Abstract: We perform a global fit to neutrino oscillation and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering data, using both timing and energy information from the COHERENT experiment. The results are used to set model-independent bounds on four-fermion effective operators inducing non-standard neutral-current neutrino interactions. We quantify the allowed ranges for their Wilson coefficients, as well as the status of the LMA-D solution, for a wide class of new physics models with arbitrary ratios between the strength of the operators involving up and down quarks. Our results are presented for the COHERENT experiment alone, as well as in combination with the global data from oscillation experiments. We also quantify the dependence of our results for COHERENT with respect to the choice of quenching factor, nuclear form factor, and the treatment of the backgrounds.

Abstract: Stringent constraints on the interactions of dark matter with the Standard Model suggest that dark matter does not take part in gauge interactions. In this regard, the possibility of communicating between the visible and dark sectors via gauge singlets seems rather natural. We consider a framework where the dark matter talks to the Standard Model through its coupling to sterile neutrinos, which generate active neutrino masses. We focus on the case of Majorana dark matter, with its relic abundance set by thermal freeze-out through annihilations into sterile neutrinos. We use an effective field theory approach to study the possible sterile neutrino portals to dark matter. We find that both lepton-number-conserving and lepton-number-violating operators are possible, yielding an interesting connection with the Dirac/Majorana character of active neutrinos. In a second step, we open the different operators and outline the possible renormalisable models. We analyse the phenomenology of the most promising ones, including a particular case in which the Majorana mass of the sterile neutrinos is generated radiatively.

Abstract: We consider a type-I seesaw framework endowed with a flavour symmetry, belonging to the series of non-abelian groups increment (3 n(2)) and increment (6 n(2)), and a CP symmetry. Breaking these symmetries in a non-trivial way results in the right-handed neutrinos being degenerate in mass up to possible (further symmetry-breaking) splittings kappa and lambda, while the neutrino Yukawa coupling matrix encodes the entire flavour structure in the neutrino sector. For a fixed combination of flavour and CP symmetry and residual groups, this matrix contains five real free parameters. Four of them are determined by the light neutrino mass spectrum and by accommodating experimental data on lepton mixing well, while the angle theta(R) is related to right-handed neutrinos. We scrutinise for all four lepton mixing patterns, grouped into Case 1) through Case 3 b.1), the potential to generate the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through low-scale leptogenesis numerically and analytically. The main results are: a) the possible correlation of the baryon asymmetry and the Majorana phases, encoded in the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing matrix, in certain instances; b) the possibility to generate the correct amount of baryon asymmetry for vanishing splittings kappa and lambda among the right-handed neutrinos as well as for large kappa, depending on the case and the specific choice of group theory parameters; c) the chance to produce sufficient baryon asymmetry for large active-sterile mixing angles, enabling direct experimental tests at current and future facilities, if theta(R) is close to a special value, potentially protected by an enhanced residual symmetry. We elucidate these results with representative examples of flavour and CP symmetries, which all lead to a good agreement with the measured values of the lepton mixing angles and, possibly, the current indication of the CP phase delta. We identify the CP-violating combinations relevant for low-scale leptogenesis, and show that the parametric dependence of the baryon asymmetry found in the numerical study can be understood well with their help.

Abstract: We revisit the generation of a matter-antimatter asymmetry in the minimal extension of the Standard Model with two singlet heavy neutral leptons (HNL) that can explain neutrino masses. We derive an accurate analytical approximation to the solution of the complete linearized set of kinetic equations, which exposes the non-trivial parameter dependencies in the form of parameterization-independent CP invariants. The identification of various washout regimes relevant in different regions of parameter space sheds light on the relevance of the mass corrections in the interaction rates and clarifies the correlations of baryogenesis with other observables. In particular, by requiring that the measured baryon asymmetry is reproduced, we derive robust upper or lower bounds on the HNL mixings depending on their masses, and constraints on their flavour structure, as well as on the CP-violating phases of the PMNS mixing matrix, and the amplitude of neutrinoless double-beta decay. We also find certain correlations between low and high scale CP phases. Especially emphasizing the testable part of the parameter space we demonstrate that our findings are in very good agreement with numerical results. The methods developed in this work can help in exploring more complex scenarios.

Abstract: Many models beyond the Standard Model predict light and feebly interacting particles that are often long-lived. These long-lived particles (LLPs) in many cases can be produced from meson decays. In this work, we propose a simple and quick reinterpretation method for models predicting LLPs produced from meson decays. With the method, we are not required to run Monte-Carlo simulation, implement detector geometries and efficiencies, or apply experimental cuts in an event analysis, as typically done in recasting and reinterpretation works. The main ingredients our method requires are only the theoretical input, allowing for computation of the production and decay rates of the LLPs. There are two conditions for the method to work: firstly, the LLPs in the models considered should be produced from a set of mesons with similar mass and lifetime (or the same meson) and second, the LLPs should, in general, have a lab-frame decay length much larger than the distance between the interaction point and the detector. As an example, we use this method to reinterpret exclusion bounds on heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) in the minimal “3+1” scenario, into those for HNLs in the general effective-field-theory framework as well as for axion-like particles. We are able to reproduce existing results, and obtain new bounds via reinterpretation of past experimental results, in particular, from CHARM and Belle.