neutrino dark mater production

We present a detailed study of the production of dark matter in the form of a sterile neutrino via freeze-in from decays of heavy right-handed neutrinos. Our treatment accounts for thermal effects in the effective couplings, generated via neutrino mixing, of the new heavy neutrinos with the Standard Model gauge and Higgs bosons and can be applied to several low-energy fermion seesaw scenarios featuring heavy neutrinos in thermal equilibrium with the primordial plasma. We find that the production of dark matter is not as suppressed as to what is found when considering only Standard Model gauge interactions. Our study shows that the freeze-in dark matter production could be efficient.

Sterile neutrinos from dark matter: a ν nightmare?

We provide a comprehensive study of observable spectra from dark matter pair-annihilation or decay into sterile (right-handed) neutrinos. This occurs, for instance, in neutrino portal dark matter models, where a sterile neutrino acts as the portal between dark matter and the Standard Model sector. The subsequent decays of right-handed neutrinos produce detectable Standard Model particles, notably photons, positrons, and neutrinos. We study the phenomenology of models where the right-handed neutrino masses are below the GeV scale, as well as models where they are at, or significantly heavier than, the TeV scale. In both instances, and for different reasons, the standard tools, including Monte Carlo simulations, are both inadequate and inaccurate. We present the complete framework to compute the relevant branching ratios for right-handed neutrino decays and the spectra of secondary photons, positrons, and neutrinos for a broad range of dark matter and right-handed neutrino masses. We discuss the general features of such signals, and compare the spectra to standard signals from dark matter annihilation/decay into bottom quarks. Additionally, we provide open source code (The code is available at https://github.com/LoganAMorrison/blackthorn) that can be used to compute such spectra.

Impact of high-scale Seesaw and Leptogenesis on inflationary tensor perturbations as detectable gravitational waves

We discuss the damping of inflationary gravitational waves (GW) that re-enter the horizon before or during an epoch, where the energy budget of the universe is dominated by an unstable right handed neutrino (RHN), whose out of equilibrium decay releases entropy. Starting from the minimal Standard Model extension, motivated by the observed neutrino mass scale, with nothing more than 3 RHN for the Seesaw mechanism, we discuss the conditions for high scale leptogenesis assuming a thermal initial population of RHN. We further address the associated production of potentially light non-thermal dark matter and a potential component of dark radiation from the same RHN decay. One of our main findings is that the frequency, above which the damping of the tensor modes is potentially observable, is completely determined by successful leptogenesis and a Davidson-Ibarra type bound to be at around 0.1 Hz. To quantify the detection prospects of this GW background for various proposed interferometers such as AEDGE, BBO, DECIGO, Einstein Telescope or LISA we compute the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This allows us to investigate the viable parameter space of our model, spanned by the mass of the decaying RHN {M}_1gtrsim 2.4times {10}^8textrm{GeV}cdot sqrt{2times {10}^{-7}textrm{eV}/{tilde{m}}_1} (for leptogenesis) and the effective neutrino mass parameterizing its decay width {tilde{m}}_1 < 2.9 × 10−7 eV (for RHN matter domination). Thus gravitational wave astronomy is a novel way to probe both the Seesaw and the leptogenesis scale, which are completely inaccessible to laboratory experiments in high scale scenarios.

Right-handed Dirac and Majorana neutrinos at Belle II

We assess the ability of the Belle II experiment to probe the Dirac or Majorana nature of a massive right-handed neutrino (RHN) N in the MeV to GeV mass range. We consider the production and decay of RHNs to proceed via new interactions described by the standard model effective field theory (SMEFT) extended with right-handed neutrino fields (SMNEFT), and not via mass mixing with active neutrinos. We find that Belle II has the potential to discover N if kinematically accessible. We perform detailed simulations of the angular distributions of lepton pairs from the decay of N produced in two-body and three-body decays of B mesons. We show that for mN above 100 MeV, Belle II can distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos at more than the 5σ CL for most operators, and the combination of the production and decay operators can be identified from the subsequent decay of the heavy neutrino. Also, the production operators can be identified using three-body B meson decay for any mN if the B → DℓN and B → D*ℓN events can be well separated.

Leptogenesis from heavy right-handed neutrino decay

Leptogenesis from heavy right-handed neutrino decay

Boosted displaced decay of right-handed neutrinos at CMS, ATLAS and MATHUSLA

We investigate boosted displaced signatures in the Type-I seesaw mechanism associated with the B − L gauge symmetry. Such events arise from decays of right-handed neutrinos depending on their Yukawa couplings and masses. Considering two scenarios: (a) three degenerate right-handed neutrinos whose Yukawa couplings are reconstructed from the observed neutrino masses and mixing; (b) only one right-handed neutrino which decouples from the observed neutrino mass generation and thus its coupling can be arbitrarily small, a detailed PYTHIA based simulation is performed to determine the parameter regions of the B − L gauge boson mass, the neutrino Yukawa couplings, and the right-handed neutrino mass sensitive to CMS, ATLAS, proposed FCC-hh detector and MATHUSLA at the centre of mass energies of 14, 27 and 100 TeV via displaced signatures. We also show in detail how the boost effect enhances the displaced decay lengths, especially for the longitudinal ones, and hinders the probe of Majorana nature of neutrinos.

Leptonic CP asymmetry and Light flavored scalar

We consider a situation where right-handed neutrinos couple to a light scalar which is possibly a Nambu-Goldstone boson resulting from high-energy symmetry breaking. Its coupling is typically complex-valued and flavor-dependent. In this work, we investigate the possibility of the leptonic asymmetry generation in the Universe from the right-handed neutrino decay to flavorful light scalar. Furthermore a new source of asymmetry generation from a single decay process is pointed out, which is characteristic of the present setting.

Asymmetric mediator in scotogenic model

The scotogenic model is the Standard Model (SM) with Z2 symmetry and the addition of Z2 odd right-handed Majorana neutrinos and SU(2)L doublet scalar fields. We have extended the original scotogenic model by an additional Z2 odd singlet scalar field that plays a role in dark matter. In our model, the asymmetries of the lepton and Z2 odd doublet scalar are simultaneously produced through CP-violating right-handed neutrino decays. While the former is converted into baryon asymmetry through the sphaleron process, the latter is relaid to the DM density through the decay of SU(2)L doublet scalar that is named “asymmetric mediator”. In this way, we provide an extended scotogenic model that predicts the energy densities of baryon and dark matter being in the same order of magnitude, and also explains the low-energy neutrino masses and mixing angles.

Leptogenesis in an extended seesaw model with U(1) B−L symmetry

We have explored an extended seesaw model accommodating a keV sterile neutrino adopting U(1) B−L symmetry. This model provides a natural platform for achieving resonant leptogenesis to account for the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU). The required lepton asymmetry is sourced by the CP violating decay of the lightest heavy right-handed neutrino to Standard Model leptons and Higgs. The presence of the light sterile neutrino in the model brings out an enhancement in the final lepton asymmetry through an additional self-energy contribution. Adopting a proper treatment for all the washout processes this framework strictly favors a strong washout regime thereby protecting the low energy neutrino mass parameters in agreement with the present neutrino and cosmology data. This framework of extended seesaw scheme offers the source of matter–antimatter asymmetry without any severe fine-tuning of the Yukawa couplings governing the tiny neutrino mass. We also comment on the half-life period for the neutrinoless double beta decay process in the background of having a keV sterile neutrino satisfying all the constraints which guide the explanation for the observed BAU.

Thermal keV dark matter in a gauged B−L model with cosmic inflation

We investigate the possibility of keV scale thermal dark matter (DM) in a gauged $B\ensuremath{-}L$ extension of the standard model with three right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) and one vector like fermion in the context of cosmic inflation. The complex singlet scalar field responsible for the spontaneous breaking of $B\ensuremath{-}L$ gauge symmetry is nonminimally coupled to gravity and serves the role of inflaton. The keV scale vector like fermion DM gives rise to the possibility of warm dark matter, but it gets overproduced thermally. The subsequent entropy dilution due to one of the RHN decay can bring the thermal abundance of DM within the observed limit. The dynamics of both the DM and the diluter are regulated by the $B\ensuremath{-}L$ model parameters which are also restricted by the requirement of successful inflationary dynamics. We constrain the model parameter space from the requirement of producing sufficient entropy dilution to obtain correct DM relic, inflationary observables along with other phenomenological constraints. Interestingly, we obtain unique predictions for the order of lightest active neutrino mass (${m}_{{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{l}}\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}14}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$) as a function of the $B\ensuremath{-}L$ gauge coupling for keV scale DM. The proposed framework also explains the origin of observed baryon asymmetry from the decay of other two heavier RHNs by overcoming the entropy dilution effect.

Leptogenesis from a feebly interacting dark matter sector

We perform an analysis of leptogenesis in the context of a simple extension of the Standard Model by two fermions; one charged ($\chi $) and one neutral ($\psi$), in addition to three right-handed neutrinos, $N_i$, interacting through a charged gauge singlet scalar $S$. The dark sector ($\chi$, $\psi$ and $S$) interacts feebly and produces a relic density consistent with measurements. The decay of right-handed neutrinos into the charged scalar $S$ and lepton provides an additional source of CP asymmetry, along with contributing through the virtual exchange of $S$ in the standard decay channel. With this the out-of-equilibrium decay of right-handed neutrinos, combined with lepton number changing scattering processes can generate the required baryon asymmetry of the universe even for right-handed neutrino masses in 10 TeV region, without requiring neutrinos to have degenerate masses.

Testing left-right symmetry with an inverse seesaw mechanism at the LHC

In the left-right symmetric models, a heavy charged gauge boson ${W}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ can decay to a lepton and a right-handed neutrino (RHN). If the neutrino masses are generated through the standard type-I seesaw mechanism, the Yukawa couplings controlling two-body decays of the RHN become very small. As a result, the RHN decays to another lepton and a pair of jets via an off-shell ${W}^{\ensuremath{'}}$. This is the basis of the Keung-Senjanovi\ifmmode \acute{c}\else \'{c}\fi{} (KS) process, which was originally proposed as a probe of lepton number violation at the LHC. However, if a different mechanism like the inverse seesaw generates the neutrino masses, a TeV-scale RHN can have large Yukawa couplings and hence dominantly decay to a lepton and a $W$ boson, leading to a kinematically different process from the KS one. We investigate the prospect of this unexplored process as a probe of the inverse seesaw mechanism in the left-right symmetric models at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). Our signal arises from the Drell-Yan production of a ${W}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and leads to two high-${p}_{T}$ same-flavour-opposite-sign leptons and a boosted $W$-like fatjet in the final state. We find that a sequential ${W}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ with mass up to $\ensuremath{\sim}6\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ along with a TeV-scale RHN can be discovered at the HL-LHC.

Non-thermal origin of asymmetric dark matter from inflaton and primordial black holes

We study the possibility of cogenesis of baryon and dark matter (DM) from the out-of-equilibrium CP violating decay of right handed neutrino (RHN) that are dominantly of non-thermal origin. While the RHN and its heavier partners can take part in light neutrino mass generation via Type-I seesaw mechanism, the decay of RHN into dark and visible sectors can create respective asymmetries simultaneously. The non-thermal sources of RHN considered are (a) on-shell decay of inflaton, and (b) evaporation of ultralight primordial black holes (PBH). After setting up the complete set of Boltzmann equations in both these scenarios, we constrain the resulting parameter space of the particle physics setup, along with inflaton and PBH sectors from the requirement of generating correct (asymmetric) DM abundance and baryon asymmetry, while being in agreement with other relevant cosmological bounds. Scenario (a) links the common origin of DM and baryon asymmetry to post-inflationary reheating via RHNs produced in inflaton decay, whereas in scenario (b) we find enhancement of baryon and DM abundance, compared to the purely thermal scenarios, in presence of PBH with appropriate mass and initial fraction. Although the minimal setup itself is very predictive with observational consequences, details of the UV completion of the dark sector can offer several complementary probes.

Mass-derivative relations for leptogenesis

In this work, a diagrammatic representation of thermal mass effects is derived from the S-matrix unitarity both in the classical and quantum Boltzmann equations. Within the example of the seesaw type-I leptogenesis, we discuss the connection of the Higgs thermal mass and the cancelations of infrared divergences in zero- and finite-temperature calculations of the right-handed neutrino decay and scattering processes.

Resonant leptogenesis and TM_1 mixing in minimal type-I seesaw model with S_4 symmetry

We present an S_4 flavour symmetric model within a minimal seesaw framework resulting in mass matrices that leads to TM_1 mixing. Minimal seesaw is realized by adding two right-handed neutrinos to the Standard Model. The model predicts Normal Hierarchy (NH) for neutrino masses. Using the constrained six-dimensional parameter space of the model, we have evaluated the effective Majorana neutrino mass, which is the parameter of interest in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. The possibility of explaining baryogenesis via resonant leptogenesis is also examined within the model. A non-zero, resonantly enhanced CP asymmetry generated from the decay of right-handed neutrinos at the TeV scale is studied, considering flavour effects. The evolution of lepton asymmetry is discussed by solving the set of Boltzmann equations numerically and obtain the value of baryon asymmetry to be |eta _B| = 6.3 times 10^{-10} with the choice of right-handed neutrino mass, M_1 = 10 TeV and mass splitting, d simeq 10^{-8}.

Baryogenesis via leptogenesis: Spontaneous B and L violation

In order to address the baryon asymmetry in the Universe one needs to understand the origin of baryon (B) and lepton (L) number violation. In this article, we discuss the mechanism of baryogenesis via leptogenesis to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in theories with spontaneous breaking of baryon and lepton number. In this context, a lepton asymmetry is generated through the out-of-equilibrium decays of right-handed neutrinos at the high-scale, while local baryon number must be broken below the multi-TeV scale to satisfy the cosmological bounds on the dark matter relic density. We demonstrate how the lepton asymmetry generated via leptogenesis can be converted in two different ways: a) in the theory predicting Majorana dark matter the lepton asymmetry is converted into a baryon asymmetry, and b) in the theory with Dirac dark matter the decays of right-handed neutrinos can generate lepton and dark matter asymmetries that are then partially converted into a baryon asymmetry. Consequently, we show how to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry, the dark matter relic density and neutrino masses in theories for local baryon and lepton number.

Dark photon dark matter in the minimal B \u2212 L model

The extension of the Standard model (SM) with three heavy right handed neutrinos, a complex scalar and the gauged U(1)B−L symmetry (the minimal B − L model) is considered the most compelling minimal one: the presence and the out-of-equilibrium decay of the heavy right handed neutrinos can account for the small masses of the active neutrinos and the baryon asymmetry of the universe. A natural accompanying question concerns whether the minimal B − L model can naturally accommodate an interesting dark matter (DM) candidate. We study the possibility where the current DM population is explained by the gauge boson of U(1)B−L symmetry. We discuss how the minimal set-up originally aimed at the seesaw mechanism and the leptogenesis is connected to conditions making the gauge boson promoted to a DM candidate.

Exploring 0νββ and leptogenesis in the alternative left-right model

We investigate the possibility of neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) and leptogenesis within the Alternative Left-Right Model (ALRM). Unlike the usual left-right symmetric model, ALRM features a Majorana right-handed neutrino which does not carry any charge. Further, in this picture the down-type quark and the charged leptons receive mass through the additional left-handed scalar field, rather than the usual doublet. Together, these features conspire to generate significant contributions to the $0\nu\beta\beta$ through vector-scalar ($WH$) mediation. For moderate masses of the relevant charged Higgs boson ($M_{H_1^\pm}\sim 200$ GeV), the half-life of $T_{\frac{1}{2}}^{WH}$ is $\sim 3\times 10^{26}~{\rm yrs}$ for both the case of $^{76}$Ge and $^{136}$Xe, well within the sensitivity expected by future experiments. Invoking the resonant leptogenesis, CP violation arising from the right-handed neutrino decay could be the required order to generate the correct baryogenesis, $\epsilon\sim 10^{-6}$, for small Dirac phases and without any fine tuning.

CP Violating Phase Originated from Right-handed Neutrino Mixing

We propose an idea that the observed CP violation in neutrino oscillation is originated from the phase in right-handed neutrino mixing by seesaw mechanism. We add small breaking terms $M_{ij}N_{R_i}N_{R_j} $ in model based on $A_4$ symmetry to generate non-diagonal right-handed neutrino mixing, which will give a small correction to TBM mixing via seesaw mechanism with nonzero reactor angle and CP violating phase. We estimate the CP violating phase by investigating the process of leptogenesis due to the decay of right-handed neutrino.