Neutrino masses in the Standard Model effective field theory

Abstract

We compute the leading-logarithmic correction to the neutrino mass matrix in the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) to dimension seven. In the limit of negligible lepton and down-type quark Yukawa couplings, it receives contributions from the Weinberg dimension-five operator as well as from 11 dimension-six and five dimension-seven independent interactions. Two of the main implications we derive from this result are the following. First, we find dimension-seven operators which, despite violating lepton number, do not renormalise neutrino masses at one loop. And second, we demonstrate that the presence of dimension-six operators around the TeV scale can modify the Standard Model prediction by up to $\mathcal{O}(50\%)$. Our result comprises also one step forward towards the renormalisation of the SMEFT to order $v^3/{\Lambda }^3$.

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables; several comments and references added; typos corrected; matches version published in PRD