Handed Neutrinos Research Articles

Collider imprints of a right handed neutrino magnetic moment operator

We consider the most general effective Lagrangian up to dimension five, built with Standard Model fields and right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) Ni. Assuming that the RHNs are present near the electroweak scale, we study the phenomenology of the RHNs and highlight the differences that arise due to the inclusion of dimension five operators. We specifically focus on the production process e+e−/pp→NiNj, which comes from the dimension five magnetic moment operator. We find that this production process followed by the decay chains such as Ni→Njγ, Ni→νjγ, and Ni→ℓ±jj leads to striking collider signatures, which might help to probe the Majorana nature of neutrinos. We discuss the current collider constraints on this operator, as well as projected limit at future colliders. In addition, we discuss the stellar-cooling bounds applicable to the RHN mass below 0.1 GeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Freeze-in production of sterile neutrino dark matter in a gauged U(1)′ model with inverse seesaw

We consider a general, anomaly free U(1)′ extension of the Standard Model (SM) where the neutrino mass is generated at the tree level via the inverse seesaw mechanism. The model contains three right handed neutrinos, three additional singlet fermions, one extra complex scalar and a neutral gauge boson (Z′). Instead of resorting to a specific U(1) extension, we consider a class of models by taking the U(1)′ charges of the scalars to be free parameters. Here, we assign one pair of the pseudo-Dirac degenerate sterile neutrinos as Dark Matter (DM) candidates which are produced by the freeze-in mechanism. Considering different mass regimes of the DM, Z′ and reheating temperature, we obtain constraints on the U(1)′ charges giving the correct relic abundance. We have also obtained constraints on Z′ mass and coupling from consideration of relic density as well as high energy collider experiments like ATLAS in case of heavy Z′ or in intensity and lifetime frontier experiments like DUNE, FASERs, and ILC beam dump which are looking for light Z′. Additionally, in this model, the decay of pseudo-Dirac DM into active neutrinos can explain the 511 keV line observed by the INTEGRAL satellite.

Dark sector of a Higgs portal with Q4 symmetric matter

We describe the phenomenology of the scalar and dark matter sectors of a BSM theory with Q4 symmetry among the SM fermions. The model features a Higgs portal to a dark sector comprised of heavy right handed neutrinos. We discuss relic abundance as well as direct detection constraints on the DM candidate.

Z′ induced forward dominant processes in μTRISTAN experiment

General U(1) extension of the Standard Model (SM) is a well motivated beyond the Standard Model (BSM) scenario where three generations of right handed neutrinos (RHNs) are introduced to cancel gauge and mixed gauge-gravity anomalies. After the U(1)X is broken, RHNs participate in the seesaw mechanism to generate light neutrino masses satisfying neutrino oscillation data. In addition to that, a neutral gauge boson Z′ is evolved which interacts with the left and right handed fermions differently manifesting chiral nature of the model which could be probed in future collider experiments. As a result, if we consider μ+e− and μ+μ+ collisions in μTRISTAN experiment Z′ mediated 2→2 scattering will appear in t− and u-channels depending on the initial and final states being accompanied by the photon and Z mediated interactions. This will result well motivated resulting forward dominant scenarios giving rise to sizable left-right asymmetry. Estimating constraints on general U(1) coupling from LEP-II and LHC for different U(1)X charges, we calculate differential and integrated scattering cross section and left-right asymmetry for μ+e−→μ+e− and μ+μ+→μ+μ+ processes which could be probed at μTRISTAN experiment further enlightening the interaction between Z′ and charged leptons and the U(1)X breaking scale.

Superradiant leptogenesis

We investigate how superradiance affects the generation of baryon asymmetry in a universe with rotating primordial black holes, considering a scenario where a scalar boson is coupled to the heavy right-handed neutrinos. We identify the regions of the parameter space where the scalar production is enhanced due to superradiance. This enhancement, coupled with the subsequent decay of the scalar into right handed neutrinos, results in the non-thermal creation of lepton asymmetry. We show that successful leptogenesis is achieved for masses of primordial black holes in the range of order O(0.1 g) − O(10 g) and the lightest of the heavy neutrino masses, MN ~ O(1012) GeV. Consequently, regions of the parameter space, which in the case of Schwarzchild PBHs were incompatible with viable leptogenesis, can produce the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry.

Primordial black holes as dark matter: interferometric tests of phase transition origin

We show that primordial black holes — in the observationally allowed mass window with fPBH = 1 — formed from late nucleating patches in a first order phase transition imply upcoming gravitational wave interferometers will see a large stochastic background arising from the bubble collisions. As an example, we use a classically scale invariant B – L model, in which the right handed neutrinos explain the neutrino masses and leptogenesis, and the dark matter consists of primordial black holes. The conclusion regarding the gravitational waves is, however, expected to hold model independently for black holes coming from such late nucleating patches.

Diraxiogenesis

The family of Dirac Seesaw models offers an intriguing alternative explanation for the smallness of neutrino masses without necessarily requiring microscopic lepton number violation, when compared to the more familiar class of Majorana Seesaws. A global U(1)D symmetry, that is explicitly broken by a higher dimensional scalar operator, ensures that the right handed neutrino does not couple directly to the Standard Model like Higgs and an exact gauged or residual lepton number symmetry prohibits all Majorana masses. We demonstrate that all three Dirac Seesaws possess a Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson associated with the U(1)D symmetry, that we call the Diraxion, whose cosmological dynamics have so far been left unexplored. Furthermore we illustrate that a Dirac-Leptogenesis version of the recently proposed Lepto-Axiogenesis scenario can be realized in this class of models, leading to a unified origin of the observed baryon asymmetry and dark matter relic abundance. Explaining only the baryon asymmetry can lead to potentially observable amounts of right handed neutrino dark radiation with ∆Neff. ≲ 0.028. On the other hand, if we only fix the dark matter abundance via the kinetic misalignment mechanism, this set-up could lead to detectable signatures in proposed cosmic neutrino background experiments via decays of eV-scale Diraxions to neutrinos. Here there is no domain wall problem, since topological defects decay to a subleading fraction of relic Diraxions. A key ingredient of all Axiogenesis scenarios is the dynamics of relatively light scalar called the Saxion, that in our case has a mass at the GeV-scale and which might reveal itself in heavy meson decays or collider searches. Our setup predicts isocurvature perturbations in baryons, dark matter and dark radiation sourced by fluctuations of the Saxion.

Naturally low scale type I seesaw mechanism and its viability in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos

Seesaw mechanisms are the simplest and the most elegant way of generating small masses for the active neutrinos (mν). In these mechanisms mν is inversely proportional to the lepton number breaking scale (M) that, in the particular case of the type I seesaw mechanism, is the Majorana mass of the right-handed neutrinos. In the canonical case right-handed neutrinos are supposed to be heavy belonging to the GUT scale. With the advent of the LHC people began to suppose these neutrinos having mass at TeV scale. In this case very tiny Yukawa couplings are required. As far as we know there are no constraints on the energy scales associated to the seesaw mechanisms. In what concern 3-3-1 models, when we trigger the type I seesaw mechanism the lepton number breaking scale that suppresses active neutrino masses contributes to the masses of the standard gauge bosons. Current data on mW demands the mechanism to be performed at GeV scale. As main implication we may have right handed neutrinos with mass varying from few keVs up to hundreds of GeVs. We also investigate the viability of the mechanism and found as interesting result that in the case in which the right-handed neutrino masses belong to the range keV-MeV scale, viability of the mechanism demands that the lightest of the right-handed neutrinos be stable, which makes of it a natural dark matter candidate, and that the lightest of the active neutrinos be ultralight.

Fermionic dark matter in Dynamical Scotogenic Model

In the Dynamical Scotogenic Model, the global B − L symmetry is supposed to be broken spontaneously resulting in a massless Goldstone boson called majoron, and massive right handed neutrinos which participate in the generation of light neutrino massses at one-loop. One of them being the lightest stable particle can be a thermal dark matter candidate. We discuss how the dark matter phenomenology differs from the original Scotogenic model, taking into account all the constraints coming from the observed neutrino masses and mixing, lepton flavor violations such as μ → eγ, μ → eJ, astrophysical and cosmological observations of stellar cooling and Neff, as well as collider signatures such as Higgs invisible decays. We find that the dark matter annihilation to majorons plays an important role to produce the right relic abundance.

Dark matter and [formula omitted] in ISS(2,3) based Gauged [formula omitted] symmetric model

We proposed a model which can explain the neutrino phenomenology, dark matter and anomalous magnetic moment (g−2) in a common framework. The inverted seasaw (ISS)(2,3) mechanism has been incorporated, in which we get an extra sterile state and this state act as a viable dark matter candidate. The right handed neutrino mass is obtained in TeV scale, which is accessible at LHC. The anomaly free U(1)Le−Lμ gauge symmetry is introduced to explain the anomalous magnetic moment of electron and muon because it provides a natural origin of (g−2) in a very minimal setup. The corresponding MeV scale gauge boson successfully explain the anomalous magnetic moment of electron and muon (g−2)e,μ, simultaneously. Thus obtained neutrino phenomenology and relic abundance of dark matter are compatible with experimental results.

Neutrino mass and leptogenesis in a hybrid seesaw model with a spontaneously broken CP

We introduce a novel hybrid framework combining type I and type II seesaw models for neutrino mass where a complex vacuum expectation value of a singlet scalar field breaks CP spontaneously. Using pragmatic organizing symmetries we demonstrate that such a model can simultaneously explain the neutrino oscillation data and generate observed baryon asymmetry through leptogenesis. Interestingly, natural choice of parameters leads to a mixed leptogenesis scenario driven by nearly degenerate scalar triplet and right handed singlet neutrino fields for which we present a detailed quantitative analysis.

Charged Higgs induced 5 and 6 lepton signatures from heavy neutrinos at the LHC

We propose an anomaly free gauged U(1) extension of the SM where three right handed heavy neutrinos, being charged under the general U(1) gauge group, are introduced to explain the origin of the tiny neutrino mass through the seesaw mechanism after the general U(1) symmetry is broken. Due to the breaking of the general U(1) symmetry a neutral beyond the standard model gauge boson Z^prime acquires mass. There are two Higgs doublets in this model where one interacts with the SM fermions and the other one interacts with the right handed heavy neutrinos and charged leptons. The charged multiplet of the second Higgs can completely decay into the heavy neutrinos and charged lepton in the neutrinophilic limit of the model parameters. The charged Higgs pair production can be influenced due to presence of the Z^prime boson at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) in addition to the neutral SM gauge bosons. The pair produced charged Higgs bosons decay into SM charged leptons and heavy neutrinos. Following the leading decay modes of the heavy neutrinos into charged leptons and W boson we study the 5 and 6 lepton final states after the leptonic and hadronic decay of the W bosons considering solely muons and electrons in the final state. Combining the electron and muon final states we estimate the significance of the 5 and 6 charged lepton processes in the m_{H^pm }-m_N plane for different benchmark points of m_{Z^prime }. It is found that the 5 (6) charged lepton processes could be probed at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) with at least 5 (3) sigma significance and there are parameter regions where the significance could be larger.

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.

INFLATION AND AXION DARK MATTER IN THE 3-3-1 MODEL

We consider a renormalizable theory, which successfully explains the number of Standard Model(SM) fermion families and whose non-SM scalar sector includes an axion dark matter as well asa field responsible for cosmological inflation. In such theory, the axion gets its mass via radiativecorrections at one-loop level mediated by virtual top quark, right handed Majorana neutrinos andSM gauge bosons. Its mass is obtained in the range 4 keV÷ 40 keV, consistent with the onepredicted by XENON1T experiment, when the right handed Majorana neutrino mass is varied from100 GeV up to 350 GeV, thus implying that the light active neutrino masses are generated from a lowscale type I seesaw mechanism. Furthermore, the theory under consideration can also successfullyaccommodates the XENON1T excess provided that the PQ symmetry is spontaneously broken atthe 1010 GeV scale.PACS numbers: 11.30.Fs, 12.15.Ff, 12.60.-i

Constraining feeble neutrino interactions with ultralight dark matter

If ultralight $(\ll$ eV), bosonic dark matter couples to right handed neutrinos, active neutrino masses and mixing angles depend on the ambient dark matter density. When the neutrino Majorana mass, induced by the dark matter background, is small compared to the Dirac mass, neutrinos are "pseudo-Dirac" fermions that undergo oscillations between nearly degenerate active and sterile states. We present a complete cosmological history for such a scenario and find severe limits from a variety of terrestrial and cosmological observables. For scalar masses in the "fuzzy" dark matter regime ($\sim 10^{-20}$ eV), these limits exclude couplings of order $10^{-30}$, corresponding to Yukawa interactions comparable to the gravitational force between neutrinos and surpassing equivalent limits on time variation in scalar-induced electron and proton couplings.

Leptogenesis and dark matter through relativistic bubble walls with observable gravitational waves

We study a scenario where both dark matter and heavy right handed neutrino (RHN) responsible for leptogenesis acquire masses by crossing the relativistic bubble walls formed as a result of a TeV scale supercooled first order phase transition (FOPT). While this leads to a large out-of-equilibrium abundance of right handed neutrino inside the bubble sufficient to produce the required lepton asymmetry, the dark matter being lighter can still remain in equilibrium with its relic being set by subsequent thermal freeze-out. A classical conformal symmetry ensures the origin of mass via FOPT induced by a singlet scalar while also ensuring supercooling leading to enhanced gravitational wave amplitude within the sensitivity of the LISA experiment. A minimal scenario with three RHN, one inert scalar doublet and one singlet scalar as additional fields beyond the standard model is sufficient to realize this possibility which also favours inert RHN dark matter over inert scalar doublet.

Unified origin of dark matter self interactions and low scale leptogenesis

We propose a novel and minimal framework where a light scalar field can give rise to dark matter (DM) self-interactions, while enhancing the CP symmetry required for successful baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis route. For demonstration purpose we choose to work in a scotogenic seesaw scenario where the lightest among the right handed neutrinos (RHN), introduced for generating light neutrino masses radiatively, play the role of DM while the heavier two can play non-trivial roles in generating DM relic as well as lepton asymmetry. While dark matter self-interactions mediated by an additional singlet scalar can alleviate the small scale issues of cold dark matter paradigm, the same scalar can give rise to new one-loop decay processes of heavy RHN into standard model leptons providing an enhanced contribution to CP asymmetry, even with sub-TeV scale RHN mass. The thermally under-abundant relic of DM due to large annihilation rates into its light mediator receives a late non-thermal contribution from a heavier RHN. With only five new particles involved in the scotogenic seesaw, each having non-trivial roles in generating DM relic and baryon asymmetry, the model can explain non-zero neutrino mass while being verifiable at different experiments related to DM direct detection, flavour physics and colliders. The mechanism we demonstrated here by using a scotogenic seesaw scenario is also applicable to other models.

Sterile neutrino from D-brane models

We discuss the appearance of sterile neutrino in D-brane models. In the simplest case, the sterile neutrino (SN) appears from a 5-stack intersecting D6-brane model with a gauged baryon number. SM is mixed with a single generation of left handed active neutrinos and a right handed neutrino.

S.M.A.S.H.E.D.: Standard Model Axion Seesaw Higgs inflation Extended for Dirac neutrinos

Inspired by the S.M.A.S.H. framework we construct a model that addresses the strong CP problem, axion dark matter, inflation and Dirac neutrino masses as well as leptogenesis. The model possesses only two dynamical scales, namely the SM breaking scale vH and the Peccei Quinn (PQ) breaking scale v .We introduce heavy vector-like quarks in the usual KSVZ fashion to implement the PQ mechanism for the strong CP problem. To generate neutrino masses via a dimension six operator scaling as mν ∼ v 3 H / v 2 σ we add heavy triplet and doublet leptons, which are vector-like under the SM but chiral under PQ symmetry. The model is free from the cosmological domain wall problem and predicts an axion to photon coupling which is about an order of magnitude larger than in conventional DFSZ and KSVZ models. Thus our scenario can be probed and potentially excluded by current and next generation axion experiments such as ORGAN or MADMAX.In addition we numerically demonstrate that our construction can generate the observed baryon asymmetry by realizing a version of the Dirac-Leptogenesis scenario. As a consequence of our neutrino mass mechanism we find that the asymmetry in triplet fermion decays can also be significantly enhanced by up to six orders of magnitude when compared to typical Seesaw scenarios without needing to invoke a resonant enhancement.In passing we note that a decaying Dirac fermion with multiple decay modes contains all the necessary ingredients required for the “quasi optimal efficiency”-scenario previously encountered in the context decaying scalar triplets. The impact of the right handed neutrinos and the axion on ΔN eff is estimated and lies within current bounds.

Baryon asymmetry and lower bound on right handed neutrino mass in fast expanding Universe: an analytical approach

The expansion rate of the Universe deviates from its standard value when the total energy density includes contribution from a new scalar field apart from the radiation energy density. The non-trivial modifications incurred in the Boltzmann equations render the well known analytical solutions unsuitable in non standard scenario. In the present study we derive analytical expressions for the efficiency factor (which is nothing but solution of set of Boltzmann equations) using certain legible approximations. A fair degree of accuracy of these formulas have been observed by juxtaposing the analytical results with that obtained through numerical solution of Boltzmann equations. Faster expansion of the Universe results in decrement of the effective decay parameter which brings down the amount of washout of asymmetry due to inverse decay. Thus in non-standard cosmology scenario, a larger fraction of the asymmetry (generated at early epoch) is expected to survive till present epoch. Alteration of the cosmology does not affect the underlying particle physics model responsible for the generation of the CP asymmetry. Therefore starting from an identical particle physics model we will end up with a larger final baryon asymmetry in the non-standard scenario. It hints towards the possible relaxation of the lower bound of the lightest right handed neutrino mass required to produce adequate asymmetry which is in agreement with current experimental data.