Scotogenic neutrino masses and dark matter stability from residual gauge symmetry

TL;DR

This paper explores how a specific gauge symmetry extension of the standard model naturally explains dark matter stability and small neutrino masses through spontaneous symmetry breaking, predicting a massless neutrino and a lower bound on neutrinoless double beta decay.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the 3-3-1-1 gauge extension leads to residual symmetries that explain dark matter stability and neutrino masses in a novel scotogenic mechanism.

Findings

One neutrino remains massless due to gauge structure.

Residual symmetry ensures dark matter stability.

Lower bound predicted for neutrinoless double beta decay.

Abstract

In the context of the $\mathrm{SU(3)_c \otimes SU(3)_L \otimes U(1)_X \otimes U(1)_{N}}$ (3-3-1-1) extension of the standard model, we show how the spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry gives rise to a residual symmetry which accounts for dark matter stability and small neutrino masses in a scotogenic fashion. As a special feature, the gauge structure implies that one of the light neutrinos is massless and, as a result, there is a lower bound for the $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay rate.