We constrain the lifetime of thermally produced Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) from primordial nucleosynthesis. We show that even a small fraction of mesons present in the primordial plasma leads to the over-production of the primordial helium. This puts an upper bound on the lifetime of HNLs $τ_{N}<0.02$ s for masses $m_{N}>m_π$ (as compared to 0.1 s reported previously). In combination with accelerator searches, this allows us to put a new lower bound on the HNLs masses and defining the "bottom line" for HNL searches at the future Intensity Frontier experiments.
We discuss the bounds on the cosmological lepton number from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), in light of recent evidences for a large value of the neutrino mixing angle theta13. The largest asymmetries for electron and muon or tau neutrinos compatible with 4He and 2H primordial yields are computed versus the neutrino mass hierarchy and mixing angles. The flavour oscillation dynamics is traced till the beginning of BBN and neutrino distributions after decoupling are numerically computed. The latter contains in general, non thermal distortion due to the onset of flavour oscillations driven by so…
In this article, we study the implications of the coupling between Axion-Like-Particles (ALPs) and Leptons to cosmology, in particular, the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We show that the BBN, through the constraint on the effective number of relativistic neutrino species, provides the most stringent bound on the ALP-electron interaction strength for the mass of axion between 20 keV and 1 MeV. For other values of the mass, the BBN bound complements the stellar-evolution and laboratory bounds.
In this paper, we put constraints on neutrino properties such as mass $m_ν$ and degeneracy parameters $ξ_i$ from WMAP5 data and light element abundances by using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach. In order to take consistently into account the effects of the degeneracy parameters, we run the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis code for each value of $ξ_i$ and the other cosmological parameters to estimate the Helium abundance, which is then used to calculate CMB anisotropy spectra instead of treating it as a free parameter. We find that the constraint on $m_ν$ is fairly robust and does not vary v…
Effects of light millicharged dark matter particles on primordial nucleosynthesis are considered. It is shown that if the mass of such particles is much smaller than the electron mass, they lead to strong overproduction of Helium-4. An agreement with observations can be achieved by non-vanishing lepton asymmetry. Baryon-to-photon ratio at BBN and neutrino- to-photon ratio both at BBN and at recombination are noticeably different as compared to the standard cosmological model. The latter ratio and possible lepton asymmetry could be checked by Planck. For higher mass of new particles the effect …
Using a new sample of extremely metal poor systems, the EMPRESS survey has recently reported a primordial helium abundance that is $3σ$ smaller than the prediction from the standard big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) scenario. This measurement could be interpreted as a hint for a primordial lepton asymmetry in the electron neutrino flavor. Motivated by the EMPRESS results, we present a comprehensive analysis of the lepton asymmetry using measurements of the abundances of primordial elements, along with cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from Planck. Assuming that there is no dark radiation in …
We study the fit of cosmological models with two additional free parameters $N_\mathrm{eff}$ and $ξ_e$ in addition to the parameters of $Λ$CDM. We introduce extra radiation components such as hot axions or sterile neutrinos in addition to the energy density of neutrinos with large neutrino degeneracy. Then, a larger $N_\mathrm{eff}$ is allowed without spoiling Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), as positive neutrino degeneracy $ξ_e$ could improve BBN fit. By analysing the data from Planck, baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), BBN and type-Ia supernovae (SNeIa), it can be seen that the Hubble tension…
We discuss the interplay between lepton asymmetry L and neutrino oscillations in the early Universe. Neutrino oscillations may suppress or enhance previously existing L. On the other hand L is capable to suppress or enhance neutrino oscillations. The mechanism of L enhancement in MSW resonant neutrino oscillations in the early Universe is numerically analyzed. L cosmological effects through neutrino oscillations are discussed. We discuss how L may change the cosmological BBN constraints on neutrino and show that BBN model with electron-sterile neutrino oscillations is extremely sensitive to L …
Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) are strongly motivated by theory due to their capability of simultaneously explaining the observed phenomena of dark matter, neutrino oscillations and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. The existence of such particles would affect the expansion history of the Universe and the synthesis of primordial abundances of light elements. In this work we review, revise and extend the phenomenology of HNLs during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch for masses up to 1 GeV. This is of great importance, as BBN is able to provide complementary bounds to those from upcomin…
In this article we discuss lepton asymmetry effect on BBN with neutrino oscillations. We argue that asymmetry much smaller than 0.01, although not big enough to influence directly the nucleosynthesis kinetics, can effect considerably BBN indirectly via neutrino oscillations. Namely, it distorts neutrino spectrum and changes neutrino density evolution and the pattern of oscillations (either suppressing or enhancing them), which in turn effect the primordial synthesis of elements. We show that the results of the paper X. Shi et al., Phys. Rev. D 60, 063002 (1999), based on the assumption that on…
Recent cosmological data favour additional relativistic degrees of freedom beyond the three active neutrinos and photons, often referred to as 'dark' radiation. Light sterile neutrinos is one of the prime candidates for such additional radiation. However, constraints on sterile neutrinos based on the current cosmological data have been derived using simplified assumptions about thermalisation of the sterile neutrino at the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) epoch. These assumptions are not necessarily justified and here we solve the full quantum kinetic equations in the (1 active + 1 sterile) scen…
A relic lepton asymmetry orders of magnitude bigger than the baryon one may hide in the relic neutrino background. No direct theoretical or experimental limitations on its magnitude and sign are known. Indirect cosmological constraints exist ranging from $|L|<0.01$ to $L<10$. We discuss a BBN model with late electron-sterile neutrino oscillations which is a fine leptometer - it is capable of feeling extremely small relic lepton asymmetry - $|L|>10^{-8}$. This sensitivity is achieved through the influence of such small $L$ on the neutrino oscillations, suppressing or enhancing them, and thus ch…
Taking into account effects of late energy injection, we examine big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints on axino dark matter scenarios with long-lived charged sleptons. We calculate 4-body slepton decays into the axino, a lepton, and a quark-antiquark pair since they govern late hadronic energy injection and associated BBN constraints. For supersymmetric hadronic axion models, we present the obtained hadronic BBN constraints and show that they can be more restrictive than the ones associated with catalyzed BBN via slepton-bound-state formation. From the BBN constraints on hadronic and elec…
Assuming the lightest neutralino forms dark matter, we study its residual annihilation after freeze-out at the early universe. If taking place after the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) the annihilation products, especially at the hadronic modes, may cause nonthermal nuclear reaction and change the prediction of the primordial abundance of light elements in the standard BBN scenario. We therefore put constraints on the neutralino annihilation cross section. These constraints are free of the uncertainties of the dark matter profile today suffered by direct or indirect detection of dark matter. We…
The weak interaction charged current processes ($ν_e+n\leftrightarrow p+e^-$, $\barν_e +p\leftrightarrow n+e^+$, $n\leftrightarrow p+e^-+\barν_e$) interconvert neutrons and protons in the early universe and have significant influence on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) light-element abundance yields, particulary that for $^{4}{\rm He}$. We demonstrate that the influence of these processes is still significant even when they operate well below temperatures $T\sim0.7\,{\rm MeV}$ usually invoked for "weak freeze-out," and in fact down nearly into the alpha-particle formation epoch ($T \approx 0.1\,…
Recently it is reported that there is the discrepancy between big bang nucleosynthesis theory and observations (BBN crisis). We show that BBN predictions agree with the primordial abundances of light elements, He4, D, He3 and Li7 inferred from the observational data if an electron neutrino has a net chemical potential xi_{nu_e} due to lepton asymmetry. We estimate that xi_{nu_e} = 0.043^{+0.040}_{-0.040} (95% C.L.) and Omega_bh^2 = 0.015^{+0.006}_{-0.003} (95% C.L.).
The cosmic energy density in the form of radiation before and during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is typically parameterized in terms of the effective number of neutrinos N_eff. This quantity, in case of no extra degrees of freedom, depends upon the chemical potential and the temperature characterizing the three active neutrino distributions, as well as by their possible non-thermal features. In the present analysis we determine the upper bounds that BBN places on N_eff from primordial neutrino--antineutrino asymmetries, with a careful treatment of the dynamics of neutrino oscillations. We c…
Primordial Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) tightly constrains the existence of any additional relativistic degrees of freedom at that epoch. However a large asymmetry in electron neutrino number shifts the chemical equilibrium between the neutron and proton at neutron freeze-out and allows such additional particle species. Moreover, the BBN itself may also prefer such an asymmetry to reconcile predicted element abundances and observations. However, such a large asymmetry appears to be in conflict with the observed small baryon asymmetry if they are in sphaleron mediated equilibrium. In this pap…
We investigate the issue of how accurately we can constrain the lepton number asymmetry xi_nu = mu_nu/T_nu in the Universe by using future observations of 21 cm line fluctuations and cosmic microwave background (CMB). We find that combinations of the 21 cm line and the CMB observations can constrain the lepton asymmetry better than big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Additionally, we also discuss constraints on xi_nu in the presence of some extra radiation, and show that the 21 cm line observations can substantially improve the constraints obtained by CMB alone, and allow us to distinguish the eff…
The simplest, `standard' model of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (SBBN) assumes three light neutrinos (N_nu = 3) and no significant electron neutrino asymmetry, leaving only one adjustable parameter: the baryon to photon ratio eta. The primordial abundance of any one nuclide can, therefore, be used to measure the baryon abundance and the value derived from the observationally inferred primordial abundance of deuterium closely matches that from current, non-BBN data, primarily from the WMAP survey. However, using this same estimate there is a tension between the SBBN-predicted 4He and 7Li abundances …
In the Affleck-Dine mechanism of baryogenesis, non-topological solitons called Q-balls can be formed. In this work we study the Q-balls which decay during the Big Bang Nucleosythesis (BBN) era. We show that such late-decaying baryonic Q-balls with lifetime of about 10^3 s can provide a new developing mechanism for the BBN through a rolling baryon to photon ratio η, which can naturally explain the discrepancy of BBN prediction with the WMAP data on ^7Li abundance. For the late-decaying leptonic Q-balls with lifetime of about 10^6 s, we find that their decay product, gravitino, can serve as a da…
Nucleosynthesis restrictions on mixing of active neutrinos with possible sterile ones are obtained with the account of experimentally determined mixing between all active neutrinos. The earlier derived bounds, valid in the absence of active-active mixing, are reanalyzed and significant difference is found in the resonance case. The results are obtained both analytically and numerically by solution of complete system of integro-differential kinetic equations. A good agreement between analytical and numerical approaches is demonstrated. A role of possibly large cosmological lepton asymmetry is d…
We assess the effects on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) of lepton number generation in the early universe resulting from the two-doublet four-neutrino mass/mixing scheme. It has been argued that this neutrino mass/mixing arrangement gives the most viable fit to the existing data. We study full 4 x 4 mixing matrices and show how possible symmetries in these can affect the BBN He-4 abundance yields. Though there is as yet no consensus on the reliability of BBN calculations with neutrino flavor mixing, we show that, in the case where the sign of the lepton number asymmetry is unpredictable, BBN c…
Oscillations between ordinary and sterile neutrinos can generate large neutrino asymmetries in the early universe. These asymmetries can significantly affect big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) through modification of nuclear reaction rates. We study this phenomenon within a model consisting of the three ordinary neutrinos plus one sterile neutrino that can be motivated by the neutrino anomalies and the dark matter problem. We calculate how the lepton asymmetries produced evolve at temperatures where they impact on BBN. The effect of the asymmetries on primordial helium production is determined, le…
We consider the cosmological effects of sterile neutrinos with the masses of $150- 450$ MeV. The decay of sterile neutrinos changes the thermal history of the Universe and affects the energy density of radiation at the recombination and the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) results. We derive severe constraints on the parameters of sterile neutrinos from the primordial abundances of helium-4 and deuterium. We also find that in a particular model the constraints can be considerably relaxed by assuming a large lepton asymmetry in the active neutrinos. In this case, the consistent parameters result …
In the framework of the Constrained MSSM we re--examine the gravitino as the lightest superpartner and a candidate for cold dark matter in the Universe. Unlike in other recent studies, we include both a thermal contribution to its relic population from scatterings in the plasma and a non--thermal one from neutralino or stau decays after freeze--out. Relative to a previous analysis [1] we update, extend and considerably improve our treatment of constraints from observed light element abundances on additional energy released during BBN in association with late gravitino production. Assuming the …
The following proceedings contain a theory perspective on the flavor changing neutral current anomalies reported by LHCb on the ratios $B\to K^{(*)} μμ/B\to K^{(*)} ee$
Many extensions of the Standard Model include extra fermions. We here consider a model containing Dirac neutral heavy leptons in addition to massless neutrinos. These neutral heavy leptons can be produced singly along with a massless neutrino in $e^+ e^-$ and $μ^+ μ^-$ collisions. The production rates depend on the neutral heavy lepton masses and mixing parameters. We here consider the rates for this process and potential signatures for the machine energies and luminosities suggested for the Snowmass study.
Naturally small neutrino masses can arise in some grand unified models. The mechanism of neutrino mass generation in these models typically requires the existence of neutral heavy leptons. We study the low-energy phenomenology of these new fermions. Concentrating on loop corrections due to neutral heavy leptons, we examine how the flavour-conserving leptonic decays of the Z boson, universality breaking in these decays, and the W boson mass depend on the mass and mixings of the neutral heavy leptons. Working within the framework of a superstring-inspired SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y model, we show that the…
The inclusion of heavy neutral leptons to the Standard Model particle content could provide solutions to many open questions in particle physics and cosmology. The modification of the charged and neutral currents from active-sterile mixing of neutral leptons can provide novel signatures in Standard Model processes. We revisit the displaced vertex signature that could occur in collisions at the LHC via the decay of heavy neutral leptons with masses of a few GeV emphasizing the implications of flavor, kinematics, inclusive production and number of these extra neutral fermions. We study in partic…
We investigate the potentials of high energy lepton-proton colliders to detect a flavor changing $l-l^{\prime}-Z$ or $l-l^{\prime}-γ$ couplings from the processes $ep\toμ(τ)X$ and $μp\to τX$. For the $l-l^{\prime}-Z$ coupling we consider string inspired $E_6$ model whereas $l-l^{\prime}-γ$ coupling is analyzed in the framework of anomalous magnetic moment type interaction (AMMI) model.
The article reviews the conditions for lepton-flavor conservation in leptonic interactions. The conditions are similar to those developed in the quark sector. For neutrinos the mass eigenstates are unitary superpositions of flavor states which together with small mass differences produce neutrino oscillations. A new property for neutrinos is the fact that their masses are very small suppressing their couplings to neutral scalar fields. The results are demonstrated in several models.
Charged massive particles (CHAMPs), when present during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) era, may significantly alter the synthesis of light elements when compared to a standard BBN scenario. This is due to the formation of bound states with nuclei. This paper presents a detailed numerical and analytical analysis of such CHAMP BBN. All reactions important for predicting light-element yields are calculated within the Born approximation. Three priorly neglected effects are treated in detail:(a) photodestruction of bound states due to electromagnetic cascades induced by the CHAMP decay, (b) lat…
The $O(α)$ leptonic QED corrections to neutral current polarized deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering are calculated in leptonic variables both for the case of longitudinal and transverse nucleon polarization. The results of the complete calculation are compared with the corresponding leading log expressions. Numerical results are presented for the corrections in the kinematic range of the HERMES experiment and possible future polarized proton beam experiments at HERA.
We investigate the possibility that baryogenesis occurs during the weak phase transition in a minimal extension of the Standard Model which contains extra neutral leptons and conserves total lepton number. The necessary CP-violating phases appear in the leptonic Yukawa couplings. We compute the CP-asymmetries in both the neutral and the charged lepton fluxes reflected on the bubble wall. Using present experimental bounds on the mixing angles and Standard Model estimates for the parameters related to the scalar potential, we conclude that it seems unlikely to produce the observed baryon to entr…
The one loop contribution to the lepton flavor violating decay $h^0\rightarrow μτ$ of the SM-like neutral Higgs (LFVHD) in the 3-3-1 model with neutral lepton is calculated using the unitary gauge. We have checked in detail that the total contribution is exactly finite, and the divergent cancellations happen separately in two parts of active neutrinos and exotic heavy leptons. By numerical investigation, we have indicated that the one-loop contribution of the active neutrinos is very suppressed while that of exotic leptons is rather large. The branching ratio of the LFVHD strongly depends on t…
We study the prospects for discovering heavy neutral leptons at ForwArd Search ExpeRiment (FASER), the newly proposed detector at the LHC. Previous studies showed that a relatively small detector with ~10 m length and ~1 m cross sectional area can probe large unconstrained parts of parameter space for dark photons and dark Higgs bosons. In this work we show that FASER will also be sensitive to heavy neutral leptons that have mixing angles with the active neutrinos that are up to an order of magnitude lower than current bounds. In particular, this is true for heavy neutral leptons produced domi…
Small neutrino masses can arise in some grand unified models or superstring theories. We consider a model with an enhanced fermion sector containing Dirac neutral heavy leptons. The dependence on the mass and mixing parameters of these new fermions is investigated for several measurable quantities. We study the flavor-conserving leptonic decays of the Z boson and universality breaking in these decays. We also consider the W boson mass dependence on neutral heavy lepton parameters.
We discuss the scenario where the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle and the long-lived next-to-lightest sparticle (NSP) is the neutralino or the stau, the charged partner of the tau lepton. In this case staus form bound states with several nuclei, affecting the cosmological abundances of Li6 and Li7 by enhancing nuclear rates that would otherwise be strongly suppressed. We consider the effects of these enhanced rates on the final abundances produced in Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), including injections of both electromagnetic and hadronic energy during and after BBN. We show …
In the first part of this thesis, we consider an extension to the Standard Model composed by a Massive Vector Doublet under SU(2)L and a Left-handed Heavy Neutral Lepton. We study the production of these exotic leptons with a Same Flavor Opposite Sign standard lepton pair, and jets. We establish limits on the parameter space considering previous searches in this final state. After the limit definition, we study a modification on the event selection criteria in order to increase the possibility of probing these new particles at the Large Hadron Collider. Finally, we perform a parameter scan con…
We point out the importance of two-body final states of weak isosinglet neutral heavy leptons predicted in several models of new physics beyond the standard model. We concentrate on muon-type neutral heavy leptons $L_μ^0$ with mass $M<2$ GeV which can be searched for with increased sensitivity at a new round of neutrino experiments at CERN and Fermilab. Providing explicit decay rate formulae for the $e e ν$, $eμν$, $μμν$, $πμ$, $ρμ$, and $a_1μ$ final states, we use general scaling features to estimate sensitivity of $L_μ^0$ searches in current and future experiments, emphasizing the importance…
The presence of the top-pions $π_{t}^{0,\pm}$ in the low-energy spectrum is an inevitable feature of the topcolor scenario. Taking into account the constraints of the present experimental limit of the lepton flavor violating($LFV$) process $μ\to eγ$ on the free parameters of topcolor-assisted techicolor(TC2) models, we study the contributions of the neutral top-pion $π^{0}_{t}$ to the $LFV$ processes $μ^{+}μ^{-}\toτμ$ (or $τe$), $ γγ\toτμ$ (or $τe$), $e^{+} e^{-}\toτμ$, and $e γ\to e π_{t}^{0}\to e τμ(e)$ via the flavor changing ($FC$) couplings $π_{t}^{0}l_{i}l_{j}$ and discuss the possibilit…
We analyze the potential of the recently proposed experiment FACET (Forward-Aperture CMS ExTension) to search for new physics. As an example, we consider the models of Higgs-like scalars with cubic and quartic interactions and Heavy Neutral Leptons. We compare the sensitivity of FACET with that of other proposed "intensity frontier" experiments, including FASER2, SHiP, etc. and demonstrate that FACET could probe an interesting parameter space between the current constraints and the potential reach of the above mentioned proposals.
We perform the one-loop induced charged lepton flavor violating decays of the neutral Higgses in an extended mirror fermion model with non-sterile electroweak-scale right-handed neutrinos and a horizontal $A_4$ symmetry in the lepton sector. We demonstrate that for the 125 GeV scalar $h$ there is tension between the recent LHC result ${\cal B}(h \to τμ) \sim $ 1% and the stringent limits on the rare processes $μ\to e γ$ and $τ\to (μ$ or $e) γ$ from low energy experiments.
In the framework of the 3-3-1 model with neutral leptons, we have investigated the lepton-flavor-violating sources based on the Higgs mass spectrum which has two neutral Higgses identitied with corresponding ones in the Two-Higgs-Doublet model (THDM). On the $13~\mathrm{TeV}$ scale of the LHC, we point out the parameter space regions where the experimental limits of $e_i \rightarrow e_jγ$ decays are satisfied. These regions depend heavily on the mixing of exotic leptons but are predicted to have large $h^0_1\rightarrow μτ$ signals. We also show that $\mathrm{Br}(h^0_1\rightarrow μτ)$ can reach…
We revisit the search for heavy neutral leptons with the Big European Bubble Chamber in the 1982 proton beam dump experiment at CERN, focussing on those heavier than the kaon and mixing only with the tau neutrino, as these are far less constrained than their counterparts with smaller mass or other mixings. Recasting the previous search in terms of this model and including additional production and decay channels yields the strongest bounds to date, up to the tau mass. This applies also to our updated bounds on the mixing of heavy neutral leptons with the electron neutrino.
New physics scenarios beyond the Standard Model (SM) for neutrino mass mechanism often necessitate the existence of a neutral scalar $H$ and/or doubly-charged scalar $H^{\pm\pm}$, which couple to the SM charged leptons in a flavor violating way, while evading all existing constraints. Such scalars could be effectively produced at future lepton colliders like CEPC, ILC, FCC-ee and CLIC, either on-shell or off-shell, and induce striking charged lepton flavor violating (LFV) signals. We find that a large parameter space of the scalar masses and the LFV couplings can be probed at lepton colliders,…
We continue our previous work on the flavour-conserving leptonic decays of the Z boson with neutral heavy leptons (NHL's) in the loops by considering box, vertex, and self-energy diagrams for the muon decay. By inclusion of these loops (they contribute to the input parameter M_W) we can probe the full parameter space spanned by the so-called flavour-conserving mixing parameters ee_(mix), μμ_(mix), ττ_(mix) in a superstring-inspired model of neutrino mass. We compare the results of our analysis with the existing work in this field and conclude that flavour-conserving decays have certain advanta…
Production and decay rates, polarization and differential distributions of decay products are calculated for a heavy neutrino produced in charged pseudoscalar meson decay and decaying itself in charged pseudoscalar and lepton or a lepton-antilepton pair of different flavours and a light SM like (anti)neutrino.
Heavy neutral leptons (HNL) constitute the building blocks of several neutrino mass generation mechanisms. Experimental searches depend on their masses and mixings with the active neutrinos, and exclusion regions in the plane of mass and mixing rely most of the time on two assumptions: $(i)$ the existence of $one$ HNL, which $(ii)$ mixes dominantly with only $one$ lepton flavor. In this work we discuss how to reinterpret the limits from collider searches relaxing these assumptions, providing a simple recipe to recast the bounds in models with generic mixing patterns, and in which at least two …
