Sterile Fermion States Research Articles

Collider searches for heavy neutral leptons: beyond simplified scenarios

With very few exceptions, the large amount of available experimental bounds on heavy neutral leptons – HNL – have been derived relying on the assumption of the existence of a single (usually Majorana) sterile fermion state that mixes with only one lepton flavour. However, most of the extensions of the Standard Model involving sterile fermions predict the existence of several HNLs, with complex mixing patterns to all flavours. Consequently, most of the experimental bounds for HNLs need to be recast before being applied to a generic scenario. In this work, we focus on LHC searches of heavy neutral leptons and discuss how to reinterpret the available bounds when it comes to consider mixings to all active flavours, not only in the case with a single HNL, but also in the case when more heavy neutral leptons are involved. In the latter case, we also consider the possibility of interference effects and show how the bounds on the parameter space should be recast.

Electron electric dipole moment in Inverse Seesaw models

We consider the contribution of sterile neutrinos to the electric dipole moment of charged leptons in the most minimal realisation of the Inverse Seesaw mechanism, in which the Standard Model is extended by two right-handed neutrinos and two sterile fermion states. Our study shows that the two pairs of (heavy) pseudo-Dirac mass eigenstates can give significant contributions to the electron electric dipole moment, lying close to future experimental sensitivity if their masses are above the electroweak scale. The major contribution comes from two-loop diagrams with pseudo-Dirac neutrino states running in the loops. In our analysis we further discuss the possibility of having a successful leptogenesis in this framework, compatible with a large electron electric dipole moment.

Impact of sterile neutrinos on nuclear-assisted cLFV processes

We discuss charged lepton flavour violating processes occurring in the presence of muonic atoms, such as muon-electron conversion in nuclei $\text{CR}(\mu -e, \text{ N})$, the (Coulomb enhanced) decay of muonic atoms into a pair of electrons BR($\mu^- e^- \to e^- e^-$, N), as well as Muonium conversion and decay, $\text{Mu}-\bar{\text{Mu}}$ and $\text{Mu}\to e^+ e^-$. Any experimental signal of these observables calls for scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this work, we consider minimal extensions of the Standard Model via the addition of sterile fermions, providing the corresponding complete analytical expressions for all the considered observables. We first consider an "ad hoc" extension with a single sterile fermion state, and investigate its impact on the above observables. Two well motivated mechanisms of neutrino mass generation are then considered: the Inverse Seesaw embedded into the Standard Model, and the $\nu$MSM. Our study reveals that, depending on their mass range and on the active-sterile mixing angles, sterile neutrinos can give significant contributions to the above mentioned observables, some of them even lying within present and future sensitivity of dedicated cLFV experiments. We complete the analysis by confronting our results to other (direct and indirect) searches for sterile fermions.

Electric dipole moments of charged leptons with sterile fermions

We address the impact of sterile fermions on charged lepton electric dipole moments. Any experimental signal of these observables calls for scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model providing new sources of CP violation. In this work, we consider a minimal extension of the Standard Model via the addition of sterile fermions which mix with active neutrinos and we derive the corresponding analytical expressions for the electric dipole moments of charged leptons at two-loop order. Our study reveals that, in order to have a non-vanishing contribution in this framework, the minimal extension necessitates the addition of at least 2 sterile fermion states to the Standard Model field content. Our conclusion is that sterile neutrinos can give significant contributions to the charged lepton electric dipole moments, some of them lying within present and future experimental sensitivity if the masses of the non-degenerate sterile states are both above the electroweak scale. The Majorana nature of neutrinos is also important in order to allow for significative contributions to the charged lepton electric dipole moments. In our analysis we impose all available experimental and observational constraints on sterile neutrinos and we further discuss the prospect of probing this scenario at low and high energy experiments.

Lepton number violation as a key to low-scale leptogenesis

We explore the possibility of having a successful leptogenesis through oscillations between new sterile fermion states added to the Standard Model field content in a well motivated framework, naturally giving rise to the required mass splitting between the sterile states through a small total lepton number violation. We propose a framework with only two sterile states forming a pseudo-Dirac state, in which their mass difference as well as the smallness of the neutrino masses are due to two sources of lepton number violation with Δ L=2, corresponding to an Inverse Seesaw framework extended by a Linear Seesaw mass term. We also explore the pure Inverse Seesaw mechanism in its minimal version, requiring at least four new sterile states in order to comply with neutrino data. Our analytical and numerical studies reveal that one can have a successful leptogenesis at the temperature of the electroweak scale through oscillations between the two sterile states with a ``natural'' origin of the strong degeneracy in their mass spectrum. We also revisit the analytical expression of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe in the weak washout regime of this framework.

Indirect searches for sterile neutrinos at a high-luminosity Z-factory

A future high-luminosity Z-factory will offer the possibility to study rare Z decays, as those leading to lepton flavour violating final states. Processes such as Z → ℓ 1 ∓ ℓ 2 ± are potentially complementary to low-energy (high-intensity) observables of lepton flavour violation. In this work we address the impact of new sterile fermions on lepton flavour violating Z decays, focusing on potential searches at FCC-ee (TLEP), and taking into account experimental and observational constraints on the sterile states. We consider a minimal extension of the Standard Model by one sterile fermion state, and two well-motivated frameworks of neutrino mass generation, the Inverse Seesaw embedded into the Standard Model, and the νMSM. Our study shows that sterile neutrinos can give rise to contributions to BR(Z → ℓ 1 ∓ ℓ 2 ± ) within reach of the FCC-ee. We also discuss the complementarity between a high-luminosity Z-factory and low-energy charged lepton flavour violation facilities.

Effect of steriles states on lepton magnetic moments and neutrinoless double beta decay

We address the impact of sterile fermion states on the anomalous magnetic moment of charged leptons, as well as their contribution to neutrinoless double beta decays. We illustrate our results in a minimal, effective extension of the Standard Model by one sterile fermion state, and in a well-motivated framework of neutrino mass generation, embedding the Inverse Seesaw into the Standard Model. The simple “3+1” effective case succeeds in alleviating the tension related to the muon anomalous magnetic moment, albeit only at the 3σ level, and for light sterile states (corresponding to a cosmologically disfavoured regime). Interestingly, our analysis shows that a future 0ν2β observation does not necessarily imply an inverted hierarchy for the active neutrinos in this simple extension. Although the Inverse Seesaw realisation here addressed could indeed ease the tension in (g − 2) μ , bounds from lepton universality in kaon decays mostly preclude this from happening. However, these scenarios can also have a strong impact on the interpretation of a future 0ν2β signal regarding the hierarchy of the active neutrino mass spectrum.