Shedding light on neutrino masses with dark forces

Heavy right-handed neutrinos, N , provide the simplest explanation for the origin of light neutrino masses and mixings. If MN is at or below the weak scale, direct experimental discovery of these states is possible at accelerator experiments such as the LHC or new dedicated beam dump experiments; in these experiments, N decays after traversing a macroscopic distance from the collision point. The experimental sensitivity to right-handed neutrinos is significantly enhanced if there is a new “dark” gauge force connecting them to the Standard Model (SM), and detection of N can be the primary discovery mode for the new dark force itself. We take the well-motivated example of a B – L gauge symmetry and analyze the sensitivity to displaced decays of N produced via the new gauge interaction in two experiments: the LHC and the proposed SHiP beam dump experiment. In the most favorable case in which the mediator can be produced on-shell and decays to right handed neutrinos (pp → X + VB–L → X + N N ), the sensitivity reach is controlled by the square of the B – L gauge coupling. Here, we demonstrate that these experiments could access neutrino parameters responsible for the observedmore » SM neutrino masses and mixings in the most straightforward implementation of the see-saw mechanism.« less