Accessible Lepton-Number-Violating Models and Negligible Neutrino Masses

Understand

Lepton-number violation (LNV), in general, implies nonzero Majorana masses for the Standard Model neutrinos.

• Since neutrino masses are very small, for generic candidate models of the physics responsible for LNV, the rates for almost all experimentally accessible LNV observables -- except for neutrinoless double-beta decay -- are expected to be exceedingly small.
• Guided by effective-operator considerations of LNV phenomena, we identify a complete family of models where lepton number is violated but the generated Majorana neutrino masses are tiny, even if the new-physics scale is below 1 TeV.
• We explore the phenomenology of these models, including charged-lepton flavor-violating phenomena and baryon-number-violating phenomena, identifying scenarios where the allowed rates for $\mu^-\to e^+$-conversion in nuclei are potentially accessible to next-generation experiments.