====== Seesaw Models ====== Explanations in this section should contain no formulas, but instead colloquial things like you would hear them during a coffee break or at a cocktail party. Seesaw scenarios can be understood systematically by looking at the Weinberg operator. The Weinberg operator $\frac{1}{\Lambda} LL \phi \phi$ is a (non-renormalizable) dimension-5 operator that yields nonzero masses for the neutrinos. Since it is an dimension-5 operator, it is suppressed by some large mass scale $\Lambda$. The origin of the Weinberg operator can be understood in terms of concrete seesaw scenarios (UV-completions). There are three seesaw scenarios that yield the Weinberg operator in the low-energy limit when we integrate out all heavy fields and thus use an [[advanced_tools:effective_field_theory|effective field theory]] approach. In particular, we can distinguish different scenarios depending on how we understand the contractions of our $SU(2)_L$ multiplets: {{ :models:speculative_models:weinberg1.png?nolink |}} {{ :models:speculative_models:weinberg2.png?nolink |}} In terms of Feynman diagrams, the three scenarios can be understood as follows: {{ :models:speculative_models:weinberg3.png?nolink |}} Here, $N_R$ denotes a heavy right-handed ($SU(2)_L$ singlet) neutrino, $\Delta^0$ the neutral component of an $SU(2)_L$ scalar triplet and $\Sigma_R^0$, the neutral component of a fermionic $SU(2)_L$ triplet. A slightly different way of understanding the seesaw scenarios in terms of Feynman diagrams is ([[https://arxiv.org/pdf/0707.4058.pdf|source]]): {{ :models:speculative_models:weinber4.png?nolink |}} ---- Great reviews are: * [[https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.4058|Low energy effects of neutrino masses]] by A. Abada, C.Biggio, F. Bonnet, M.B. Gavela, T. Hambye * [[https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0210271|The Effective Lagrangian for the Seesaw Model of Neutrino Mass and Leptogenesis]] by A. Broncano, M.B. Gavela, E. Jenkins The motto in this section is: //the higher the level of abstraction, the better//. Seesaw models are extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics that aim to explain why neutrino masses are so tiny. /**/ /**/