Bi-large Neutrino Mixing See-Saw Mass Matrix with Texture Zeros and Leptogenesis

We study constraints on neutrino properties for a class of bi-large mixing See-Saw mass matrices with texture zeros and with the related Dirac neutrino mass matrix to be proportional to a diagonal matrix of the form diag(ε,1,1). Texture zeros may occur in the light (class a) or in the heavy (class b) neutrino mass matrices. Each of these two classes has 5 different forms which can produce non-trivial three generation mixing with at least one texture zero. We find that two types of texture zero mass matrices in both class a and class b can be consistent with present data on neutrino masses and mixing. None of the neutrinos can have zero masses and the lightest of the light neutrinos has a mass larger than about 0.046 eV for class a and 0.0027 eV for class b. In these models although the CKM CP violating phase vanishes, the non-zero Majorana phases can exist and can play an important role in producing the observed baryon asymmetry in our universe through leptogenesis mechanism. The requirement of producing the observed baryon asymmetry can further distinguish different models and also restrict the See-Saw scale to be in the range of 10¹²～10¹⁵ GeV. We also discuss RG effects on V₁₃.     

Electroweak baryogenesis from late neutrino masses

Electroweak baryogenesis, given a first-order phase transition, does not work in the standard model because the quark Yukawa matrices are too hierarchical. On the other hand, the neutrino mass matrix is apparently not hierarchical. In models with neutrino mass generation at low scales, the neutrino Yukawa couplings lead to large CP violation in the reflection probability of heavy leptons by the expanding Higgs bubble wall, and can generate the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe. The mechanism predicts new vectorlike leptons below the TeV scale and sizable mu --> e processes.     

Baryogenesis and lepton number violation

The cosmological baryon asymmetry can be explained by the nonperturbative electroweak reprocessing of a lepton asymmetry generated in the out-of-equilibrium decay of heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos. We analyze this mechanism in detail in the framework of a SO(10)-subgroup. We take three right-handed neutrinos into account and discuss physical neutrino mass matrices.     

Hierarchical matrices in the see-saw mechanism,large neutrino mixing and leptogenesis

We consider the see-saw mechanism for hierarchical Dirac and Majorana neutrino mass matrices m _D and M _R, including the CP violating phases. Simple arguments about the structure of the neutrino mass matrix and the requirement of successful leptogenesis lead to the situation that one of the right-handed Majorana neutrinos is much heavier than the other two, which in turn display a rather mild hierarchy. It is investigated how for the neutrino mixing one small and two large mixing angles are generated. The mixing matrix element |U _e3|² is larger than 10^-3 and a characteristic ratio between the branching ratios of lepton flavor violating charged lepton decays is found. Successful leptogenesis implies sizable CP violation in oscillation experiments. As in the original minimal see-saw model, the signs of the baryon asymmetry of the universe and of the CP asymmetry in neutrino oscillations are equal and there is no connection between the leptogenesis phase and the effective mass as measurable in neutrinoless double beta decay.Received: 28 May 2003, Revised: 13 September 2003, Published online: 26 November 2003     

Models of neutrino masses and baryogenesis

Majorana masses of the neutrino implies lepton number violation and is intimately related to the lepton asymmetry of the universe, which gets related to the baryon asymmetry of the universe in the presence of the sphalerons during the electroweak phase transition. Assuming that the baryon asymmetry of the universe is generated before the electroweak phase transition, it is possible to discriminate different classes of models of neutrino masses. While see-saw mechanism and the triplet Higgs mechanism are preferred, the Zee-type radiative models and the R-parity breaking models requires additional inputs to generate baryon asymmetry of the universe during the electroweak phase transition.     

The interplay between “low” and “high” energy CP-violation in leptogenesis

We analyse, within the “flavoured” leptogenesis scenario of baryon asymmetry generation, the interplay of “low energy” CP-violation, originating from the PMNS neutrino mixing matrix U, and “high energy” CP-violation, which can be present in the matrix of neutrino Yukawa couplings, λ, and can manifest itself only in “high” energy scale processes. The type I see-saw model with three heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos having a hierarchical spectrum is considered. The “orthogonal” parameterisation of the matrix of neutrino Yukawa couplings, which involves a complex orthogonal matrix R, is employed. In this approach the matrix R is the source of “high energy” CP-violation. Results for normal hierarchical (NH) and inverted hierarchical (IH) light neutrino mass spectrum are derived in the case of decoupling of the heaviest right-handed Majorana neutrino. It is shown that taking into account the contribution to Y _B due to the CP-violating phases in the neutrino mixing matrix U can change drastically the predictions for Y _B , obtained assuming that only “high energy” CP-violation from the R-matrix is operative in leptogenesis. In the case of the IH spectrum, in particular, there exist significant regions in the corresponding parameter space where the purely “high energy” contribution in Y _B plays a subdominant role in the production of baryon asymmetry compatible with the observations. Also at Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria.     

Dark matter from split seesaw

The seesaw mechanism in models with extra dimensions is shown to be generically consistent with a broad range of Majorana masses. The resulting democracy of scales implies that the seesaw mechanism can naturally explain the smallness of neutrino masses for an arbitrarily small right-handed neutrino mass. If the scales of the seesaw parameters are split, with two right-handed neutrinos at a high scale and one at a keV scale, one can explain the matter–antimatter asymmetry of the universe, as well as dark matter. The dark matter candidate, a sterile right-handed neutrino with mass of several keV, can account for the observed pulsar velocities and for the recent data from Chandra X-ray Observatory, which suggest the existence of a 5 keV sterile right-handed neutrino.     

Entropy, baryon asymmetry and dark matter from heavy neutrino decays

The origin of the hot phase of the early universe remains so far an unsolved puzzle. A viable option is entropy production through the decays of heavy Majorana neutrinos whose lifetimes determine the initial temperature. We show that baryogenesis and the production of dark matter are natural by-products of this mechanism. As is well known, the cosmological baryon asymmetry can be accounted for by leptogenesis for characteristic neutrino mass parameters. We find that thermal gravitino production then automatically yields the observed amount of dark matter, for the gravitino as the lightest superparticle and typical gluino masses. As an example, we consider the production of heavy Majorana neutrinos in the course of tachyonic preheating associated with spontaneous B−L breaking. A quantitative analysis leads to constraints on the superparticle masses in terms of neutrino masses: For a light neutrino mass of ¹⁰−5 eV the gravitino mass can be as small as 200 MeV, whereas a lower neutrino mass bound of 0.01 eV implies a lower bound of 9 GeV on the gravitino mass. The measurement of a light neutrino mass of 0.1 eV would rule out heavy neutrino decays as the origin of entropy, visible and dark matter.     

A case of subdominant/suppressed “high energy” contribution to the baryon asymmetry of the Universe in flavoured leptogenesis

The CP-violation necessary for the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe YB$Y_B$ in the “flavoured” leptogenesis scenario can arise from the “low energy” PMNS neutrino mixing matrix U   and/or from the “high energy” part of neutrino Yukawa couplings, which can mediate CP-violating phenomena only at some high energy scale. The possible interplay between these two types of CP-violation is analysed. The type I see-saw model with three heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos having hierarchical spectrum is considered. We show that in the case of inverted hierarchical light neutrino mass spectrum, there exist regions in the corresponding leptogenesis parameter space where the relevant “high energy” phases have large CP-violating values, but the purely “high energy” contribution in YB$Y_B$ plays a subdominant role in the production of baryon asymmetry compatible with the observations. In some of these regions the purely “high energy” contribution in YB$Y_B$ is so strongly suppressed that one can have successful leptogenesis only if the requisite CP-violation is provided by the Majorana phase(s) in the neutrino mixing matrix.     

Leptogenesis with left-right domain walls

The presence of domain walls separating regions of unbrokenSU(2)_L andSU(2)_R is shown to provide necessary conditions for leptogenesis which converts later to the observed baryon asymmetry. The strength of lepton number violation is related to the Majorana neutrino mass and hence related to current bounds on light neutrino masses. Thus the observed neutrino masses and the baryon asymmetry can be used to constrain the scale of left-right symmetry breaking.     

Constraint on the heavy sterile neutrino mixing angles in the SO(10) model with double see-saw mechanism

Constraints on the heavy sterile neutrino mixing angles are studied in the framework of a minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model with the use of the double see-saw mechanism. A new singlet matter in addition to the right-handed neutrinos is introduced to realize the double see-saw mechanism. The light Majorana neutrino mass matrix is, in general, given by a combination of those of the singlet neutrinos and the active neutrinos. The minimal SO(10) model is used to give an example form of the Dirac neutrino mass matrix, which enables us to predict the masses and the mixing angles in the enlarged 9×9 neutrino mass matrix. Mixing angles between the light Majorana neutrinos and the heavy sterile neutrinos are shown to be within the LEP experimental bound on all ranges of the Majorana phases.     

Massive and massless neutrinos on unbalanced seesaws

The observation of neutrino oscillations requires new physics beyond the standard model (SM).A SM-like gauge theory with p lepton families can be extended by introducing q heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos but preserving its SU(2)L x U(1)y gauge symmetry.The overall neutrino mass matrix M turns out to be a symmetric (p+q) x (p+q) matrix.Given p＞q,the rank of M is in general equal to 2q,corresponding to 2q non-zero mass eigenvalues.The existence of (p-q) massless left-handed Majorana neutrinos is an exact consequence of the model,independent of the usual approximation made in deriving the Type-I seesaw relation between the effective p x p light Majorana neutrino mass matrix M,and the q x q heavy Majorana neutrino mass matrix MR.In other words,the numbers of massive left- and right-handed neutrinos are fairly matched.A good example to illustrate this "seesaw fair play rule"is the minimal seesaw model with p ＝ 3 and q ＝ 2,in which one masslese neutrino sits on the unbalanced seesaw.     

On neutrino mass matrices in the three-family model

We study some general features of real neutrino mass matrices in the case of the three-family Electroweak Model with three right-handed neutrinos. The eigenvalue equation is expressed in terms of invariants of the submatrices (Dirac and Majorana) of the neutrino mass matrix and a geometrical interpretation of quantities which enter there is given.     

Depletion of atmospheric muon-neutrino fluxes and structure of Majorana mass matrix

We study the structures of the Dirac and Majorana mass matrices which give rise to the large lepton mixing expected from the depleted atmospheric muon-neutrino flux. In the case that the Majorana mass matrix has a hierarchy for generations, a certain kind of the neutrino Dirac mass matrix with the hierarchical structure leads to the large lepton mixing between the second generation and the third one. Our model-independent analyses serve the model-building of the mass matrices based on the quark-lepton unified theory.     

Explicit SO(10) supersymmetric grand unified model for the higgs and yukawa sectors

A complete set of fermion and Higgs superfields is introduced with well-defined SO(10) properties and U(1)xZ2xZ2 family charges from which the Higgs and Yukawa superpotentials are constructed. The structures derived for the four Dirac fermion and right-handed Majorana neutrino mass matrices coincide with those previously obtained from an effective operator approach. Ten mass matrix input parameters accurately yield the twenty masses and mixings of the quarks and leptons with the bimaximal atmospheric and solar neutrino vacuum solutions favored in this simplest version.     

Seesaw neutrino masses and mixing with extended democracy

In the context of a minimal extension of the Standard Model with three extra heavy right-handed neutrinos, we propose a model for neutrino masses and mixing based on the hipothesis of a complete alignment of the lepton mass matrices in flavour space. Considering a uniform quasi-democratic structure for these matrices, we show that, in the presence of a highly hierarchical right-handed neutrino mass spectrum, the effective neutrino mass matrix, obtained through the seesaw mechanism, can reproduce all the solutions of the solar neutrino problem.     

Realistic Dirac leptogenesis

We present a model of leptogenesis that preserves lepton number. The model maintains the important feature of more traditional leptogenesis scenarios: The decaying particles that provide the CP violation necessary for baryogenesis also provide the explanation for the smallness of the neutrino Yukawa couplings. This model clearly demonstrates that, contrary to conventional wisdom, neutrinos need not be Majorana in nature in order to help explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe.     

Some constraints on the Yukawa parameters in the neutrino modification of the Standard Model (ν<Emphasis Type="Italic">MSM</Emphasis>) and CP-violation

The equations connecting elements of the Yukawa matrix to elements of the active neutrino mass matrix in the νMSM theory (an extension of the Standard Model by a singlet of three right-handed neutrinos) was analyzed, and explicit relations for the ratio of the Yukawa matrix elements and elements of the active neutrino mass matrix were obtained. This relation can be used for getting more accurate constraints on the model parameters. Particularly, with the help of the obtained results we investigated CP-violating phase in the νMSM theory. We demonstrate that even in the case when elements of the active neutrino mass matrix are real the baryon asymmetry can be generated also.     

Leptogenesis and composite heavy neutrinos with gauge-mediated interactions

Leptogenesis is an appealing framework to account for the baryon asymmetry in the universe. To this end physics beyond the standard model is demanded. In this paper we investigate the possibility to attain successful leptogenesis with composite Majorana neutrinos. We work in the framework of effective gauge-mediated and contact interactions without any reference to an underlying compositeness theory. This approach is the one adopted in all current experimental searches for composite fermions at colliders. In the case of gauge-mediated interactions, we calculate the CP asymmetry in heavy composite neutrino decays. Both the direct and the indirect CP asymmetry are derived and resonant leptogenesis is also discussed. We find that the Sakharov conditions can be met and, for some choice of the parameters, the correct order of magnitude of the baryon asymmetry is reproduced.     

Non-thermal leptogenesis and baryon asymmetry in different neutrino mass models

In the present work we study non-thermal leptogenesis and baryon asymmetry in the universe in different neutrino mass models discussed recently. For each model we obtain a formula relating the reheating temperature after inflation to the inflaton mass. It is shown that all but four cases are excluded and that in the cases which survive the inflaton mass and the reheating temperature after inflation are bounded from below and from above.