Abstract
We explore scenarios where the R(D(∗)) anomalies arise from semitauonic decays to a right-handed sterile neutrino. We perform an EFT study of all five simplified models capable of generating at tree-level the lowest dimension electroweak operators that give rise to this decay. We analyze their compatibility with current R(D(∗)) data and other relevant hadronic branching ratios, and show that one simplified model is excluded by this analysis. The remainder are compatible with collider constraints on the mediator semileptonic branching ratios, provided the mediator mass is of order TeV. We also discuss the phenomenology of the sterile neutrino itself, which includes possibilities for displaced decays at colliders and direct searches, measurable dark radiation, and gamma ray signals.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
BaBar collaboration, Evidence for an excess of \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}{\tau}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } \) decays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 101802 [arXiv:1205.5442] [INSPIRE].
BaBar collaboration, Measurement of an Excess of \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}{\tau}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } \) Decays and Implications for Charged Higgs Bosons, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 072012 [arXiv:1303.0571] [INSPIRE].
Belle collaboration, Measurement of the branching ratio of \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}{\tau}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } \) relative to \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}{\ell}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\ell } \) decays with hadronic tagging at Belle, Phys. Rev. D 92 (2015) 072014 [arXiv:1507.03233] [INSPIRE].
Belle collaboration, Measurement of the branching ratio of \( {\overline{B}}^0\to {D}^{\ast }{\tau}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } \) relative to \( {\overline{B}}^0\to {D}^{\ast +}{\ell}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\ell } \) decays with a semileptonic tagging method, in proceedings of the 51st Rencontres de Moriond on Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy, 12-19 March 2016, arXiv:1603.06711 [INSPIRE].
Belle collaboration collaboration, Measurement of the τ lepton polarization in the decay \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\ast }{\tau}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\tau } \), arXiv:1608.06391 [INSPIRE].
LHCb collaboration, Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions \( \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({\overline{B}}^0\to {D}^{\ast +}{\tau}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\tau}\right)/\mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({\overline{B}}^0\to {D}^{\ast +}{\mu}^{-}{\overline{\nu}}_{\mu}\right) \), Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (2015) 111803 [Erratum ibid. 115 (2015) 159901] [arXiv:1506.08614] [INSPIRE].
HFLAV collaboration, Averages of b-hadron, c-hadron and τ -lepton properties as of summer 2016, Eur. Phys. J. C 77 (2017) 895 [arXiv:1612.07233] [INSPIRE].
F.U. Bernlochner, Z. Ligeti, M. Papucci and D.J. Robinson, Combined analysis of semileptonic B decays to D and D ∗ : R(D (∗)), |V cb| and new physics, Phys. Rev. D 95 (2017) 115008 [arXiv:1703.05330] [INSPIRE].
D. Bigi, P. Gambino and S. Schacht, R(D ∗), |V cb| and the Heavy Quark Symmetry relations between form factors, JHEP 11 (2017) 061 [arXiv:1707.09509] [INSPIRE].
S. Jaiswal, S. Nandi and S.K. Patra, Extraction of |V cb| from B → D (∗) ℓν ℓ and the Standard Model predictions of R(D (∗)), JHEP 12 (2017) 060 [arXiv:1707.09977] [INSPIRE].
A.K. Alok, D. Kumar, S. Kumbhakar and S.U. Sankar, D ∗ polarization as a probe to discriminate new physics in \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{*}\tau \overline{\nu} \), Phys. Rev. D 95 (2017) 115038 [arXiv:1606.03164] [INSPIRE].
S. Bhattacharya, S. Nandi and S.K. Patra, Looking for possible new physics in B → D (∗) τ ν τ in light of recent data, Phys. Rev. D 95 (2017) 075012 [arXiv:1611.04605] [INSPIRE].
D.A. Faroughy, A. Greljo and J.F. Kamenik, Confronting lepton flavor universality violation in B decays with high-p T tau lepton searches at LHC, Phys. Lett. B 764 (2017) 126 [arXiv:1609.07138] [INSPIRE].
F. Feruglio, P. Paradisi and A. Pattori, Revisiting Lepton Flavor Universality in B Decays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 (2017) 011801 [arXiv:1606.00524] [INSPIRE].
F. Feruglio, P. Paradisi and A. Pattori, On the Importance of Electroweak Corrections for B Anomalies, JHEP 09 (2017) 061 [arXiv:1705.00929] [INSPIRE].
P. Asadi, M.R. Buckley and D. Shih, It’s all right(-handed neutrinos): a new W ′ model for the \( {R}_{D^{\left(\ast \right)}} \) anomaly, JHEP 09 (2018) 010 [arXiv:1804.04135] [INSPIRE].
A. Greljo, D.J. Robinson, B. Shakya and J. Zupan, R(D (∗)) from W ′ and right-handed neutrinos, JHEP 09 (2018) 169 [arXiv:1804.04642] [INSPIRE].
X.-G. He and G. Valencia, B decays with τ leptons in nonuniversal left-right models, Phys. Rev. D 87 (2013) 014014 [arXiv:1211.0348] [INSPIRE].
X.-G. He and G. Valencia, Lepton universality violation and right-handed currents in b→cτν, Phys. Lett. B 779 (2018) 52 [arXiv:1711.09525] [INSPIRE].
S. Fajfer, J.F. Kamenik, I. Nisandzic and J. Zupan, Implications of Lepton Flavor Universality Violations in B Decays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 161801 [arXiv:1206.1872] [INSPIRE].
D. Bečirević, S. Fajfer, N. Košnik and O. Sumensari, Leptoquark model to explain the B-physics anomalies, R K and R D, Phys. Rev. D 94 (2016) 115021 [arXiv:1608.08501] [INSPIRE].
G. Cvetič, F. Halzen, C.S. Kim and S. Oh, Anomalies in (semi)-leptonic B decays B ± → τ ± ν, B ± → Dτ ± ν and B ± → D ∗ τ ± ν and possible resolution with sterile neutrino, Chin. Phys. C 41 (2017) 113102 [arXiv:1702.04335] [INSPIRE].
X.-Q. Li, Y.-D. Yang and X. Zhang, Revisiting the one leptoquark solution to the R(D (∗)) anomalies and its phenomenological implications, JHEP 08 (2016) 054 [arXiv:1605.09308] [INSPIRE].
R. Alonso, B. Grinstein and J. Martin Camalich, Lifetime of B _c Constrains Explanations for Anomalies in B → D (∗) τ ν, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118 (2017) 081802 [arXiv:1611.06676] [INSPIRE].
A. Celis, M. Jung, X.-Q. Li and A. Pich, Scalar contributions to b → c(u)τ ν transitions, Phys. Lett. B 771 (2017) 168 [arXiv:1612.07757] [INSPIRE].
G. Buchalla, A.J. Buras and M.E. Lautenbacher, Weak decays beyond leading logarithms, Rev. Mod. Phys. 68 (1996) 1125 [hep-ph/9512380] [INSPIRE].
M. Freytsis, Z. Ligeti and J.T. Ruderman, Flavor models for \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}\tau \overline{\nu} \), Phys. Rev. D 92 (2015) 054018 [arXiv:1506.08896] [INSPIRE].
I. Doršner, S. Fajfer, N. Košnik and I. Nišandžić, Minimally flavored colored scalar in \( \overline{B}\to {D}^{\left(\ast \right)}\tau \overline{\nu} \) and the mass matrices constraints, JHEP 11 (2013) 084 [arXiv:1306.6493] [INSPIRE].
I. Doršner, S. Fajfer, A. Greljo, J.F. Kamenik and N. Košnik, Physics of leptoquarks in precision experiments and at particle colliders, Phys. Rept. 641 (2016) 1 [arXiv:1603.04993] [INSPIRE].
Z. Ligeti, M. Papucci and D.J. Robinson, New Physics in the Visible Final States of B→D (∗) τν, JHEP 01 (2017) 083 [arXiv:1610.02045] [INSPIRE].
HPQCD collaboration, B-meson decay constants: a more complete picture from full lattice QCD, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 114509 [arXiv:1503.05762] [INSPIRE].
Particle Data Group collaboration, Review of Particle Physics, Chin. Phys. C 40 (2016) 100001 [INSPIRE].
J.F. Kamenik and C. Smith, Tree-level contributions to the rare decays \( {B}^{+}\to {\pi}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu},\ {B}^{+}\to {K}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu} \) , and \( {B}^{+}\to {K}^{\ast +}\nu \overline{\nu} \) in the Standard Model, Phys. Lett. B 680 (2009) 471 [arXiv:0908.1174] [INSPIRE].
J.F. Kamenik and C. Smith, FCNC portals to the dark sector, JHEP 03 (2012) 090 [arXiv:1111.6402] [INSPIRE].
Particle Data Group collaboration, Review of Particle Physics, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 030001 [INSPIRE].
A.J. Buras, J. Girrbach-Noe, C. Niehoff and D.M. Straub, \( B\to {K}^{\left(\ast \right)}\nu \overline{\nu} \) decays in the Standard Model and beyond, JHEP 02 (2015) 184 [arXiv:1409.4557] [INSPIRE].
F. Bernlochner, S. Duell, Z. Ligeti, M. Papucci and D.J. Robinson, Hammer: Helicity amplitude module for matrix element reweighting, in preparation (2018).
ATLAS collaboration, Search for High-Mass Resonances Decaying to τ ν in pp Collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV with the ATLAS Detector, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 (2018) 161802 [arXiv:1801.06992] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for a W ′ boson decaying to a τ lepton and a neutrino in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV, submitted to Phys. Lett. (2018), arXiv:1807.11421 [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for heavy gauge W ′ boson in events with an energetic lepton and large missing transverse momentum at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV, Phys. Lett. B 770 (2017) 278 [arXiv:1612.09274] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for W ′ decaying to tau lepton and neutrino in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV, CMS-PAS-EXO-16-006 (2016) [INSPIRE].
L. Di Luzio and M. Nardecchia, What is the scale of new physics behind the B-flavour anomalies?, Eur. Phys. J. C 77 (2017) 536 [arXiv:1706.01868] [INSPIRE].
A. Greljo, J. Martin Camalich and J.D. Ruiz- Álvarez, The Mono-Tau Menace: From B Decays to High-p T Tails, arXiv:1811.07920 [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for low mass vector resonances decaying into quark-antiquark pairs in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV, JHEP 01 (2018) 097 [arXiv:1710.00159] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for narrow resonances in dijet final states at \( \sqrt{s}=8 \) TeV with the novel CMS technique of data scouting, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 (2016) 031802 [arXiv:1604.08907] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for dijet resonances in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV and constraints on dark matter and other models, Phys. Lett. B 769 (2017) 520 [Corrigendum ibid. B 772 (2017) 882] [arXiv:1611.03568] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for New Physics in Dijet Mass and Angular Distributions in pp Collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=7 \) TeV Measured with the ATLAS Detector, New J. Phys. 13 (2011) 053044 [arXiv:1103.3864] [INSPIRE].
CDF collaboration, Search for new particles decaying to dijets at CDF, Phys. Rev. D 55 (1997) R5263 [hep-ex/9702004] [INSPIRE].
S. Knapen and D.J. Robinson, Disentangling Mass and Mixing Hierarchies, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (2015) 161803 [arXiv:1507.00009] [INSPIRE].
I. Doršner and A. Greljo, Leptoquark toolbox for precision collider studies, JHEP 05 (2018) 126 [arXiv:1801.07641] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Constraints on models of scalar and vector leptoquarks decaying to a quark and a neutrino at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV, CMS-PAS-SUS-18-001 (2018) [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for third-generation scalar leptoquarks and heavy right-handed neutrinos in final states with two tau leptons and two jets in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV, JHEP 07 (2017) 121 [arXiv:1703.03995] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model Higgs bosons H/A and for a Z ′ boson in the τ τ final state produced in pp collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV with the ATLAS Detector, Eur. Phys. J. C 76 (2016) 585 [arXiv:1608.00890] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for additional heavy neutral Higgs and gauge bosons in the ditau final state produced in 36 fb −1 of pp collisions at \( \sqrt{s}=13 \) TeV with the ATLAS detector, JHEP 01 (2018) 055 [arXiv:1709.07242] [INSPIRE].
T. Mandal, S. Mitra and S. Raz, \( {R}_{D^{\left(\ast \right)}} \) in minimal leptoquark scenarios: impact of interference on the exclusion limits from LHC data, arXiv:1811.03561 [INSPIRE].
L. Lavoura, General formulae for f 1 → f 2 γ, Eur. Phys. J. C 29 (2003) 191 [hep-ph/0302221] [INSPIRE].
G.-G. Wong, New gauge bosons in an asymmetric left-right model, Phys. Rev. D 46 (1992) 3987 [INSPIRE].
F. Bezrukov, H. Hettmansperger and M. Lindner, keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter in gauge extensions of the Standard Model, Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 085032 [arXiv:0912.4415] [INSPIRE].
A. Aparici, J. Herrero-Garcia, N. Rius and A. Santamaria, On the Nature of the Fourth Generation Neutrino and its Implications, JHEP 07 (2012) 030 [arXiv:1204.1021] [INSPIRE].
S. Dodelson and L.M. Widrow, Sterile-neutrinos as dark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72 (1994) 17 [hep-ph/9303287] [INSPIRE].
X.-D. Shi and G.M. Fuller, A New dark matter candidate: Nonthermal sterile neutrinos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82 (1999) 2832 [astro-ph/9810076] [INSPIRE].
B. Shakya, Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter from Freeze-In, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 31 (2016) 1630005 [arXiv:1512.02751] [INSPIRE].
B. Shakya and J.D. Wells, Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter with Supersymmetry, Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) 031702 [arXiv:1611.01517] [INSPIRE].
S.B. Roland, B. Shakya and J.D. Wells, Neutrino Masses and Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter from the PeV Scale, Phys. Rev. D 92 (2015) 113009 [arXiv:1412.4791] [INSPIRE].
B. Shakya and J.D. Wells, Exotic Sterile Neutrinos and Pseudo-Goldstone Phenomenology, arXiv:1801.02640 [INSPIRE].
R.J. Scherrer and M.S. Turner, Decaying Particles Do Not Heat Up the Universe, Phys. Rev. D 31 (1985) 681 [INSPIRE].
T. Asaka, M. Shaposhnikov and A. Kusenko, Opening a new window for warm dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 638 (2006) 401 [hep-ph/0602150] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, E. Kuflik, S.D. McDermott, T. Volansky and K.M. Zurek, Constraining Light Dark Matter with Diffuse X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Observations, JHEP 11 (2013) 193 [arXiv:1309.4091] [INSPIRE].
CMB-S4 collaboration, CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition, arXiv:1610.02743 [INSPIRE].
SHiP collaboration, A facility to Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) at the CERN SPS, arXiv:1504.04956 [INSPIRE].
J.P. Chou, D. Curtin and H.J. Lubatti, New Detectors to Explore the Lifetime Frontier, Phys. Lett. B 767 (2017) 29 [arXiv:1606.06298] [INSPIRE].
J.L. Feng, I. Galon, F. Kling and S. Trojanowski, ForwArd Search ExpeRiment at the LHC, Phys. Rev. D 97 (2018) 035001 [arXiv:1708.09389] [INSPIRE].
V.V. Gligorov, S. Knapen, M. Papucci and D.J. Robinson, Searching for Long-lived Particles: A Compact Detector for Exotics at LHCb, Phys. Rev. D 97 (2018) 015023 [arXiv:1708.09395] [INSPIRE].
M. Drewes and B. Garbrecht, Combining experimental and cosmological constraints on heavy neutrinos, Nucl. Phys. B 921 (2017) 250 [arXiv:1502.00477] [INSPIRE].
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 1807.04753
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Robinson, D., Shakya, B. & Zupan, J. Right-handed neutrinos and R(D(∗)). J. High Energ. Phys. 2019, 119 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2019)119
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2019)119