Relic Right-handed Dirac Neutrinos and Implications for Detection of Cosmic Neutrino Background

It remains to be determined experimentally if massive neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles. In this connection, it has been recently suggested that the detection of cosmic neutrino background of left-handed neutrinos $\nu^{}_{\rm L}$ and right-handed antineutrinos $\overline{\nu}^{}_{\rm R}$ in future experiments of neutrino capture on beta-decaying nuclei (e.g., $\nu^{}_e + {^3{\rm H}} \to {^3}{\rm He} + e^-$ for the PTOLEMY experiment) is likely to distinguish between Majorana and Dirac neutrinos, since the capture rate is twice larger in the former case. In this paper, we investigate the possible impact of right-handed neutrinos on the capture rate, assuming that massive neutrinos are Dirac particles and both right-handed neutrinos $\nu^{}_{\rm R}$ and left-handed antineutrinos $\overline{\nu}^{}_{\rm L}$ can be efficiently produced in the early Universe. It turns out that the capture rate can be enhanced at most by $28\%$ due to the presence of relic $\nu^{}_{\rm R}$ and $\overline{\nu}^{}_{\rm L}$ with a total number density of $95~{\rm cm}^{-3}$, which should be compared to the number density $336~{\rm cm}^{-3}$ of cosmic neutrino background. The enhancement has actually been limited by the latest cosmological and astrophysical bounds on the effective number of neutrino generations $N^{}_{\rm eff} = 3.14^{+0.44}_{-0.43}$ at the $95\%$ confidence level. For illustration, two possible scenarios have been proposed for thermal production of right-handed neutrinos in the early Universe.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure, more discussions added, references updated, to appear in Nucl. Phys.

A Further Study of the Frampton-Glashow-Yanagida Model for Neutrino Masses, Flavor Mixing and Baryon Number Asymmetry

In light of the latest neutrino oscillation data, we revisit the minimal scenario of type-I seesaw model, in which only two heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos are introduced to account for both tiny neutrino masses and the baryon number asymmetry in our Universe. In this framework, we carry out a systematic study of the Frampton-Glashow-Yanagida ansatz by taking into account the renormalization-group running of neutrino mixing parameters and the flavor effects in leptogenesis. We demonstrate that the normal neutrino mass ordering is disfavored even in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with a large value of $\tan \beta$, for which the running effects could be significant. Furthermore, it is pointed out that the original scenario with a hierarchical mass spectrum of heavy Majorana neutrinos contradicts with the upper bound derived from a naturalness criterion, and the resonant mechanism with nearly-degenerate heavy Majorana neutrinos can be a possible way out.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, more discussions added, to appear in JHE

Determination of neutrino mass ordering in future 76^{76}Ge-based neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments

Motivated by recent intensive experimental efforts on searching for neutrinoless double-beta decays, we perform a detailed analysis of the physics potential of the experiments based on $^{76}\mathrm{Ge}$. Assuming no signals, current and future experiments could place a $90\%$ lower limit on the half life $T^{0\nu}_{1/2} \gtrsim 4\times 10^{26}~{\rm yr}$ and $T^{0\nu}_{1/2} \gtrsim 7\times 10^{27}~{\rm yr}$, respectively. Then, how to report an evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decays is addressed by following the Bayesian statistical approach. For the first time, we present a quantitative description of experimental power to distinguish between normal and inverted neutrino mass orderings. Taking an exposure of $10^{4}~{\rm kg}\cdot{\rm yr}$ and a background rate of $10^{-4}~{\rm counts}/({\rm keV}\cdot{\rm kg}\cdot{\rm yr})$, we find that a moderate evidence for normal neutrino mass ordering (i.e., with a Bayes factor ${\cal B}$ given by $\ln({\cal B}) \simeq 2.5$ or a probability about $92.3\%$ according to the Jeffreys scale) can be achieved if the true value of effective neutrino mass $m^{}_{\beta\beta}$ turns out to be below $0.01~{\rm eV}$.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, the Jeffreys scale used, more discussions added, to appear in Phys. Rev.