arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Werner Rodejohann.
Sterile neutrinos coupling only to third-generation fermions are attractive dark matter candidates. In an EFT approach we demonstrate that they can generate the observed relic density without violating constraints from direct and indirect detection. Such an EFT represents a gauged third-generation $B-L$ model, as well as third-generation scalar or vector leptoquarks. LHC measurements naturally distinguish the different underlying models.
We discuss a mechanism of neutrinoless double beta decay, where neutrinos of different flavours come into play. This is realized by effective flavour-violating scalar interactions. As one consequence, we find that within the normal mass ordering the neutrino effective mass may no longer vanish due to contributions from other flavours. We evaluate the necessary nuclear matrix elements, consider the interference between the standard diagram and the new scalar one, and analyze a UV-complete model that realizes the scalar interaction. Tests of the complete model are possible at colliders and future neutrino experiments. Our scenario represents an alternative mechanism for neutrinoless double beta decay, where nevertheless lepton number violation resides only in Majorana mass terms of light neutrinos.
We propose a framework that addresses the origin of neutrino mass, explains the observed discrepancies in the electron and the muon anomalous magnetic moments (AMMs) data and incorporates the dark matter (DM) relic abundance. Both the neutrino mass and the lepton AMMs are generated at one-loop level mediated by a common set of beyond the Standard Model (SM) states. In this class of models, the SM is extended with vector-like charged fermion and scalar multiplets, all odd under an imposed $\mathcal{Z}_2$ symmetry, which stabilizes the fermionic or scalar DM candidate residing in one of them. Two scalar multiplets appear in the AMM loops, thus allowing for different signs of their contributions, in agreement with the observed discrepancies which are of opposite sign for electron and muon. The vector-like fermions give rise to large new physics contributions to the lepton AMMs via chirally enhanced terms that are proportional to their mass. To demonstrate the viability of this framework, we perform a detailed study of a particular model for which a fit to the neutrino masses and mixing together with lepton AMMs are provided. Furthermore, DM phenomenology and collider signatures are explored.
We explore a common symmetrical origin for two long standing problems in particle physics: the strong CP and the fermion mass hierarchy problems. The Peccei--Quinn mechanism solves the former one with an anomalous global $U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ symmetry. Here we investigate how this $U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ could at the same time explain the fermion mass hierarchy. We work in the context of a four-Higgs-doublet model which explains all quark and charged fermion masses with natural, i.e.\ order $1$, Yukawa couplings. Moreover, the axion of the model constitutes a viable dark matter candidate and neutrino masses are incorporated via the standard type-I seesaw mechanism. A simple extension of the model allows for Dirac neutrinos.
The MUonE experiment aims at a precision measurement of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon $g-2$, via elastic muon-electron scattering. Since the current muon $g-2$ anomaly hints at the potential existence of new physics (NP) related to the muon, the question then arises as to whether the measurement of hadronic vacuum polarization in MUonE could be affected by the same NP as well. In this work, we address this question by investigating a variety of NP explanations of the muon $g-2$ anomaly via either vector or scalar mediators with either flavor-universal, non-universal or even flavor-violating couplings to electrons and muons. We derive the corresponding MUonE sensitivity in each case and find that the measurement of hadronic vacuum polarization at the MUonE is not vulnerable to any of these NP scenarios.
If neutrinos are Dirac particles the existence of light right-handed neutrinos $ν_{R}$ is implied. Those would contribute to the effective number of relativistic neutrino species $N_{\rm eff}$ in the early Universe. With pure standard model interactions, the contribution is negligibly small. In the presence of new interactions, however, the contribution could be significantly enhanced. We consider the most general effective four-fermion interactions for neutrinos (scalar, pseudo-scalar, vector, axial-vector and tensor), and compute the contribution of right-handed neutrinos to $N_{\rm eff}$. Taking the Planck 2018 measurement of $N_{\rm eff}$, strong constraints on the effective four-fermion coupling are obtained, corresponding to interaction strengths of $10^{-5}\sim10^{-3}$ in units of the Fermi constant. This translates in new physics scales of up to 43 TeV and higher. Future experiments such as CMB-S4 can probe or exclude the existence of effective 4-neutrino operators for Dirac neutrinos. Ways to avoid this conclusion are discussed.
Neutrino Self-Interactions ($ν$SI) beyond the Standard Model are an attractive possibility to soften cosmological constraints on neutrino properties and also to explain the tension in late and early time measurements of the Hubble expansion rate. The required strength of $ν$SI to explain the $4σ$ Hubble tension is in terms of a point-like effective four-fermion coupling that can be as high as $10^9\, G_F$, where $G_F$ is the Fermi constant. In this work, we show that such strong $ν$SI can cause significant effects in two-neutrino double beta decay, leading to an observable enhancement of decay rates and to spectrum distortions. We analyze self-interactions via an effective operator as well as when mediated by a light scalar. Data from observed two-neutrino double beta decay is used to constrain $ν$SI, which rules out the regime around $10^9\, G_F$.
We derive constraints on all possible general neutrino-electron interactions (scalar, vector, pseudoscalar, axialvector and tensor) using the recent real time Borexino event rate measurements of $pp$, $pep$ and $^{7}Be$ solar neutrinos. The limits improve several previous ones from TEXONO and CHARM-II for incoming electron and muon neutrinos, and are the first ones for the tau flavor. Future improvements by next-generation solar neutrino experiments are also studied. The limits extend the physics reach of solar neutrino measurements to TeV-scale physics. Finally, the different properties of the new interactions for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos are discussed.
Past and current direct neutrino mass experiments set limits on the so-called effective neutrino mass, which is an incoherent sum of neutrino masses and lepton mixing matrix elements. The electron energy spectrum which neglects the relativistic and nuclear recoil effects is often assumed. Alternative definitions of effective masses exist, and an exact relativistic spectrum is calculable. We quantitatively compare the validity of those different approximations as function of energy resolution and exposure in view of tritium beta decays in the KATRIN, Project 8 and PTOLEMY experiments. Furthermore, adopting the Bayesian approach, we present the posterior distributions of the effective neutrino mass by including current experimental information from neutrino oscillations, beta decay, neutrinoless double-beta decay and cosmological observations. Both linear and logarithmic priors for the smallest neutrino mass are assumed.
A recent new measurement and re-analysis of past measurements suggested an improved quenching factor value and uncertainty for CsI[Na]. This implies a measurement of the COHERENT experiment of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering that is closer to the Standard Model prediction and has less uncertainty. We illustrate the impact of this improvement by revisiting fits to the Weinberg angle, neutrino magnetic moments, neutron rms and neutrino charge radii, neutrino non-standard interactions (in particular those relevant for LMA-Dark) and new scalar as well as vector bosons. Significant improvement is observed, particularly for those scenarios coherently affecting the electroweak SM process.
General Neutrino Interactions (GNI) are scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, axial vector or tensor interactions of neutrinos with fermions, and generalise the often studied neutrino Non-Standard Interactions (NSI). If GNI arise from heavy new physics, they should be embeddable into effective field theory operators that respect the Standard Model (SM) gauge symmetry. Therefore we consider a full basis of gauge-invariant dimension-six operators involving SM fermions and right-handed singlet neutrinos and map their Wilson coefficients onto GNI parameters. In this embedding we discuss correlations of and bounds on different GNI in the context of charged lepton flavour violation processes and neutrino-fermion scattering, as well as beta decay and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. We also study possible UV completions of the relevant dimension-six operators for GNI via leptoquarks that can be related to radiative neutrino masses and $B$ physics anomalies. Details on the numbers of free GNI parameters for Dirac or Majorana neutrinos and for CP violation or conservation are also provided.
Neutrino masses can be generated radiatively. In such scenarios their masses are calculated by evaluating a self-energy diagram with vanishing external momentum, i.e. taking only the leading order term in a momentum expansion. The difference between the full self-energy and the mass is experimentally difficult to access, since one needs off-shell neurinos to observe them. However, massive Majorana neutrinos that mediate neutrinoless double beta decay ($0νββ$) are off-shell, with the virtuality of order 100 MeV. If the energy scale of the self-energy loop is of the order of this virtuality, the amplitude of double beta decay can be modified by the unsuppressed loop effect. This can have a drastic impact on the interpretation of future observations of the $0νββ$ decay.
We consider a 4-Higgs-doublet model in which each Higgs doublet gives mass to one of the fermion sets $\{ m_t\}$, $\{ m_b,m_τ,m_c \}$, $\{ m_μ,m_s \}$, and $\{ m_d,m_u,m_e \}$. The sets have the feature that within each of them the masses are similar. Our model explains the mass hierarchies of the sets by hierarchies of the vacuum expectation values of the Higgs doublets associated to them. All Yukawa couplings are therefore of order one. Neutrino masses are generated by a type-I seesaw mechanism with PeV-scale singlet neutrinos. To avoid the appearance of tree-level flavor changing neutral currents, we assume that all Yukawa matrices are singularly aligned in flavor space. We mean by this that the Yukawa matrices are given as linear combinations of the rank $1$ matrices that appear in the singular value decomposition of the mass matrix. In general, singular alignment allows to avoid flavor changing neutral currents in models with multiple Higgs doublets.
We investigate Non-Standard Neutrino Interactions (NSI) arising from a flavor-sensitive $Z'$ boson of a new $U(1)'$ symmetry. We compare the limits from neutrino oscillations, coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, and $Z'$ searches at different beam and collider experiments for a variety of straightforward anomaly-free $U(1)'$ models generated by linear combinations of $B-L$ and lepton-family-number differences $L_α-L_β$. Depending on the flavor structure of those models it is easily possible to avoid NSI signals in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments or change the relative importance of the various experimental searches. We also point out that kinetic $Z$-$Z'$ mixing gives vanishing NSI in long-baseline experiments if a direct coupling between the $U(1)'$ gauge boson and matter is absent. In contrast, $Z$-$Z'$ mass mixing generates such NSI, which in turn means that there is a Higgs multiplet charged under both the Standard Model and the new $U(1)'$ symmetry.
We consider the effect of general neutrino interactions (scalar, vector, pseudoscalar, axial vector and tensor) in neutrino-electron scattering at the DUNE near detector. Those interactions can be associated with heavy new physics and their effect is to cause distortions in the recoil spectrum of the electrons. We show that for some cases energy scales up to 9 TeV are accessible after a 5 year run and that current bounds on interaction parameters can be improved by up to an order of magnitude. The full set of general interactions includes the usually considered neutrino-electron non-standard matter interactions, and the near detector will give limits comparable but complementary to the ones from the analysis of neutrino oscillations in the far detector.
Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a forbidden, lepton-number-violating nuclear transition whose observation would have fundamental implications for neutrino physics, theories beyond the Standard Model and cosmology. In this review, we summarize the theoretical progress to understand this process, the expectations and implications under various particle physics models, as well as the nuclear physics challenges that affect the precise predictions of the decay half-life. We will also provide a synopsis of the current and future large-scale experiments that aim at discovering this process in physically well-motivated half-life ranges.
We consider the production of a new MeV-scale fermion in coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. The effect on the measurable nucleon recoil spectrum is calculated. Assuming that the new fermion couples to neutrinos and quarks via a singlet scalar, we set limits on its mass and coupling using COHERENT data and also determine the sensitivity of the CONUS experiment. We investigate the possible connection of the new fermion to neutrino mass generation. The possibility of the new fermion being the dark matter particle is also studied.
The left-right symmetric model (LRSM), originally proposed to explain parity violation in low energy processes, has since emerged as an attractive framework for light neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism. The scalar sector of the minimal LRSM consists of an $SU(2)$ bi-doublet, as well as left- and right-handed weak isospin triplets, thus making the corresponding vacuum structure much more complicated than that of the Standard Model. In particular, the desired ground state of the Higgs potential should be a charge conserving, and preferably global, minimum with parity violation at low scales. We show that this is not a generic feature of the LRSM potential and happens only for a small fraction of the parameter space of the potential. We also analytically study the potential for some simplified cases and obtain useful conditions (though not necessary) to achieve successful symmetry breaking. We then carry out a detailed statistical analysis of the minima of the Higgs potential using numerical minimization and find that for a large fraction of the parameter space, the potential does not have a good vacuum. Imposing the analytically obtained conditions, we can readily find a small part of the parameter space with good vacua. Consequences for some scalar masses are also discussed.