Chiral perturbative relation for neutrino masses in the type-I seesaw mechanism

Abstract

In this letter, we perform a perturbative analysis by the lightest singular value $m_{D1}$ of the Dirac mass matrix $m_{D}$ in the type-I seesaw mechanism. A mass relation $M_{1} = m_{D1}^{2}/ |(m_{\nu})_{11}|$ is obtained for the lightest mass $M_{1}$ of the right-handed neutrino $\nu_{R1}$ and the mass matrix of the left-handed neutrinos $m_{\nu}$ in the diagonal basis of $m_{D}$. This relation is rather stable under renormalization because it is gauge-invariant in the SM and associates with the approximate chiral symmetry of $\nu_{R1}$. If diagonalization of the Yukawa matrices of leptons $Y_{\nu, e}$ has only small mixings, the element $(m_{\nu})_{11}$ is close to the effective mass $m_{ee}$ of the neutrinoless double beta decay. By assuming $m_{D1} \simeq m_{u,e} \simeq 0.5$ MeV, the lightest mass is about $M_{1} \gtrsim O(100)$ TeV in the normal hierarchy and $M_{1} \sim O(10)$ TeV in the inverted hierarchy. Such a $\nu_{R1}$ with a tiny Yukawa coupling $y_{\nu 1} \sim O(10^{-5})$ can indirectly influence various observations. On the other hand, the famous bound of the thermal leptogenesis $M_{1} \gtrsim 10^{9}$ GeV that requires $m_{D1} \gtrsim 30$ MeV seems to be difficult to reconcile with a simple unified theory without a special condition.