Common Origin of Dirac Neutrino Mass and Freeze-in Massive Particle Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper presents a unified framework where tiny Dirac neutrino masses and freeze-in dark matter originate from the same mechanism, using flavor symmetry and dimension six operators, consistent with neutrino data and collider constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a model that dynamically generates small couplings for neutrino masses and dark matter via a common flavor-symmetric approach involving dimension six operators.

Findings

Successfully reproduces neutrino oscillation data with normal hierarchy.

Predicts the atmospheric mixing angle to be in the lower octant.

Compatible with collider constraints on Higgs invisible decays.

Abstract

Motivated by the fact that the origin of tiny Dirac neutrino masses via the standard model Higgs field and non-thermal dark matter populating the Universe via freeze-in mechanism require tiny dimensionless couplings of similar order of magnitudes $(\sim 10^{-12})$, we propose a framework that can dynamically generate such couplings in a unified manner. Adopting a flavour symmetric approach based on $A_4$ group, we construct a model where Dirac neutrino coupling to the standard model Higgs and dark matter coupling to its mother particle occur at dimension six level involving the same flavon fields, thereby generating the effective Yukawa coupling of same order of magnitudes. The mother particle for dark matter, a complex scalar singlet, gets thermally produced in the early Universe through Higgs portal couplings followed by its thermal freeze-out and then decay into the dark matter candidates giving rise to the freeze-in dark matter scenario. Some parts of the Higgs portal couplings of the mother particle can also be excluded by collider constraints on invisible decay rate of the standard model like Higgs boson. We show that the correct neutrino oscillation data can be successfully produced in the model which predicts normal hierarchical neutrino mass. The model also predicts the atmospheric angle to be in the lower octant if the Dirac CP phase lies close to the presently preferred maximal value.