Neutrino Masses at v^{3/2}

Abstract

Theories in which neutrino masses are generated by a conventional see-saw mechanism generically yield masses which are O(v^2) in units where M_{Pl}=1, which is naively too small to explain the results from SuperKamiokande. In supersymmetric theories with gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking, the fundamental small parameter is not v/M_{Pl}, but m_I/M_{Pl}, where m_I is the scale of supersymmetry breaking in the hidden sector. We note that m_I^3/M_{Pl}^2 is only slightly too large to explain SuperKamiokande, and present two models that achieve neutrino masses at this order in m_I, one of which has an additional suppression lambda_tau^2, while the other has additional suppression arising from a loop factor. The latter model shares a great deal of phenomenology with a class of models previously explored, including the possibility of viable sneutrino dark matter.