The recent observation of nonzero neutrino mass is the first concrete indication of physics beyond the Standard Model. Their properties, unique among the other fermions, leads naturally to the idea of a Majorana neutrino mass term. Despite the strong theoretical prejudice toward this concept, it must be tested experimentally. This is indeed possible in the context of next generation experiments. Unfortunately, the scale of neutrino mass generation may be too large to explore directly, but useful information may still be extracted from independent experimental channels. Here I survey various model independent probes of Majorana neutrino mass origins. A brief introduction to the concepts relevant to the analysis is followed by a discussion of the physical ranges of neutrino mass and mixing parameters within the context of standard and non-standard interactions. Armed with this, I move on to systematically analyze the properties of radiatively generated neutrino masses induced by nonrenormalizable lepton number violating effective operators of mass dimensions five through eleven. By fitting these to the observed light mass scale, I extract predictions for neutrino mixing as well as neutrinoless double beta decay, rare meson/tau decays and collider phenomenology. I find that many such models are already constrained by current data and many more will be probed in the near future. I then move on demonstrate the utility of a low scale see saw mechanism via a viable 3+2+1 sterile neutrino model that satisfies all oscillation data as well as solves problems associated with supernova kicks and heavy element nucleosynthesis. From this I extract predictions for tritium and neutrinoless double beta decay searches. This is supplemented throughout by descriptions of practical limitations in addition to suggestions for future work.

Last modified

• 09/12/2018

Creator

• James Phearl Jenkins

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2N43X

Subject

• Physics and Astronomy

Keyword

• Mass Models
• Neutrino
• Majorana

Date created

• 2008-04-30

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright