On expansions in neutrino effective field theory

Abstract

We match the seesaw model for generating neutrino masses onto the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We perform this matching at tree level up to dimension seven in the operator expansion. We explain how some of the perturbations of the neutrino mass matrix due to operators of mass dimension greater than five are tied to integrating out the heavy Majorana mass eigenstates in sequence. We demonstrate that the low energy limit of seesaw models are well described by the SMEFT, particularly when constructed using a flavour space expansion. Flavour space expansions of seesaw models are of interest as the coupling of the heavy states to the Standard Model, that are integrated out to generate neutrino masses, are through flavour space vectors $\in \mathbb{C}^3$. We point out that neutrino phenomenology can be systematically developed as a perturbation around the unknown eigenvectors diagonalizing the charged lepton mass matrix using the fact that these eigenvectors also form a basis of $\mathbb{C}^3$. This point holds in seesaw models and can also be applied to other models of neutrino mass generation to develop systematic expansions. We develop the algebra for this flavour space and discuss some phenomenology to illustrate this approach.