Mattias Blennow

We study the general phenomenology of neutrinoless double beta decay in seesaw models. In particular, we focus on the dependence of the neutrinoless double beta decay rate on the mass of the extra states introduced to account for the Majorana masses of light neutrinos. For this purpose, we compute the nuclear matrix elements as functions of the mass of the mediating fermions and estimate the associated uncertainties. We then discuss what can be inferred on the seesaw model parameters in the different mass regimes and clarify how the contribution of the light neutrinos should always be taken into account when deriving bounds on the extra parameters. Conversely, the extra states can also have a significant impact, cancelling the Standard Model neutrino contribution for masses lighter than the nuclear scale and leading to vanishing neutrinoless double beta decay amplitudes even if neutrinos are Majorana particles. We also discuss how seesaw models could reconcile large rates of neutrinoless double beta decay with more stringent cosmological bounds on neutrino masses.

We study the renormalization group (RG) running of the neutrino masses and the leptonic mixing parameters in two different extra-dimensional models, namely, the Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) model and a model, where the Standard Model (SM) bosons probe an extra dimension and the SM fermions are confined to a four-dimensional brane. In particular, we derive the beta function for the neutrino mass operator in the UED model. We also rederive the beta function for the charged-lepton Yukawa coupling, and confirm some of the existing results in the literature. The generic features of the RG running of the neutrino parameters within the two models are analyzed and, in particular, we observe a power-law behavior for the running. We note that the running of the leptonic mixing angle \theta_{12} can be sizable, while the running of \theta_{23} and \theta_{13} is always negligible. In addition, we show that the tri-bimaximal and the bimaximal mixing patterns at a high-energy scale are compatible with low-energy experimental data, while a tri-small mixing pattern is not. Finally, we perform a numerical scan over the low-energy parameter space to infer the high-energy distribution of the parameters. Using this scan, we also demonstrate how the high-energy \theta_{12} is correlated with the smallest neutrino mass and the Majorana phases.

Dark matter particles gravitationally trapped inside the Sun may annihilate into Standard Model particles, producing a flux of neutrinos. The prospects of detecting these neutrinos in future multi-\kton{} neutrino detectors designed for other physics searches are explored here. We study the capabilities of a 34/100 \kton{} liquid argon detector and a 100 \kton{} magnetized iron calorimeter detector. These detectors are expected to determine the energy and the direction of the incoming neutrino with unprecedented precision allowing for tests of the dark matter nature at very low dark matter masses, in the range of 5-50 GeV. By suppressing the atmospheric background with angular cuts, these techniques would be sensitive to dark matter - nucleon spin dependent cross sections at the fb level, reaching down to a few ab for the most favorable annihilation channels and detector technology.

The recent recomputation of the neutrino fluxes from nuclear reactors relaxes the tension between the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies and disappearance data when interpreted in terms of sterile neutrino oscillations. The simplest extension of the Standard Model with such fermion singlets is the addition of right-handed sterile neutrinos with small Majorana masses. Even when introducing three right-handed neutrinos, this scenario has less free parameters than the 3+2 scenarios studied in the literature. This begs the question whether the best fit regions obtained can be reproduced by this simplest extension of the Standard Model. In order to address this question, we devise an exact parametrization of Standard Model extensions with right-handed neutrinos. Apart from the usual 3x3 neutrino mixing matrix and the 3 masses of the lightest neutrinos, the extra degrees of freedom are encoded in another 3x3 unitary matrix and 3 additional mixing angles. The parametrization includes all the correlations among masses and mixings and is valid beyond the usual seesaw approximation. Through this parametrization we find that the best fit regions for the LSND and MiniBooNE anomalies in a 3+2 scenario can indeed be reproduced despite the smaller number of degrees of freedom.

We discuss the prospects of studying lepton number violating processes in order to identify Majorana neutrinos from low scale seesaw mechanisms at lepton-proton colliders. In particular, we consider the scenarios of colliding electrons with LHC energy protons and, motivated by the efforts towards the construction of a muon collider, the prospects of muon-proton collisions. We find that present constraints on the mixing of the Majorana neutrinos still allow for a detectable signal at these kind of facilities given the smallness of the Standard Model background. We discuss possible cuts in order to further increase the signal over background ratio and the prospects of reconstructing the neutrino mass from the kinematics of the final state particles.

We study the generation of small neutrino masses in an extra-dimensional model, where right-handed neutrinos are allowed to propagate in the extra dimension, while the Standard Model particles are confined to a brane. Motivated by the fact that extra-dimensional models are non-renormalizable, we truncate the Kaluza-Klein towers at a maximal extra-dimensional momentum. The structure of the bulk Majorana mass term, motivated by the Sherk-Schwarz mechanism, implies that the right-handed Kaluza-Klein neutrinos pair to form Dirac neutrinos, except for a number of unpaired Majorana neutrinos at the top of each tower. These heavy Majorana neutrinos are the only sources of lepton number breaking in the model, and similarly to the type-I seesaw mechanism, they naturally generate small masses for the left-handed neutrinos. The lower Kaluza-Klein modes mix with the light neutrinos, and the mixing effects are not suppressed with respect to the light-neutrino masses. Compared to conventional fermionic seesaw models, such mixing can be more significant. We study the signals of this model at the Large Hadron Collider, and find that the current low-energy bounds on the non-unitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix are strong enough to exclude an observation.

We study the generation of small neutrino masses in an extra-dimensional model, where singlet fermions are allowed to propagate in the extra dimension, while the standard model particles are confined to a brane. Motivated by the fact that extra-dimensional models are nonrenormalizable, we truncate the Kaluza-Klein towers at a maximal Kaluza-Klein number. This truncation, together with the structure of the bulk Majorana mass term, motivated by the Sherk-Schwarz mechanism, implies that the Kaluza-Klein modes of the singlet fermions pair to form Dirac fermions, except for a number of unpaired Majorana fermions at the top of each tower. These heavy Majorana fermions are the only sources of lepton number breaking in the model, and similarly to the type-I seesaw mechanism, they naturally generate small masses for the left-handed neutrinos. The lower Kaluza-Klein modes mix with the light neutrinos, and the mixing effects are not suppressed with respect to the light-neutrino masses. Compared to conventional fermionic seesaw models, such mixing can be more significant. We study the signals of this model at the Large Hadron Collider, and find that the current low-energy bounds on the nonunitarity of the leptonic mixing matrix are strong enough to exclude an observation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.045023 © 2010 The American Physical Society