Same Sign versus Opposite Sign Dileptons as a Probe of Low Scale Seesaw Mechanisms

Abstract

We calculate the ratio $R_{\ell \ell }$ of same sign (SS) to opposite sign (OS) dileptons in type I and generalized inverse seesaw models and show that it can be anywhere between 0 and 1 depending on the detailed texture of the right-handed neutrino mass matrix. Measurement of $R_{\ell \ell }$ in hadron colliders can therefore provide a way to probe the nature of seesaw mechanism and also to distinguish between the two types of seesaw mechanisms. We work within the framework of left-right symmetric model as an example. We emphasize that coherence of the final states in the $W_R$ decay is crucial for this discussion and it requires the right-handed neutrinos to be highly degenerate. We isolate the range of parameters in the model where this effect is observable at the LHC and future colliders.

Comments: 17 pages, 2 figures; journal version