Shedding light on neutrino masses with dark forces

Heavy right-handed neutrinos, N , provide the simplest explanation for the origin of light neutrino masses and mixings. If M_N is at or below the weak scale, direct experimental discovery of these states is possible at accelerator experiments such as the LHC or new dedicated beam dump experiments; in these experiments, N decays after traversing a macroscopic distance from the collision point. The experimental sensitivity to right-handed neutrinos is significantly enhanced if there is a new “dark” gauge force connecting them to the Standard Model (SM), and detection of N can be the primary discovery mode for the new dark force itself. We take the well-motivated example of a B − L gauge symmetry and analyze the sensitivity to displaced decays of N produced via the new gauge interaction in two experiments: the LHC and the proposed SHiP beam dump experiment. In the most favorable case in which the mediator can be produced on-shell and decays to right handed neutrinos (pp → X + V_B−L → X + N N), the sensitivity reach is controlled by the square of the B − L gauge coupling. We demonstrate that these experiments could access neutrino parameters responsible for the observed SM neutrino masses and mixings in the most straightforward implementation of the see-saw mechanism.