Collider signatures of sterile neutrinos in models with a gauge-singlet Higgs

Understand

Sterile neutrinos have been invoked to explain the observed neutrino masses, but they can also have significant implications for cosmology and accelerator experiments.

• We explore the collider signatures of a simple extension of the Standard Model, where sterile neutrinos acquire their mass after electroweak symmetry breaking, via their coupling to a real singlet Higgs.
• In this model, heavy sterile neutrinos can be produced in accelerators from decays of the Higgs bosons.
• Their own decay can yield distinct signals, suggesting both the presence of an extended Higgs sector and the coupling of the singlet fermions to the latter.