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Antusch, S., Levy, M., & Centelles Chulia, S. (2026). Gravity-assisted neutrino masses. Phys. Lett. B, 876, 140410–6pp.
Abstract: Gravity is generally expected to violate global symmetries, including lepton number. However, neutrino masses from the Planck-suppressed Weinberg operator are typically too small to account for oscillation data. We propose a new model-building approach to low-scale neutrino mass generation, in which an intermediate spontaneous symmetry-breaking scale generates masses and mixings in the heavy neutral lepton (HNL) sector, while leaving an unbroken residual symmetry Gres that forbids light-neutrino masses. The observed light-neutrino masses then arise because gravity breaks Gres via Planck-suppressed operators, inducing the small lepton-number violation required in low-scale seesaw constructions. The HNLs form pseudo-Dirac pairs, with masses potentially within reach of future colliders and complementary tests in precision searches such as charged lepton flavour violation (cLFV). As an illustration, we present a representative realisation of this class of models and show that, for O(1) operator coefficients, it predicts a region in the (MR, Theta 2)-plane that can be testable via displaced-vertex searches at the High-Luminosity (HL-)LHC and the FCC-ee.
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Broussard, L. J. et al, & Bas i Beneito, A. (2025). Baryon number violation: from nuclear matrix elements to BSM physics. J. Phys. G, 52(8), 083001–28pp.
Abstract: Processes that violate baryon number, most notably proton decay and nn(sic) transitions, are promising probes of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) needed to understand the lack of antimatter in the Universe. To interpret current and forthcoming experimental limits, theory input from nuclear matrix elements to UV complete models enters. Thus, an interplay of experiment, effective field theory, lattice QCD, and BSM model building is required to develop strategies to accurately extract information from current and future data and maximize the impact and sensitivity of next-generation experiments. Here, we briefly summarize the main results and discussions from the workshop 'INT-25-91W: Baryon Number Violation: From Nuclear Matrix Elements to BSM Physics,' held at the Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 13-17 January 2025.
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Cai, Y., Herrero-Garcia, J., Schmidt, M. A., Vicente, A., & Volkas, R. R. (2017). From the Trees to the Forest: A Review of Radiative Neutrino Mass Models. Front. Physics, 5, 63–56pp.
Abstract: A plausible explanation for the lightness of neutrino masses is that neutrinos are massless at tree level, with their mass (typically Majorana) being generated radiatively at one or more loops. The new couplings, together with the suppression coming from the loop factors, imply that the new degrees of freedom cannot be too heavy (they are typically at the TeV scale). Therefore, in these models there are no large mass hierarchies and they can be tested using different searches, making their detailed phenomenological study very appealing. In particular, the new particles can be searched for at colliders and generically induce signals in lepton-flavor and lepton-number violating processes (in the case of Majorana neutrinos), which are not independent from reproducing correctly the neutrino masses and mixings. The main focus of the review is on Majorana neutrinos. We order the allowed theory space from three different perspectives: (i) using an effective operator approach to lepton number violation, (ii) by the number of loops at which the Weinberg operator is generated, (iii) within a given loop order, by the possible irreducible topologies. We also discuss in more detail some popular radiative models which involve qualitatively different features, revisiting their most important phenomenological implications. Finally, we list some promising avenues to pursue.
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Encarnación, P., García-Lorenzo, A., Albaladejo, M., Feijoo, A., Nieves, J., & Vidaña, I. (2026). Coulomb effects in momentum-space femtoscopy: A case study of the K-Ω system. Phys. Lett. B, 882, 141041–11pp.
Abstract: We present a momentum-space framework for the consistent treatment of Coulomb interactions in femtoscopic correlation functions based on a modified Vincent-Phatak method that is more amenable to numerical implementation. The formalism provides a practical approach to incorporating Coulomb effects at the short distances relevant for femtoscopy within the Lippmann-Schwinger equation, while preserving a unified treatment of the strong interaction. As an application, we study the S = -4 pseudoscalar-baryon decuplet interaction in the K52 system and present predictions for the singly and doubly negatively charged channels, K052-and K-52-. As an additional validation of the formalism, we have also applied it to the well-studied pp system. We further assess the limitations of the asymptotic wave-function approximation and quantify corrections accounting for the short-distance structure of the interaction potential. We introduce a phenomenological parameter that effectively absorbs contributions from both the finite source size and the off-shell structure of the interaction, the latter being one of the main obstacles to extracting detailed information on hadron-hadron interactions from femtoscopic measurements in a model-independent way.
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Vicente, A. (2019). Higgs Lepton Flavor Violating Decays in Two Higgs Doublet Models. Front. Physics, 7, 174–13pp.
Abstract: The discovery of a non-zero rate for a lepton flavor violating decay mode of the Higgs boson would definitely be an indication of New Physics. We review the prospects for such signal in Two Higgs Doublet Models, in particular for Higgs boson decays into tau μfinal states. We will show that this scenario contains all the necessary ingredients to provide large flavor violating rates and still be compatible with the stringent limits from direct searches and low-energy flavor experiments.
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