We explore realizations of minimal flavour violation (MFV) for the lepton sector. We find that it can be realized within those seesaw models where a separation of the lepton number and lepton flavour violating scales can be achieved, such as type II
and inverse seesaw models. We present in particular a simple implementation of the MFV hypothesis which differs in nature from those previously discussed. It allows to reconstruct the flavour structure of the model from the values of the light neutrino masses and mixing parameters, even in the presence of CP-violating phases. Experimentally reachable predictions for rare processes such as mu --> e gamma are given.
We perform a systematic study of the phenomenology associated to models where the dark matter consists in the neutral component of a scalar SU(2)_L n-uplet, up to n=7. If one includes only the pure gauge induced annihilation cross-sections it is know
n that such particles provide good dark matter candidates, leading to the observed dark matter relic abundance for a particular value of their mass around the TeV scale. We show that these values actually become ranges of values -which we determine- if one takes into account the annihilations induced by the various scalar couplings appearing in these models. This leads to predictions for both direct and indirect detection signatures as a function of the dark matter mass within these ranges. Both can be largely enhanced by the quartic coupling contributions. We also explain how, if one adds right-handed neutrinos to the scalar doublet case, the results of this analysis allow to have altogether a viable dark matter candidate, successful generation of neutrino masses, and leptogenesis in a particularly minimal way with all new physics at the TeV scale.
It is well known that the leptogenesis mechanism offers an attractive possibility to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe. Its particular robustness however comes with one major difficulty: it will be very hard if not impossible to test exper
imentally in a foreseeable future, as most of the mechanics typically takes place at high energy or results from suppressed interactions, without unavoidable low-energy implications. An alternate approach is taken by asking: can it be at least falsified? We show that possible discoveries at current and future colliders, most notably that of right-handed gauge interactions, would indeed forbid at least the canonical leptogenesis mechanisms, namely those based on right-handed neutrino decay. General lower bounds for successful leptogenesis on the mass of the right-handed gauge boson W_R are given. Other possibilities to falsify leptogenesis, including from the observation of a Z, are also considered.
