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Fonseca, R. M., & Hirsch, M. (2016). Lepton number violation in 331 models. Phys. Rev. D, 94(11), 115003–16pp.
Abstract: Different models based on the extended SU(3)(C) x SU(3)(L) x U(1)(X) (331) gauge group have been proposed over the past four decades. Yet, despite being an active research topic, the status of lepton number in 331 models has not been fully addressed in the literature, and furthermore many of the original proposals can not explain the observed neutrino masses. In this paper we review the basic features of various 331 models, focusing on potential sources of lepton number violation. We then describe different modifications which can be made to the original models in order to accommodate neutrino (and charged lepton) masses.
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Anamiati, G., Fonseca, R. M., & Hirsch, M. (2018). Quasi-Dirac neutrino oscillations. Phys. Rev. D, 97(9), 095008–16pp.
Abstract: Dirac neutrino masses require two distinct neutral Weyl spinors per generation, with a special arrangement of masses and interactions with charged leptons. Once this arrangement is perturbed, lepton number is no longer conserved and neutrinos become Majorana particles. If these lepton number violating perturbations are small compared to the Dirac mass terms, neutrinos are quasi-Dirac particles. Alternatively, this scenario can be characterized by the existence of pairs of neutrinos with almost degenerate masses, and a lepton mixing matrix which has 12 angles and 12 phases. In this work we discuss the phenomenology of quasi-Dirac neutrino oscillations and derive limits on the relevant parameter space from various experiments. In one parameter perturbations of the Dirac limit, very stringent bounds can be derived on the mass splittings between the almost degenerate pairs of neutrinos. However, we also demonstrate that with suitable changes to the lepton mixing matrix, limits on such mass splittings are much weaker, or even completely absent. Finally, we consider the possibility that the mass splittings are too small to be measured and discuss bounds on the new, nonstandard lepton mixing angles from current experiments for this case.
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Anamiati, G., Castillo-Felisola, O., Fonseca, R. M., Helo, J. C., & Hirsch, M. (2018). High-dimensional neutrino masses. J. High Energy Phys., 12(12), 066–26pp.
Abstract: For Majorana neutrino masses the lowest dimensional operator possible is the Weinberg operator at d = 5. Here we discuss the possibility that neutrino masses originate from higher dimensional operators. Specifically, we consider all tree-level decompositions of the d = 9, d = 11 and d = 13 neutrino mass operators. With renormalizable interactions only, we find 18 topologies and 66 diagrams for d = 9, and 92 topologies plus 504 diagrams at the d = 11 level. At d = 13 there are already 576 topologies and 4199 diagrams. However, among all these there are only very few genuine neutrino mass models: At d = (9, 11, 13) we find only (2,2,2) genuine diagrams and a total of (2,2,6) models. Here, a model is considered genuine at level d if it automatically forbids lower order neutrino masses without the use of additional symmetries. We also briefly discuss how neutrino masses and angles can be easily fitted in these high-dimensional models.
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Cottin, G., Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., Titov, A., & Wang, Z. S. (2021). Heavy neutral leptons in effective field theory and the high-luminosity LHC. J. High Energy Phys., 09(9), 039–34pp.
Abstract: Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) with masses around the electroweak scale are expected to be rather long-lived particles, as a result of the observed smallness of the active neutrino masses. In this work, we study long-lived HNLs in NRSMEFT, a Standard Model (SM) extension with singlet fermions to which we add non-renormalizable operators up to dimension-6. Operators which contain two HNLs can lead to a sizable enhancement of the production cross sections, compared to the minimal case where HNLs are produced only via their mixing with the SM neutrinos. We calculate the expected sensitivities for the ATLAS detector and the future far-detector experiments: AL3X, ANUBIS, CODEX-b, FASER, MATHUSLA, and MoEDAL-MAPP in this setup. The sensitive ranges of the HNL mass and of the active-heavy mixing angle are much larger than those in the minimal case. We study both, Dirac and Majorana, HNLs and discuss how the two cases actually differ phenomenologically, for HNL masses above roughly 100 GeV.
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Feng, J. L. et al, Garcia Soto, A., & Hirsch, M. (2023). The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC. J. Phys. G, 50(3), 030501–410pp.
Abstract: High energy collisions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce a large number of particles along the beam collision axis, outside of the acceptance of existing LHC experiments. The proposed Forward Physics Facility (FPF), to be located several hundred meters from the ATLAS interaction point and shielded by concrete and rock, will host a suite of experiments to probe standard model (SM) processes and search for physics beyond the standard model (BSM). In this report, we review the status of the civil engineering plans and the experiments to explore the diverse physics signals that can be uniquely probed in the forward region. FPF experiments will be sensitive to a broad range of BSM physics through searches for new particle scattering or decay signatures and deviations from SM expectations in high statistics analyses with TeV neutrinos in this low-background environment. High statistics neutrino detection will also provide valuable data for fundamental topics in perturbative and non-perturbative QCD and in weak interactions. Experiments at the FPF will enable synergies between forward particle production at the LHC and astroparticle physics to be exploited. We report here on these physics topics, on infrastructure, detector, and simulation studies, and on future directions to realize the FPF's physics potential.
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