Year: 1993
Type: article
Abstract: We study the phenomenology and cosmology of the Majoron (flavon) models of three active and one inert neutrino paying special attention to the possible (almost) conserved generalization of the Zeldovich-Konopinski-Mahmoud lepton charge. Using Planck scale physics effects which provide the breaking of the lepton charge, we show how in this picture one can incorporate the solutions to some of the central issues in neutrino physics such as the solar and atmospheric neutrino puzzles and the dark matter problem with the possible existence of a heavy (1-10 keV) neutrino. These gravitational effects induce tiny Majorana mass terms for neutrinos and considerable masses for flavons. The cosmological demand for the sufficiently fast decay of flavons implies a lower limit on the electron-neutrino mass in the range of 0.1-1 eV.
Language: English
Topic: Neutrino Physics Research
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2016632001