Enhanced neutrino polarizability

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2023; no. 5; pp. 142 - 52
• Main Authors: Bansal, S., Paz, G., Petrov, A. A., Tammaro, M., Zupan, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 17-05-2023; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Nature; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Atoms & subatomic particles; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Constraint modelling; Cooling; Couplings; Dimensional analysis; Elementary Particles; Experiments; High energy physics; Leptons; Light; Neutrino Interactions; Neutrinos; Non-Standard Neutrino Properties; Phenomenology; Photons; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Relativity Theory; Specific BSM Phenomenology; String Theory; Neutrino Interactions; Non-Standard Neutrino Properties; Specific BSM Phenomenology
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP05(2023)142

A
bstract
We point out that neutrinos can have enhanced couplings to photons, if light (pseudo)scalar mediators are present, resulting in a potentially measurable neutrino polarizability. We show that the expected suppression from small neutrino masses can be compensated by the light mediator mass, generating dimension 7 Rayleigh operators at low scales. We explore the rich phenomenology of such models, computing in detail the constraints on the viable parameter space, spanned by the couplings of the mediator to neutrinos and photons. Finally, we build several explicit models that lead to an enhanced neutrino polarizability by modifying the inverse see-saw majoron, i.e., the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of the U(1)
L
global lepton number responsible for generating small neutrino masses.