Realistic Neutrinogenesis with Radiative Vertex Correction

Abstract

We propose a new model for naturally light Dirac neutrinos and explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe through neutrinogenesis. We extend the standard model with a real singlet scalar, a heavy singlet Dirac fermion and a heavy doublet scalar besides three right-handed neutrinos, respecting lepton number conservation and a Z_2 symmetry. The neutrinos acquire small Dirac masses due to the suppression of the weak scale over the heavy mass scale. As a key feature of our construction, once the heavy Dirac fermion and doublet scalar go out of equilibrium, their decays induce the CP asymmetry from the interference of tree-level processes with the \textit{radiative vertex corrections} (rather than the self-energy corrections). Although there is no lepton number violation, an equal and opposite amount of CP asymmetry is generated in the left-handed and the right-handed neutrinos. The left-handed lepton asymmetry would then be converted to the baryon asymmetry in the presence of the sphalerons, while the right-handed lepton asymmetry remains unaffected.

Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures. Version accepted by PLB (minor rewording, refs added)