Low-scale Leptogenesis Research Articles

A common framework for fermion mass hierarchy, leptogenesis and dark matter

In this work, we explore an extension of the Standard Model designed to elucidate the fermion mass hierarchy, account for the dark matter relic abundance, and explain the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Beyond the Standard Model particle content, our model introduces additional scalars and fermions. Notably, the light active neutrinos and the first two generations of charged fermions acquire masses at the one-loop level. The model accommodates successful low-scale leptogenesis, permitting the mass of the decaying heavy right-handed neutrino to be as low as 10 TeV. We conduct a detailed analysis of the dark matter phenomenology and explore various interesting phenomenological implications. These include charged lepton flavor violation, muon and electron anomalous magnetic moments, constraints arising from electroweak precision observables, and implications for collider experiments.

Varying entropy degrees of freedom effects in low-scale leptogenesis

We analyze in detail the effect of varying entropy degrees of freedom on low-scale leptogenesis models. As an archetypal model, we consider the triresonant leptogensis (TRL) scenario introduced recently by the authors, where the neutrino-Yukawa coupling matrix is dictated by an approximate Zn discrete symmetry (with n=3, 6). TRL models exhibit no preferred direction in the leptonic flavor space and have the remarkable feature that leptogenesis can successfully take place even if all light neutrinos are strictly massless up to one-loop order. Most interestingly, for TRL scenarios with heavy Majorana neutrinos lighter than 100 GeV, temperature varying degrees of freedom associated with the entropy of the plasma have a dramatic impact on the predictions of the baryon asymmetry in the Universe (BAU), and may depend on the freeze-out sphaleron temperature Tsph. We find that this is a generic feature of most freeze-out low-scale leptogenesis models discussed in the literature. In the same context, we consider heavy-neutrino scenarios realizing dynamics related to critical unstable qudits in the thermal plasma and assess their significance in generating the BAU. The phenomenological implications of TRL scenarios at the intensity and high-energy frontiers are analyzed. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Low scale leptogenesis in singlet-triplet scotogenic model

The scotogenic model presents an elegant and succinct framework for elucidating the origin of tiny neutrino masses within the framework of the Standard Model, employing radiative corrections within the domain of the dark sector. We investigate the possibility of achieving low-scale leptogenesis in the singlet-triplet scotogenic model (STSM), where dark matter mediates neutrino mass generation. We initially considered a scenario involving two moderately hierarchical heavy fermions, N and Σ, wherein the lepton asymmetry is generated by the out-of-equilibrium decay of both particles. Our analysis indicates that the scale of leptogenesis in this scenario is similar to that of standard thermal leptogenesis and is approximately M N,Σ ∼ 109 GeV, which is comparable to the Type-I seesaw case. Further, we consider the case with three heavy fermions (N 2, N 2, and Σ) with the hierarchy M N 1 < M Σ ≪ MM N 2 , which yields the lower bound on heavy fermions up to 3.1 TeV, therefore significantly reduce the scale of the leptogenesis up to TeV scale. The only prerequisite is suppression in the N 1 and Σ Yukawa couplings, which causes suppressed washout effects and a small active neutrino mass of about 10-5 eV. This brings about the fascinating insight that experiments aiming to measure the absolute neutrino mass scale can test low-scale leptogenesis in the scotogenic model. Further, the hyperchargeless scalar triplet Ω provides an additional contribution to mass of the W-boson explaining CDF-II result.

Low-scale leptogenesis and dark matter in a three-loop radiative seesaw model

Low-scale leptogenesis and dark matter in a three-loop radiative seesaw model

ULYSSES, universal LeptogeneSiS equation solver: Version 2

ULYSSES is a Python package that calculates the baryon asymmetry produced from leptogenesis in the context of a type-I seesaw mechanism. In this release, the new features include code which solves the Boltzmann equations for low-scale leptogenesis; the complete Boltzmann equations for thermal leptogenesis applying proper quantum statistics without assuming kinetic equilibrium of the right-handed neutrinos; and, primordial black hole-induced leptogenesis. ULYSSES version 2 has the added functionality of a pre-provided script for a two-dimensional grid scan of the parameter space. As before, the emphasis of the code is on user flexibility, rapid evaluation and is publicly available at https://github.com/earlyuniverse/ulysses. Program summaryProgram Title: ULYSSESCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/rzd24f34h2.2Developer's repository link:https://github.com/earlyuniverse/ulysses/tree/master/ulyssesLicensing provisions: MITProgramming language: Python3Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Commun. 262 (2021) 107813Does the new version supersede the previous version?: YesReasons for the new version: Inclusion of additional effects in Boltzmann equations.Summary of revisions: Low scale leptogenesis, PBH-induced leptogenesis, and complete leptogenesis equations (non-momentum integrated equations) are provided.Nature of problem: Solve the Boltzmann equations for thermal, resonant and low-scale leptogenesis through a set of coupled ordinary differential equations.Solution method: Boltzmann equations are solved using a combination of odeint and solve_ivp in Python3.

HNL mass degeneracy: implications for low-scale seesaws, LNV at colliders and leptogenesis

Low-scale seesaw variants protected by lepton number symmetry provide a natural explanation of the smallness of neutrino masses but, unlike their higher-scale counterparts, with potentially testable phenomenology. The approximate lepton number symmetry arranges the heavy neutrinos in pseudo-Dirac pairs, which might be accessible at collider or even beam dump experiments if their mass is low enough and their mixing with the active neutrinos sufficiently large. Despite their pseudo-Dirac nature, their small mass splittings may lead to oscillations that prevent the cancellation of their potential lepton-number-violating signals. Interestingly, these small splittings may also resonantly enhance the production of a lepton number asymmetry for low-scale leptogenesis scenarios or, for extremely degenerate states, lead to an asymmetry large enough to resonantly produce a keV sterile neutrino dark matter candidate with the correct relic abundance via the Shi-Fuller mechanism. In this work we explore the parameter space of the different low-scale seesaw mechanisms and study the size of these splittings, given their important and interesting phenomenological consequences. While all low-scale seesaw variants share the same dimension 5 and 6 operators when integrating out the heavy states, we point out that the mass splitting of the pseudo-Dirac pairs are very different in different realizations such as the inverse or linear seesaw. This different phenomenology could offer a way to discriminate between low-scale seesaw realizations.

Tests of low-scale leptogenesis in charged lepton flavour violation experiments

We consider low-energy tests of low-scale leptogenesis based on the type I seesaw scenario with three right-handed singlet neutrinos νlR. In this scenario, successful leptogenesis is possible for quasi-degenerate in mass heavy Majorana neutrinos N1,2,3, M1,2,3≅M, |Mj−Mi|≪M, i≠j=1,2,3, heavy Majorana neutrino masses M∼(0.05−5×105) GeV, and Nj charged current and neutral current weak interaction couplings as large as O(10−2). We derive the constraints on the corresponding leptogenesis parameter space from the existing data from low-energy experiments, including the limits from the experiments on μ→eγ decay and on the rate of μ−e conversion in gold. We show also that the planned and upcoming experiments on charged lepton flavour violation with μ±, MEG II on the μ→eγ decay, Mu3e on μ→eee decay, Mu2e and COMET on μ−e conversion in aluminium and PRISM/PRIME on μ−e conversion in titanium, can probe significant region of the viable leptogenesis parameter space, and thus have a potential for a discovery. Experiments on τ→eee(μμμ) and τ→e(μ)γ decays (e.g., BELLE II) also can probe a part of the leptogenesis parameter space, although a relatively small one.

Low-scale leptogenesis with flavour and CP symmetries

We consider a type-I seesaw framework endowed with a flavour symmetry, belonging to the series of non-abelian groups ∆(3 n2) and ∆(6 n2), and a CP symmetry. Breaking these symmetries in a non-trivial way results in the right-handed neutrinos being degenerate in mass up to possible (further symmetry-breaking) splittings κ and λ, while the neutrino Yukawa coupling matrix encodes the entire flavour structure in the neutrino sector. For a fixed combination of flavour and CP symmetry and residual groups, this matrix contains five real free parameters. Four of them are determined by the light neutrino mass spectrum and by accommodating experimental data on lepton mixing well, while the angle θR is related to right-handed neutrinos. We scrutinise for all four lepton mixing patterns, grouped into Case 1) through Case 3 b.1), the potential to generate the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through low-scale leptogenesis numerically and analytically. The main results are: a) the possible correlation of the baryon asymmetry and the Majorana phases, encoded in the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing matrix, in certain instances; b) the possibility to generate the correct amount of baryon asymmetry for vanishing splittings κ and λ among the right-handed neutrinos as well as for large κ, depending on the case and the specific choice of group theory parameters; c) the chance to produce sufficient baryon asymmetry for large active-sterile mixing angles, enabling direct experimental tests at current and future facilities, if θR is close to a special value, potentially protected by an enhanced residual symmetry. We elucidate these results with representative examples of flavour and CP symmetries, which all lead to a good agreement with the measured values of the lepton mixing angles and, possibly, the current indication of the CP phase δ. We identify the CP-violating combinations relevant for low-scale leptogenesis, and show that the parametric dependence of the baryon asymmetry found in the numerical study can be understood well with their help.

Gravitational waves-tomography of Low-Scale-Leptogenesis

A long-lived scalar field (Φ) which couples weakly to the right-handed (RH) neutrinos (NRi), generates small RH neutrino masses (Mi) in Low-Scale-Leptogenesis (LSL) mechanisms, despite having a large vacuum expectation value vΦ. In this case, the correlation shared by the Mis and the duration of the non-standard cosmic history driven by the Φ provides an excellent opportunity to study LSL signatures on primordial gravitational waves (GWs). We find it engaging, specifically for the gravitational waves that originate due to the inflationary blue-tilted tensor power spectrum and propagate through the non-standard cosmic epoch. Depending on Mi, broadly, the scenario has two significant consequences. First, if LSL is at play, GWs with a sizeable blue tilt do not contradict the Big-Bang-Nucleosynthesis (BBN) bound even for the post-inflationary models with very high-scale reheating. Second, it opens up a possibility to probe LSLs via a low-frequency and a complementary high-frequency measurement of GW-spectral shapes which are typically double-peaked. For a case study, we consider the recent results on GWs from the Pulsar-Timing-Arrays (PTAs) as a ‘measurement’ at the low frequencies and forecast the signatures of LSL mechanisms at the higher frequencies.

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.

Dark matter and low scale leptogenesis in a flavor symmetric neutrino two Higgs doublet model (nu 2HDM)

We have studied dark matter (DM) phenomenology, neutrinoless double beta decay (NDBD) and realized low scale leptogenesis in an extension of Standard Model (SM) with three neutral fermions, a scalar doublet and a dark sector incorporating a singlet scalar and a Dirac singlet fermion. A generic model based on A_4times Z_4 flavor symmetry including five flavons is used to explain both normal and inverted hierarchy mass patterns of neutrino and also to accommodate the dark matter mass. In this extension of the nu 2HDM, the effective neutrino mass observed in 0nu beta beta is well within the experimental limit provided by KamLAND-ZEN. In order to validate DM within this model, we have checked relic abundance and free streaming length of the dark sector component, i.e. a Dirac singlet fermion constraining its mass in keV range. More importantly we have also realised low scale leptogenesis simultaneously within this framework and also the Dirac CP phase gets constrained with the results. Bound from LFV is also incorporated in order to constrain the Yukawa couplings. More importantly, we have analyzed the dependence of various phenomenology with decay parameter for different choice of arbitrary complex angles.

Dark sector assisted low scale leptogenesis from three body decay

We study the possibility of realizing leptogenesis from three body decay, dark matter (DM) and neutrino mass in a minimal framework. We propose a first of its kind model to implement the idea of leptogenesis from three body decay where $CP$ asymmetry arises from interference of multiple $1\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3$ diagrams using resummed propagators along with DM. The standard model is extended by three heavy singlet fermions, one scalar singlet, and one scalar doublet with appropriate discrete charges. Two of these singlet fermions not only play nontrivial roles in generating light neutrino mass at radiative level in scotogenic fashion, but also act as mediators in three body decay of the third singlet fermion leading to desired $CP$ asymmetry through interference of such diagrams. With just one additional field compared to the minimal scotogenic model, we show that successful leptogenesis can occur at a scale as low as approximately 1 TeV which is much lower than the leptogenesis scale found for minimal scotogenic model. Also, the realization of this three body decay leptogenesis naturally leads to a two component scalar singlet-doublet dark matter scenario offering a rich phenomenology. Apart from having interesting interplay of different couplings involved in processes related to both leptogenesis and dark matter, the model can also be tested at different experiments due to the existence of its particle spectrum at TeV scale.

Low scale leptogenesis and dark matter in the presence of primordial black holes

We study the possibility of low scale leptogenesis along with dark matter (DM) in the presence of primordial black holes (PBH). For a common setup to study both leptogenesis and DM we consider the minimal scotogenic model which also explains light neutrino mass at radiative level. While PBH in the mass range of 0.1–105 g can, in principle, affect leptogenesis, the required initial PBH fraction usually leads to overproduction of scalar doublet DM whose thermal freeze-out occurs before PBH evaporation. PBH can lead to non-thermal source of leptogenesis as well as dilution of thermally generated lepton asymmetry via entropy injection, with the latter being dominant. The parameter space of scotogenic model which leads to overproduction of baryon or lepton asymmetry in standard cosmology can be made consistent in the presence of PBH with appropriate initial mass and energy fraction. On the other hand, for such PBH parameters, the scalar DM is constrained to be in light mass regime where its freeze-out occurs after PBH evaporation. We then discuss the possibility of fermion singlet DM with N 2 leptogenesis in the same model where due to singlet nature of DM, its connection with PBH parameters and hence leptogenesis becomes stronger compared to the previous case.

Reconciling resonant leptogenesis and baryogenesis via neutrino oscillations

Right-handed neutrinos offer an elegant solution to two well established phenomena beyond the Standard Model (SM) - masses and oscillations of neutrinos, as well as the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. It is also a minimalistic solution since it requires only singlet Majorana fermions to be added to the SM particle content. If these fermions are nearly degenerate, the mass scale of right-handed neutrinos can be very low and accessible by the present and planned experiments. There are at least two well studied mechanisms of the low-scale leptogenesis: baryogenesis via oscillations and resonant leptogenesis. These two mechanisms were often considered separate, but they can in fact be understood as two different regimes of one and the same mechanism, described by a unique set of quantum kinetic equations. In this work we show, using a unified description based on quantum kinetic equations, that the parameter space of these two regimes of low-scale leptogenesis significantly overlap. We present a comprehensive study of the parameter space of the low-scale leptogenesis with the mass scale ranging from $0.1$ GeV to $\sim 10^6$ GeV. The unified perspective of this work reveals the synergy between intensity and energy frontiers in the quest for heavy Majorana neutrinos.

Domain walls and CP violation with left right supersymmetry: implications for leptogenesis and electron EDM

Low scale leptogenesis scenarios are difficult to verify due to our inability to relate the parameters involved in the early universe processes with the low energy or collider observables. Here we show that one can in principle relate the parameters giving rise to the transient CP violating phase involved in leptogenesis with those that can be deduced from the observation of electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron. We work out the details of this in the context of the left right symmetric supersymmetric model (LRSUSY) which provides a strong connection between such parameters. In particular, we show that baryon asymmetry requirements imply the scale MB−L of U(1)B−L symmetry breaking to be larger than 104.5 GeV. Moreover the scale MR of SU(2)R symmetry breaking is tightly constrained to lie in a narrow band significantly below {M}_{B-L}^2/{M}_{EW} . These are the most stringent constraints on the parameter space of LRSUSY model being considered.

The hubble tension as a hint of leptogenesis and neutrino mass generation

The majoron, a neutrinophilic pseudo-Goldstone boson conventionally arising in the context of neutrino mass models, can damp neutrino free-streaming and inject additional energy density into neutrinos prior to recombination. The combination of these effects for an eV-scale mass majoron has been shown to ameliorate the outstanding H_0 tension, however only if one introduces additional dark radiation at the level of Delta N_{mathrm{eff}} sim 0.5. We show here that models of low-scale leptogenesis can naturally source this dark radiation by generating a primordial population of majorons from the decays of GeV-scale sterile neutrinos in the early Universe. Using a posterior predictive distribution conditioned on Planck2018+BAO data, we show that the value of H_0 observed by the SH_0ES collaboration is expected to occur at the level of sim 10% in the primordial majoron cosmology (to be compared with sim 0.1% in the case of Lambda CDM). This insight provides an intriguing connection between the neutrino mass mechanism, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, and the discrepant measurements of H_0.

Low scale leptogenesis in a model with promising CP structure

We consider a simple extension of the standard model, which could give a solution to its CP issues through both the Peccei–Quinn mechanism and the Nelson–Barr mechanism. Its low energy effective model coincides with the scotogenic model in the leptonic sector. Although leptogenesis is known not to work well at lower reheating temperature than 10^9 GeV in simple seesaw and scotogenic frameworks, such low reheating temperature could be consistent with both neutrino mass generation and thermal leptogenesis via newly introduced fields without referring to the resonance effect. An alternative dark matter candidate to axion is prepared as an indispensable ingredient of the model.

Matter and dark matter asymmetry from a composite Higgs model

We propose a low scale leptogenesis scenario in the framework of composite Higgs models supplemented with singlet heavy neutrinos. One of the neutrinos can also be considered as a dark matter candidate whose stability is guaranteed by a discrete {mathbb {Z}}_2 symmetry of the model. In the spectrum of the strongly coupled system, bound states heavier than the pseudo Nambu–Goldstone Higgs boson can exist. Due to the decay of these states to heavy right-handed neutrinos, an asymmetry in the visible and dark sector is simultaneously generated. The resulting asymmetry is transferred to the standard model leptons which interact with visible right-handed neutrinos. We show that the sphaleron-induced baryon asymmetry can be provided at the TeV scale for resonant bound states. Depending on the coupling strength of dark neutrino interaction, a viable range of the dark matter mass is allowed in the model. Furthermore, taking into account the effective interactions of dark matter, we discuss low-energy processes and experiments.

MeV-scale seesaw and leptogenesis

We study the type-I seesaw model with three right-handed neutrinos and Majorana masses below the pion mass. In this mass range, the model parameter space is not only strongly constrained by the requirement to explain the light neutrino masses, but also by experimental searches and cosmological considerations. In the existing literature, three disjoint regions of potentially viable parameter space have been identified. In one of them, all heavy neutrinos decay shortly before big bang nucleosynthesis. In the other two regions, one of the heavy neutrinos either decays between BBN and the CMB decoupling or is quasi-stable. We show that previously unaccounted constraints from photodisintegration of nuclei practically rule out all relevant decays that happen between BBN and the CMB decoupling. Quite remarkably, if all heavy neutrinos decay before BBN, the baryon asymmetry of the universe can be quite generically explained by low-scale leptogenesis, i.e. without further tuning in addition to what is needed to avoid experimental and cosmological constraints. This motivates searches for heavy neutrinos in pion decay experiments.

Inflation and DM phenomenology in a scotogenic model extended with a real singlet scalar

We study an extension of the scotogenic model with a real singlet scalar. It gives an origin of the mass of right-handed neutrinos and plays a role of inflaton through a non-minimal coupling with Ricci scalar. While an inert doublet scalar is an indispensable ingredient for neutrino mass generation in the model, it is also a promising dark matter (DM) candidate. Introduction of the singlet scalar could affect its nature of DM if mass of the singlet scalar is in a resonance region. We focus our study on such a case where inflaton mass is expected to be in a TeV range and reheating temperature is less than $10^9$ GeV. Thus the model requires low scale leptogenesis. After examining several effects brought about by the singlet scalar for the DM sector, we discuss DM phenomenology such as high energy neutrinos and monochromatic gammas caused by its annihilation.