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  • Open Access

Right-handed neutrino masses from the electroweak scale

Brian Batell*, Amit Bhoonah†, and Wenjie Huang‡

  • Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

  • *Contact author: batell@pitt.edu
  • †Contact author: amit.bhoonah@pitt.edu
  • ‡Contact author: weh68@pitt.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 035016 – Published 17 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dx1b-c9vc

Abstract

Heavy right-handed neutrinos are highly motivated due to their connection with the origin of neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism. If the right-handed neutrino Majorana mass is at or below the weak scale, direct experimental discovery of these states is possible in laboratory experiments. However, there is no a priori basis to expect right-handed neutrinos to be so light since the Majorana mass is a technically natural parameter and could comfortably reside at any scale, including at scales far above the weak scale. Here we explore the possibility that the right-handed neutrino Majorana mass originates from electroweak symmetry breaking. Working within an effective theory with two Higgs doublets, a nonzero lepton number is assigned to the bilinear operator built from the two Higgs fields, which is then coupled to the right-handed neutrino mass operator. In tandem with the neutrino Yukawa coupling, following electroweak symmetry breaking a seesaw mechanism operates, generating the light Standard Model neutrino masses along with right-handed neutrinos with masses below the electroweak scale. This scenario leads to novel phenomenology in the Higgs sector, which may be probed at the LHC and at future colliders. There are also interesting prospects for neutrinoless double beta decay and lepton flavor violation. We also explore some theoretical aspects of the scenario, including the technical naturalness of the effective field theory and ultraviolet completions of the right-handed neutrino Majorana mass.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 035016– Published 17 February, 2026
  • Received 23 April 2025
  • Accepted 14 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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