Cascade Seesaw for Tiny Neutrino Mass

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel cascade seesaw mechanism for generating tiny neutrino masses via higher-dimensional operators, involving a sequence of scalar multiplets and a fermion, allowing for a low-scale seesaw without fine-tuning.

Contribution

It proposes a new cascade seesaw model that generates neutrino mass through higher-dimensional operators with a sequence of scalar multiplets, avoiding the need for global symmetries.

Findings

Neutrino mass can be achieved at a low seesaw scale.

The model employs a cascade process transmitting VEVs across scalars.

No global symmetry is needed to suppress lower-dimensional operators.

Abstract

The accessibility to physics responsible for tiny neutrino mass suggests that the mass should better originate from certain higher dimensional operators. The conventional three types of seesaw operate at dimension five with the help of either a new fermion or scalar multiplet. Here we propose a seesaw that generates neutrino mass through a dimension-(5+4n) operator. The seesaw is functioned by a fermion of isospin n+1 and zero hypercharge and a sequence of scalar multiplets that share unity hypercharge but have isospin from 3/2 to n+1/2 at a step of unity. Only the scalar of the highest isospin can couple to the relevant fermions while only the scalar of the lowest isospin can directly develop a naturally small vacuum expectation value (VEV). The VEV is then transmitted to scalars of higher isospin through a cascading process. No global symmetry is required to forbid lower dimensional operators. A neutrino mass of desired order can thus be induced with a relatively low seesaw scale without demanding too small couplings.