Neutrino Phenomenology and Dark matter in an $A_4$ flavour extended B-L model

Abstract

We present an $A_4$ flavor extended $\rm B-L$ model for realization of eV scale sterile neutrinos, motivated by the recent experimental hints from both particle physics and cosmology. The framework considered here is a gauged $\rm B-L$ extension of standard model without the introduction of right-handed neutrinos, where the gauge triangle anomalies are canceled with the inclusion of three exotic neutral fermions $N_{i}$ ($i=1,2,3$) with $\rm B-L$ charges $-4,-4$ and $5$. The usual Dirac Yukawa couplings between the SM neutrinos and the exotic fermions are absent and thus, the model allows natural realization of eV scale sterile-like neutrino and its mixing with standard model neutrinos by invoking $\rm A_4$ flavor symmetry. We demonstrate how the exact tri-bimaximal mixing pattern is perturbed due to active-sterile mixing by analyzing $1+3$ case in detail. We also show the implication of eV scale sterile-like neutrino on various observables in neutrino oscillation experiments and the effective mass in neutrinoless double beta decay. Another interesting feature of the model is that one of three exotic fermions is required to explain eV scale phenomena, while other two fermions form stable dark matter candidates and their total relic density satisfy the observed $3\sigma$ limit of Planck data. We constrain the gauge parameters associated with $U(1)$ gauge extension, using relic density and collider bounds.