Singlet Neutrinos Research Articles

Multilepton collider signatures of heavy Dirac and Majorana neutrinos

We discuss the possibility of observing multi-lepton signals at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from the production and decay of heavy Standard Model (SM) singlet neutrinos added in extensions of SM to explain the observed light neutrino masses by seesaw mechanism. In particular, we analyze two `smoking gun' signals depending on the Dirac or Majorana nature of the heavy neutrino: (i) for Majorana case, the same-sign di-lepton signal which can be used as a probe of lepton-number violation, and (ii) for Dirac case, the tri-lepton signal which conserves lepton number but may violate lepton flavor. Within a minimal Left-Right symmetric framework in which these additional neutrino states arise naturally, we find that in both cases, the signals can be identified with virtually no background beyond a TeV, and the heavy gauge boson W_R can be discovered in this process. This analysis also provides a direct way to probe the nature of seesaw physics involving the SM singlets at TeV scale, and in particular, to distinguish type-I seesaw with purely Majorana heavy neutrinos from inverse seesaw with pseudo-Dirac counterparts.

Exploring novel correlations in trilepton channels at the LHC for the minimal supersymmetric inverse seesaw model

We investigate signatures of the minimal supersymmetric inverse seesaw model at the large hadron collider (LHC) with three isolated leptons and large missing energy (3\ell + \mET or 2\ell + 1\tau + \mET, with \ell=e,\mu) in the final state. This signal has its origin in the decay of chargino-neutralino (\chpm1\ntrl2) pair, produced in pp collisions. The two body decays of the lighter chargino into a charged lepton and a singlet sneutrino has a characteristic decay pattern which is correlated with the observed large atmospheric neutrino mixing angle. This correlation is potentially observable at the LHC by looking at the ratios of cross sections of the trilepton + \mET channels in certain flavour specific modes. We show that even after considering possible leading standard model backgrounds these final states can lead to reasonable discovery significance at the LHC with both 7 TeV and 14 TeV center-of-mass energy.

Lepton flavor violation in minimal flavor violation extensions of the seesaw

A minimal flavour violation hypothesis for leptons can be implemented essentially in two ways that are compatible with a type-I seesaw structure with three heavy singlet neutrinos $N$, and that satisfy the requirement of being predictive, in the sense that all lepton flavor violating (LFV) effects can be expressed in terms of low energy observables. The first realization is CP conserving and is based on the flavor group $SU(3)_e\times SU(3)_\ell\times O(3)_N$ (being $e$ and $\ell$ the SU(2) singlet and doublet leptons). The second realization allows for CP violation and is based on $SU(3)_e\times SU(3)_{\ell+N}$. I review the main features of the two schemes and point out their different implications for LFV observables.

Towards a realistic F-theory GUT

We consider semi-local F-theory GUTs arising from a single E_8 point of local enhancement, leading to simple GUT groups based on E_6, SO(10) and SU(5) with SU(3), SU(4) and SU(5) spectral covers, respectively. Assuming the minimal Z_2 monodromy, we determine the homology classes and the associated spectra after flux breaking for each case. Our analysis includes the GUT singlets which have hitherto been ignored but which play a crucial role in phenomenology. Using these results we construct an E_6 based model that demonstrates, for the first time, that it is possible to construct a phenomenologically viable model which leads to the MSSM at low energies. The exotics that result from flux breaking all get a large mass when singlet fields acquire vacuum expectation values driven by D- and F-flatness. Due to the underlying GUT symmetry and the U(1)s descending from E_8, bare baryon- and lepton-number violating terms are forbidden up to and including dimension 5. As a result nucleon decay is naturally suppressed below present bounds. The mu-term is forbidden by the U(1) but is generated at the SUSY breaking scale when a further singlet field acquires a TeV scale vacuum expectation value, driven by the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry. After including the effect of flux and instanton corrections acceptable quark and charged lepton masses and mixing angles can be obtained. Neutrinos get a mass from the see-saw mechanism through their coupling to singlet neutrinos that acquire large Majorana mass as a result of the monodromy.

Sneutrino Dark Matter in Gauged Inverse Seesaw Models for Neutrinos

Extending the minimal supersymmetric standard model to explain small neutrino masses via the inverse seesaw mechanism can lead to a new light supersymmetric scalar partner which can play the role of inelastic dark matter (IDM). It is a linear combination of the superpartners of the neutral fermions in the theory (the light left-handed neutrino and two heavy standard model singlet neutrinos) which can be very light with mass in ~5-20 GeV range, as suggested by some current direct detection experiments. The IDM in this class of models has keV-scale mass splitting, which is intimately connected to the small Majorana masses of neutrinos. We predict the differential scattering rate and annual modulation of the IDM signal which can be testable at future germanium- and xenon-based detectors.

Stabilising the supersymmetric Standard Model on the [formula omitted] orientifold

Four stacks of intersecting supersymmetric fractional D6-branes on the Z 6 ′ orientifold have previously been used to construct consistent models having the spectrum of the supersymmetric Standard Model, including a single pair of Higgs doublets, plus three right-chiral neutrino singlets. However, various moduli, Kähler moduli and complex-structure moduli, twisted and untwisted, remain unfixed. Further, some of the Yukawa couplings needed to generate quark and lepton masses are forbidden by a residual global symmetry of the model. In this paper we study the stabilisation of moduli using background fluxes, and show that the moduli may be stabilised within the Kähler cone. In principle, missing Yukawa couplings may be restored, albeit with a coupling that is suppressed by non-perturbative effects, by the use of Euclidean D2-branes that are point-like in spacetime, i.e. E2-instantons. However, for the models under investigation, we show that this is not possible.

LEPTOGENESIS FROM SOFT SUPERSYMMETRY BREAKING: SOFT LEPTOGENESIS

Soft leptogenesis is a scenario in which the cosmic baryon asymmetry is produced from a lepton asymmetry generated in the decays of heavy sneutrinos (the partners of the singlet neutrinos of the seesaw) and where the relevant sources of CP violation are the complex phases of soft supersymmetry-breaking terms. We explain the motivations for soft leptogenesis, and review its basic ingredients: the different CP-violating contributions, the crucial role played by thermal corrections, and the enhancement of the efficiency from lepton flavor effects. We also discuss the high temperature regime T > 107 GeV in which the cosmic baryon asymmetry originates from an initial asymmetry of an anomalous R-charge, and soft leptogenesis reembodies in R-genesis.

Minimal flavour violation extensions of the seesaw

We analyze the most natural formulations of the minimal lepton flavour violation hypothesis compatible with a type-I seesaw structure with three heavy singlet neutrinos N, and satisfying the requirement of being predictive, in the sense that all LFV effects can be expressed in terms of low energy observables. We find a new interesting realization based on the flavour group $SU(3)_e\times SU(3)_{\ell+N}$ (being $e$ and $\ell$ respectively the SU(2) singlet and doublet leptons). An intriguing feature of this realization is that, in the normal hierarchy scenario for neutrino masses, it allows for sizeable enhancements of $\mu \to e$ transitions with respect to LFV processes involving the $\tau$ lepton. We also discuss how the symmetries of the type-I seesaw allow for a strong suppression of the N mass scale with respect to the scale of lepton number breaking, without implying a similar suppression for possible mechanisms of N production

Inverse seesaw in supersymmetry

We study a mechanism where tiny neutrino masses arise only from radiative contribution in a supersymmetric model. Without tuning the Higgs vev or Yukawa coupling, the tree-level light neutrino mass is rotated away by introducing a new singlet neutrino sL that forms a Dirac mass term with the right-handed neutrino nR in each generation. Even with the U(1)Lep lepton number violation term as non-zero right-handed Majorana neutrino mass MRnRc¯nR, the lightest neutrino remains massless at tree level due to an approximate symmetry. Consequently, tiny neutrino masses then only arise from radiative contributions and the right-handed neutrino Majorana mass MR can be at O(keV) to give rise to the correct light neutrino mass at O(eV). Supersymmetry ensures that the Majorana neutrino masses MRnRc¯nR and MR⁎sLc¯sL are not generated simultaneously.

Inverse seesaw mechanism, leptogenesis, observable proton decay, andΔR±±in supersymmetricSO(10)with heavyWR

We explore low-scale leptogenesis in a class of supersymmetric SO(10) models using extra singlet neutrinos and the Higgs representations {126}_H\oplus {\ovl{126}}_H as well as {16}_H \oplus {\bar {16}}_H. A singlet neutrino, which can be as light as 10^5-10^6 GeV, decays through its small mixings with right-handed neutrinos creating a lepton asymmetry which is shown to be flavor dependent. While the doublet vacuum expectation value in {\ovl{16}}_H triggers the generation of desired mixings, it also induces a large RH triplet vev that breaks the LR intermediate gauge symmetry and gives large RH neutrino masses. Manifest unification of gauge couplings and generation of heavy RH neutrino masses are achieved by renormalizable interactions. The canonical (Type-I) see-saw contributions to the light neutrino mass matrix cancel out while the Type-II see-saw contribution is negligible. Determining the parameters of the dominant inverse see-saw formula using the underlying quark-lepton symmetry and neutrino oscillation data, we show how leptogenesis under the gravitino constraint is successfully implemented. New formulas for the decay rate and the asymmetry parameter are derived leading to baryon asymmetry within the observed range. The model is found to work for hierarchical as well as inverted hierarchical light neutrino masses. Testable predictions of the model are RH doubly charged Higgs bosons which may be leptophilic and accessible to the Tevatron, LHC or a linear collider. In a model-independent manner, the Drell-Yan pair production cross section is shown to be bounded between 59%-79% of their left-handed counterparts with same mass. In contrast to single-step breaking SUSY GUTs, which predict a long proton lifetime for p\to e^+\pi^0, here this lifetime is substantially reduced, bringing it within one order of the current experimental limit.

Dark matter signals and cosmic ray anomalies in an extended seesaw model

An extended seesaw model proposed to achieve low scale leptogenesis can resolve the excess positron and electron fluxes observed from PAMELA, ATIC and/or Fermi-LAT, and simultaneously accommodate some of recent experimental results for dark matter (DM) signals. In this approach, in addition to SU(2)L doublet and the (light) singlet Higgs fields, an extra vector-like singlet neutrino and a singlet scalar field, which are coexisting two-particle dark matter candidates, are responsible for the origin of the excess positron and electron fluxes to resolve the PAMELA, ATIC and/or Fermi-LAT anomalies, as well as for the DM signals observed from direct searches in low mass scale.

Spontaneous R-parity violation, A 4 flavor symmetry and tribimaximal mixing

We explore the possibility of obtaining tribimaximal mixing matrix in the set-up of a spontaneous R parity violating theory and in the presence of A 4 flavor symmetry. Our model contains SU(3) C × SU(2) L × U(1) Y singlet matter chiral superfields which are arranged as triplet of A 4 and as well as few additional Higgs chiral superfields which are singlet under MSSM gauge group and belong to triplet and singlet representation under the A 4 flavor symmetry. R parity is broken spontaneously by the vacuum expectation values of the different sneutrino fields and hence we have neutrino-neutralino as well as neutrino-MSSM gauge singlet higgsino mixings in our model, in addition to the standard model neutrino-gauge singlet neutrino, gaugino-higgsino and higgsino-higgsino mixings. Because of all these mixings we have an extended 17 × 17 neutral fermion mass matrix. We explore the low energy neutrino mass matrix of our model, and point out that with some specific constraints between the sneutrino vacuum expectation values as well as the MSSM gauge singlet Higgs vacuum expectation values, the low energy neutrino mass matrix will lead to a tribimaximal mixing matrix, despite the non-trivial extension of the neutral fermion mass matrix which comes as an artifact of R-parity violation. We analyze the scalar potential minimization of our model and show that one can realize R-parity violation in this model through large vacuum expectation values of the SU(3) C × SU(2) L × U(1) Y singlet sneutrino fields, even when the other sneutrino vacuum expectation values are extremely small or even zero.

Reappraisal of spontaneousR-parity violation

In this short reappraisal of spontaneous lepton number violation in a supersymmetric scenario implemented through singlet sneutrino vacuum expectation value (VEV), we contribute with two new things in the context where the lepton number symmetry is global: (i) provide explicit expressions of $R$-parity violating couplings in terms of the neutrino Yukawa couplings and the singlet sneutrino VEV, and (ii) estimate the limit on this VEV using the current knowledge of the light neutrino mass and the astrophysical constraint on the Majoron-electron coupling. Besides, we put updated constraints on the VEV and Yukawa coupling of the singlet superfield when lepton number is gauged.

TeV scale see-saw mechanisms of neutrino mass generation, the Majorana nature of the heavy singlet neutrinos and (ββ)0ν-decay

It is shown that the Majorana nature of the heavy neutrinos N j having masses in the range of M j ~ (100 - 1000) GeV and present in the TeV scale type I and inverse see-saw scenarios of neutrino mass generation, is unlikely to be observable in the currently operating and future planned accelerator experiments (including LHC) due to the existence of very strong constraints on the parameters and couplings responsible for the corresponding ∣ΔL∣= 2 processes, L being the total lepton charge. If the heavy Majorana neutrinos N j are observed and they are associated only with the type I or inverse see-saw mechanisms and no additional TeV scale “new physics”, they will behave like Dirac fermions to a relatively high level of precision, being actually pseudo-Dirac particles. The observation of effects proving the Majorana nature of N j would imply that these heavy neutrinos have additional relatively strong couplings to the Standard Model particles (as, e.g. in the type III see-saw scenario), or that light neutrino masses compatible with the observations are generated by a mechanism other than see-saw (e.g., radiatively at one or two loop level) in which the heavy Majorana neutrinos N j are nevertheless involved.

One-loop contribution to the neutrino mass matrix in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model with right-handed neutrinos and tribimaximal mixing

Neutrino mass patterns and mixing have been studied in the context of next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) with three gauge singlet neutrino superfields. We consider the case with the assumption of R-parity conservation. The vacuum expectation value of the singlet scalar field $S$ of NMSSM induces the Majorana masses for the right-handed neutrinos as well as the usual $\mu$-term. The contributions to the light neutrino mass matrix at the tree level as well as one-loop level are considered, consistent with the tri-bimaximal pattern of neutrino mixing. Light neutrino masses arise at the tree level through a TeV scale seesaw mechanism involving the right-handed neutrinos. Although all the three light neutrinos acquire non-zero masses at the tree-level, we show that the one-loop contributions can be comparable in size under certain conditions.

SUSY [formula omitted] with singlet plus adjoint matter and [formula omitted] family symmetry

We propose a supersymmetric (SUSY) SU(5) Grand Unified Theory (GUT) including a single right-handed neutrino singlet and an adjoint matter representation below the GUT scale and extend this model to include an A4 family symmetry and a gauged anomaly-free Abelian group. In our approach hierarchical neutrino masses result from a combined type I and type III seesaw mechanism, and the A4 symmetry leads to tri-bimaximal mixing which arises indirectly. The mixing between the single right-handed neutrino and the matter in the adjoint is forbidden by excluding an adjoint Higgs, leading to a diagonal heavy Majorana sector as required by constrained sequential dominance. The model also reproduces a realistic description of quark and charged lepton masses and quark mixings, including the Georgi–Jarlskog relations and the leptonic mixing sum rules s=rcosδ and a=−r2/4 with r=θC/3.

Utilitarian supersymmetric gauge model of particle interactions

A remarkabale $U(1)$ gauge extension of the supersymmetric standard model was proposed 8 years ago. It is anomaly free, has no $\ensuremath{\mu}$ term, and conserves baryon and lepton numbers automatically. The phenomenology of a specific version of this model is discussed. In particular, leptoquarks are predicted, with couplings to the heavy singlet neutrinos, the scalar partners of which may be components of dark matter. The Majorana neutrino mass matrix itself may have two zero subdeterminants.

Neutrino condensate as origin of dark energy

We propose a new solution to the origin of dark energy. We suggest that it was created dynamically from the condensate of a singlet neutrino at a late epoch of the early Universe through its effective self-interaction. This singlet neutrino is also the Dirac partner of one of the three observed neutrinos, hence dark energy is related to neutrino mass. The onset of this condensate formation in the early Universe is also related to matter density and offers an explanation of the coincidence problem of why dark energy (70%) and total matter (30%) are comparable at the present time. We demonstrate this idea in a model of neutrino mass with (right-handed) singlet neutrinos and a singlet scalar.

The minimal seesaw model at the TeV scale

We point out that the minimal seesaw model can provide a natural framework to accommodate tiny neutrino masses, while its experimental testability and notable predictiveness are still maintained. This possibility is based on the observation that two heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos in the minimal seesaw model may naturally emerge as a pseudo-Dirac fermion. In a specific scenario, we show that the tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing can be produced, and only the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy is allowed. The low-energy phenomena, including non-unitarity effects in neutrino oscillations, neutrinoless double-beta decays and rare lepton-flavor-violating decays of charged leptons ℓα→ℓβγ, have been explored. The collider signatures of the heavy singlet neutrino are also briefly discussed.

Neutrino mass from a hidden world and its phenomenological implications

We propose a model of neutrino mass generation in extra dimension. Allowing a large lepton number violation on a distant brane spatially separated from the standard model brane, a small neutrino mass is naturally generated due to an exponential suppression of the messenger field in the 5D bulk. The model accommodates a large Yukawa coupling with the singlet neutrino (nR) which may change the standard Higgs search and can simultaneously accommodate visible lepton number violation at the electroweak scale, which leads to very interesting phenomenology at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.