Probing Leptogenesis at Future Colliders

We investigate the question whether leptogenesis, as a mechanism for explaining the baryon asymmetry of the universe, can be tested at future colliders. Focusing on the minimal scenario of two right-handed neutrinos, we identify the allowed parameter space for successful leptogenesis in the heavy neutrino mass range between $5$ and $50$ GeV. Our calculation includes the lepton flavour violating contribution from heavy neutrino oscillations as well as the lepton number violating contribution from Higgs decays to the baryon asymmetry of the universe. We confront this parameter space region with the discovery potential for heavy neutrinos at future lepton colliders, which can be very sensitive in this mass range via displaced vertex searches. Beyond the discovery of heavy neutrinos, we study the precision at which the flavour-dependent active-sterile mixing angles can be measured. The measurement of these mixing angles at future colliders can test whether a minimal type I seesaw mechanism is the origin of the light neutrino masses, and it can be a first step towards probing leptogenesis as the mechanism of baryogenesis. We discuss how a stronger test could be achieved with an additional measurement of the heavy neutrino mass difference.Comment: 30 pages plus appendix, 13 figures, references added, discussion extended, two figures added, matches journal versio

Leptogenesis from oscillations of heavy neutrinos with large mixing angles

via the seesaw mechanism and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis. If the mass of the heavy neutrinos is below the electroweak scale, they may be found at the LHC, BELLE II, NA62, the proposed SHiP experiment or a future high-energy collider. In this mass range, the baryon asymmetry is generated via CP -violating oscillations of the heavy neutrinos during their production. We study the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe in this scenario from first principles of non-equilibrium quantum field theory, including spectator processes and feedback effects. We eliminate several uncertainties from previous calcula-tions and find that the baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be explained with larger heavy neutrino mixing angles, increasing the chance for an experimental discovery. For the limiting cases of fast and strongly overdamped oscillations of right-handed neutrinos, the generation of the baryon asymmetry can be calculated analytically up to corrections of order one

Testing the low scale seesaw and leptogenesis

Abstract Heavy neutrinos with masses below the electroweak scale can simultaneously generate the light neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism and the baryon asymmetry of the universe via leptogenesis. The requirement to explain these phenomena imposes constraints on the mass spectrum of the heavy neutrinos, their flavour mixing pattern and their CP properties. We first combine bounds from different experiments in the past to map the viable parameter regions in which the minimal low scale seesaw model can explain the observed neutrino oscillations, while being consistent with the negative results of past searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We then study which additional predictions for the properties of the heavy neutrinos can be made based on the requirement to explain the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe. Finally, we comment on the perspectives to find traces of heavy neutrinos in future experimental searches at the LHC, NA62, BELLE II, T2K, SHiP or a future high energy collider, such as ILC, CEPC or FCC-ee. If any heavy neutral leptons are discovered in the future, our results can be used to assess whether these particles are indeed the common origin of the light neutrino masses and the baryon asymmetry of the universe. If the magnitude of their couplings to all Standard Model flavours can be measured individually, and if the Dirac phase in the lepton mixing matrix is determined in neutrino oscillation experiments, then all model parameters can in principle be determined from this data. This makes the low scale seesaw a fully testable model of neutrino masses and baryogenesis

Leptogenesis: Improving predictions for experimental searches

Heavy right handed neutrinos could not only explain the observed neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism, but also generate the baryon asymmetry of the universe via leptogenesis due to their CP-violating interactions in the early universe. We review recent progress in the theoretical description of this nonequilibrium process. Improved calculations are particularly important for a comparison with experimental data in testable scenarios with Majorana masses below the TeV scale, in which the heavy neutrinos can be found at the LHC, in the NA62 experiment, at T2K or in future experiments, including SHiP, DUNE and experiments at the FCC, ILC or CEPC. In addition, the relevant source of CP-violation may be experimentally accessible, and the heavy neutrinos can give a sizable contribution to neutrinoless double β\betaβ decay. In these low scale leptogenesis scenarios, the matter-antimatter asymmetry is generated at temperatures when the heavy neutrinos are relativistic, and thermal corrections to the transport equations in the early universe are large

Leptogenesis with GeV-Scale Right-Handed Neutrinos

We review the relation between leptogenesis and the discrete symmetry of charge-parity conjugation. The requirement of respecting the theorem of combined charge-parity-time reversal invariance at the level of the kinetic equations describing leptogenesis in the early Universe poses an interesting challenge that may most efficiently be addressed by the use of closed-time-path techniques. A byproduct of these methods is an accurate and unified description of leptogenesis from oscillations of right-handed neutrinos that applies to the regime of ultraheavy as well as GeV-scale RHNs. For the latter scenario, we discuss the mechanism on the example of the osicllatory and overdamped parametric regimes and very briefly comment on the prospect of experimental tests

Leptogenesis from oscillations of heavy neutrinos with large mixing angles

via the seesaw mechanism and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis. If the mass of the heavy neutrinos is below the electroweak scale, they may be found at the LHC, BELLE II, NA62, the proposed SHiP experiment or a future high-energy collider. In this mass range, the baryon asymmetry is generated via CP -violating oscillations of the heavy neutrinos during their production. We study the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe in this scenario from first principles of non-equilibrium quantum field theory, including spectator processes and feedback effects. We eliminate several uncertainties from previous calcula-tions and find that the baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be explained with larger heavy neutrino mixing angles, increasing the chance for an experimental discovery. For the limiting cases of fast and strongly overdamped oscillations of right-handed neutrinos, the generation of the baryon asymmetry can be calculated analytically up to corrections of order one