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Arbelaez, C., Helo, J. C., & Hirsch, M. (2019). Long-lived heavy particles in neutrino mass models. Phys. Rev. D, 100(5), 055001–15pp.
Abstract: All extensions of the standard model that generate Majorana neutrino masses at the electroweak scale introduce some heavy mediators, either fermions and/or scalars, weakly coupled to leptons. Here, by “heavy,” we mean implicitly the mass range between a few 100 GeV up to, say, roughly 2 TeV, such that these particles can be searched for at the LHC. We study decay widths of these mediators for several different tree-level neutrino mass models. The models we consider range from the simplest d = 5 seesaw up to d = 11 neutrino mass models. For each of the models, we identify the most interesting parts of the parameter space, where the heavy mediator fields are particularly long lived and can decay with experimentally measurable decay lengths. One has to distinguish two different scenarios, depending on whether fermions or scalars are the lighter of the heavy particles. For fermions, we find that the decay lengths correlate with the inverse of the overall neutrino mass scale. Thus, since no lower limit on the lightest neutrino mass exists, nearly arbitrarily long decay lengths can be obtained for the case in which fermions are the lighter of the heavy particles. For charged scalars, on the other hand, there exists a maximum value for the decay length in these models. This maximum value depends on the model and on the electric charge of the scalar under consideration but can at most be of the order of a few millimeters. Interestingly, independent of the model, this maximum occurs always in a region of parameter space, where leptonic and gauge boson final states have similar branching ratios, i.e., where the observation of lepton number-violating final states from scalar decays is possible.
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Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., & Ota, T. (2016). Long-range contributions to double beta decay revisited. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 006–32pp.
Abstract: We discuss the systematic decomposition of all dimension-7 (d = 7) lepton number violating operators. These d = 7 operators produce momentum enhanced contributions to the long-range part of the 0 nu beta beta decay amplitude and thus are severely constrained by existing half-live limits. In our list of possible models one can find contributions to the long-range amplitude discussed previously in the literature, such as the left-right symmetric model or scalar leptoquarks, as well as some new models not considered before. The d = 7 operators generate Majorana neutrino mass terms either at tree-level, 1-loop or 2-loop level. We systematically compare constraints derived from the mass mechanism to those derived from the long-range 0 nu beta beta decay amplitude and classify our list of models accordingly. We also study one particular example decomposition, which produces neutrino masses at 2-loop level, can fit oscillation data and yields a large contribution to the long-range 0 nu beta beta decay amplitude, in some detail.
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Cepedello, R., Hirsch, M., & Helo, J. C. (2017). Loop neutrino masses from d=7 operator. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 079–21pp.
Abstract: We discuss the generation of small neutrino masses from d = 71 -loop diagrams. We first systematically analyze all possible d = 7 1 -loop topologies. There is a total of 48 topologies, but only 8 of these can lead to “genuine” d = 7 neutrino masses. Here, we define genuine models to be models in which neither d = 5 nor d = 7 tree -level masses nor a d = 5 1 -loop mass appear, such that the d = 7 1 -loop is the leading order contribution to the neutrino masses. All genuine models can then be organized w.r.t. their particle content. We find there is only one diagram with no representation larger than triplet, while there are 22 diagrams with quadruplets. We briefly discuss three minimal example models of this kind.
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Helo, J. C., Kovalenko, S. G., Hirsch, M., & Pas, H. (2013). Neutrinoless double beta decay and lepton number violation at the LHC. Phys. Rev. D, 88(1), 011901–5pp.
Abstract: We compare the discovery potential of the LHC for lepton number violating (LNV) signals with the sensitivity of current and future double beta decay experiments, assuming 0 nu beta beta decay is dominated by heavy particle exchange. We consider charged scalar, leptoquark and diquark mechanisms of 0 nu beta beta decay, covering the 0 nu beta beta decay operators with both, the smallest and largest, possible rates. We demonstrate, if 0 nu beta beta decay were found with a half-life below 10(26)-10(27) years a positive signal should show up at the LHC, except for some particular cases of the leptoquark mechanism, and vice versa, if the LHC does not find any hints for LNV, a “short-range” explanation for a finite 0 nu beta beta decay half-life will be ruled out in most cases. We argue, if a positive LNV signal were found at the LHC, it is possible to identify the dominant contribution to 0 nu beta beta. Two different kinds of observables which could provide such “model discriminating” power are discussed: different invariant mass peaks and the charge asymmetry.
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Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., & Ota, T. (2018). Proton decay and light sterile neutrinos. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 047–15pp.
Abstract: Within the standard model, non-renormalizable operators at dimension six (d = 6) violate baryon and lepton number by one unit and thus lead to proton decay. Here, we point out that the proton decay mode with a charged pion and missing energy can be a characteristic signature of d = 6 operators containing a light sterile neutrino, if it is not accompanied by the standard pi(0)e(+) final state. We discuss this effect first at the level of effective operators and then provide a concrete model with new physics at the TeV scale, in which the lightness of the active neutrinos and the stability of the proton are related.
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