No Arabic abstract
The production rate of right-handed neutrinos from a Standard Model plasma at a temperature above a hundred GeV has previously been evaluated up to NLO in Standard Model couplings (g ~ 2/3) in relativistic (M ~ pi T) and non-relativistic regimes (M >> pi T), and up to LO in an ultrarelativistic regime (M < gT). The last result necessitates an all-orders resummation of the loop expansion, accounting for multiple soft scatterings of the nearly light-like particles participating in 1 <-> 2 reactions. In this paper we suggest how the regimes can be interpolated into a result applicable for any right-handed neutrino mass and at all temperatures above 160 GeV. The results can also be used for determining the lepton number washout rate in models containing right-handed neutrinos. Numerical results are given in a tabulated form permitting for their incorporation into leptogenesis codes. We note that due to effects from soft Higgs bosons there is a narrow intermediate regime around M ~ g^{1/2} T in which our interpolation is phenomenological and a more precise study would be welcome.
A gauged $U(1)_X$ extension of the Standard Model is a simple and consistent framework to naturally incorporate three right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) for generating the observed light neutrino masses and mixing by the type-I seesaw mechanism. We examine the collider testability of the $U(1)_X$ model, both in its minimal form with the conventional charges, as well as with an alternative charge assignment, via the resonant production of the $U(1)_X$ gauge boson ($Z^prime$) and its subsequent decay into a pair of RHNs. We first derive an updated upper limit on the new gauge coupling $g_X$ as a function of the $Z$-boson mass from the latest LHC dilepton searches. Then we identify the maximum possible cross section for the RHN pair-production under these constraints. Finally, we investigate the possibility of having one of the RHNs long-lived, even for a TeV-scale mass. Employing the general parametrization for the light neutrino mass matrix to reproduce the observed neutrino oscillation data, we perform a parameter scan and find a simple formula for the maximum RHN lifetime as a function of the lightest neutrino mass eigenvalue ($m_{rm lightest}$). We find that for $m_{rm lightest}lesssim 10^{-5}$ eV, one of the RHNs in the minimal $U(1)_X$ scenario can be long-lived with a displaced-vertex signature which can be searched for at the LHC and/or with a dedicated long-lived particle detector, such as MATHUSLA. In other words, once a long-lived RHN is observed, we can set an upper bound on the lightest neutrino mass in this model.
We consider an extension of the standard electroweak model with three Higgs doublets and global $B-L$ and $mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetries. Two of the scalar doublets are inert due to the $mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. We calculated all the mass spectra in the scalar and lepton sectors and accommodate the leptonic mixing matrix as well. We also include an analysis of the scalar sector, showing that the potential is limited from below, and we obtain the masses of the scalar sector. Furthermore we consider the effects of the model on the anaomalous magnetic dipole of charged leptons and the $muto egamma$ decay. We also present the SUSY version of the model with global $B-L$.
The flux of high-energy cosmic-ray electrons plus positrons recently measured by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) exhibits a tentative peak excess at an energy of around $1.4$ TeV. In this paper, we consider the minimal gauged $U(1)_{B-L}$ model with a right-handed neutrino (RHN) dark matter (DM) and interpret the DAMPE peak with a late-time decay of the RHN DM into $e^pm W^mp$. We find that a DM lifetime $tau_{DM} sim 10^{28}$ s can fit the DAMPE peak with a DM mass $m_{DM}=3$ TeV. This favored lifetime is close to the current bound on it by Fermi-LAT, our decaying RHN DM can be tested once the measurement of cosmic gamma ray flux is improved. The RHN DM communicates with the Standard Model particles through the $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge boson ($Z^prime$ boson), and its thermal relic abundance is controlled by only three free parameters: $m_{DM}$, the $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge coupling ($alpha_{BL}$), and the $Z^prime$ boson mass ($m_{Z^prime}$). For $m_{DM}=3$ TeV, the rest of the parameters are restricted to be $m_{Z^prime}simeq 6$ TeV and $0.00807 leq alpha_{BL} leq 0.0149$, in order to reproduce the observed DM relic density and to avoid the Landau pole for the running $alpha_{BL}$ below the Planck scale. This allowed region will be tested by the search for a $Z^prime$ boson resonance at the future Large Hadron Collider.
The breaking of parity, a fundamental symmetry between left and right is best understood in the framework of left-right symmetric extension of the standard model. We show that the production of a heavy right-handed neutrino at the proposed Large Hadron-Electron Collider (LHeC) could give us the most simple and direct hint of the scale of this breaking in left-right symmetric theories. This production mode gives a lepton number violating signal with $Delta L=2$ which is very clean and has practically no standard model background. We highlight that the right-handed nature of $W_R$ exchange which defines the left-right symmetric theories can be confirmed by using a polarized electron beam and also enhance the production rates with relatively lower beam energy.
We study the possibility of measuring neutrino Yukawa couplings in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with right-handed neutrinos (NMSSMr) when the lightest right-handed sneutrino is the Dark Matter (DM) candidate, by exploiting a `dijet + dilepton + Missing Transverse Energy signature. We show that, contrary to the miminal realisation of Supersymmetry (SUSY), the MSSM, wherein the DM candidate is typically a much heavier (fermionic) neutralino state, this extended model of SUSY offers one with a much lighter (bosonic) state as DM that can then be produced at the next generation of $e^+e^-$ colliders with energies up to 500 GeV or so. The ensuing signal, energing from chargino pair production and subsequent decay, is extremely pure so it also affords one with the possibility of extracting the Yukawa parameters of the (s)neutrino sector. Altogether, our results serve the purpose of motivating searches for light DM signals at such machines, where the DM candidate can have a mass around the electroweak scale.