Low-scale neutrino mass generation mechanisms from TeV scale gauge extensions of the Standard Model

Abstract

Understanding the origin of neutrino masses is one of the most important challenges in particle physics. While the most popular neutrino mass generation mechanisms (NMMs) rely on extremely high energy scales, other alternatives, such as the inverse seesaw and radiative mechanisms, seem very appealing for they can be realised at experimentally accessible energy scales. The study of these low-scale NMMs in the context of some gauge extensions of the Standard Model (SM), e.g. 3-3-1 and left-right symmetric models, seems only natural, since, in addition to exhibiting, by construction, some of the ingredients required by the low-scale NMMs, these extended models can be realised around the very same accessible energy scales (~TeV). Among the radiative scenarios for neutrino masses, we have the scotogenic mechanism, where dark matter (DM) candidates are intrinsically related to neutrino masses and made stable by an ad hoc discrete symmetry. In this project, we will explore the implementation of the scotogenic mechanism in TeV extensions of the SM in such a way that the symmetry stabilising DM emerges from the extended gauge group, as well as investigate the viability of the resulting DM candidates. Another goal to pursue is to make a thorough analysis of the non-standard neutrinoless double beta decay contributions that can play a key role in low-scale NMMs.