Search results for "sterile"
showing 10 items of 164 documents
New neutrino mass sum rule from the inverse seesaw mechanism
2012
A class of discrete flavor-symmetry-based models predicts constrained neutrino mass matrix schemes that lead to specific neutrino mass sum rules. One of these implies a lower bound on the effective neutrinoless double beta mass parameter, even for normal hierarchy neutrinos. Here we propose a new model based on the ${S}_{4}$ flavor symmetry that leads to the new neutrino mass sum rule and discuss how to generate a nonzero value for the reactor angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{13}$ indicated by recent experiments, and the resulting correlation with the solar angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{12}$.
Neff versus the lightest neutrino mass
2016
AbstractWithin the framework of low-scale Type I seesaw models with two and three extra sterile neutrinos we evaluate the production of the sterile states in the Early Universe. We explore the full parameter space and find that in the model with two extra states both of them reach thermal equilibrium with the primordial plasma. In the model with three sterile neutrinos, if the lightest active neutrino mass is below O(10−3eV) one sterile neutrino might not thermalize, while the other two always reach thermalization. Applying constrains from both extra radiation at BBN and CMB, and the dark matter allowed abundance, we show that the spectra of heavier states are severely restricted in the mas…
N_eff in low-scale seesaw models versus the lightest neutrino mass
2014
We evaluate the contribution to $N_{\rm eff}$ of the extra sterile states in low-scale Type I seesaw models (with three extra sterile states). We explore the full parameter space and find that at least two of the heavy states always reach thermalisation in the Early Universe, while the third one might not thermalise provided the lightest neutrino mass is below ${\mathcal O}(10^{-3}$eV). Constraints from cosmology therefore severely restrict the spectra of heavy states in the range 1eV- 100 MeV. The implications for neutrinoless double beta decay are also discussed.
Inflation and majoron dark matter in the neutrino seesaw mechanism
2014
We propose that inflation and dark matter have a common origin, connected to the neutrino mass generation scheme. As a model we consider spontaneous breaking of global lepton number within the seesaw mechanism. We show that it provides an acceptable inflationary scenario consistent with the recent cosmic microwave background B-mode observation by the BICEP2 experiment. The scheme may also account for the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through leptogenesis for reasonable parameter choices.
Neutrino Mass and Missing Momentum Higgs Boson Signals
1997
In the simplest scheme for neutrino masses invoking a triplet of Higgs scalars there are two CP-even neutral Higgs bosons $H_i$ (i=1,2) and one massive pseudoscalar $A$. For some choices of parameters, the lightest $H_1$ may be lighter than the Standard Model Higgs boson. If the smallness of neutrino mass is due to the small value of the triplet expectation value, as expected in a seesaw scheme, the Higgs bosons may decay dominantly to the invisible neutrino channel. We derive limits on Higgs masses and couplings that follow from LEP I precision measurements of the invisible Z width.
Leptoquarks: Neutrino masses and related accelerator signals
2008
Leptoquark-Higgs interactions induce mixing between leptoquark (LQ) states with different chiralities once the electroweak symmetry is broken. In such LQ models Majorana neutrino masses are generated at 1-loop order. Here we calculate the neutrino mass matrix and explore the constraints on the parameter space enforced by the assumption that LQ-loops explain current neutrino oscillation data. LQs will be produced at the CERN LHC, if their masses are at or below the TeV scale. Since the fermionic decays of LQs are governed by the same Yukawa couplings, which are responsible for the nontrivial neutrino mass matrix, several decay branching ratios of LQ states can be predicted from measured neut…
The Not-So-Sterile 4th Neutrino: Constraints on New Gauge Interactions from Neutrino Oscillation Experiments
2014
Sterile neutrino models with new gauge interactions in the sterile sector are phenomenologically interesting since they can lead to novel effects in neutrino oscillation experiments, in cosmology and in dark matter detectors, possibly even explaining some of the observed anomalies in these experiments. Here, we use data from neutrino oscillation experiments, in particular from MiniBooNE, MINOS and solar neutrino experiments, to constrain such models. We focus in particular on the case where the sterile sector gauge boson $A'$ couples also to Standard Model particles (for instance to the baryon number current) and thus induces a large Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein potential. For eV-scale ster…
Heavy Sterile Neutrinos in Tau Decays and the MiniBooNE Anomaly
2011
Current results of the MiniBooNE experiment show excess events that indicate neutrino oscillations, but only if one goes beyond the standard 3 family scenario. Recently a different explanation of the events has been given, not in terms of oscillations but by the production and decay of a massive sterile neutrino with large transition magnetic moment. We study the effect of such a sterile neutrino in the rare decays $\tau^- \rightarrow \mu^- \mu^+ \pi^- \nu$ and $\tau^{-}\rightarrow \mu^{-} \mu^{+} e^{-} \nu \nu$. We find that searches for these decays featuring displaced vertices between the $\mu^-$ and the other charged particles, constitute good tests for the existence of the sterile neut…
Reconciling dark matter, solar and atmospheric neutrinos
1993
We present models that can reconcile the solar and atmospheric neutrino data with the existence of a hot dark matter component in the universe. This dark matter is a quasi-Dirac neutrino whose mass $m_{DM}$ arises at the one-loop level. The solar neutrino deficit is explained via nonadiabatic conversions of electron neutrino to a sterile neutrino and the atmospheric neutrino data via maximal muon neutrino to tau neutrino oscillations generated by higher order loop diagrams. For $m_{DM} \sim 30$ eV the radiative neutrino decay can lead to photons that can ionize interstellar hydrogen. In one of the models one can have observable $\nu_e$ to $\nu_\tau$ oscillation rates, with no appreciable mu…
Neutrino masses and cosmology: current bounds and future sensitivities
2005
After a short introduction on the predicted cosmic neutrino background, we review the connection between neutrino masses and cosmology. We show how a combined analysis of data from the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation and from the distribution of cosmological large-scale structure gives a bound on the sum of neutrino masses. We briefly discuss the sensitivity of future cosmological data to neutrino masses.