Testing the see-saw mechanism at collider energies

Abstract

We propose a low energy extension of the Standard Model consisting of an additional gauged $U(1)_{B-L}$ plus three right-handed neutrinos. The lightest right-handed neutrinos have TeV scale masses and may be produced at colliders via their couplings to the $Z_{B-L}$ gauge boson whose mass and gauge coupling is constrained by the out-of-equilibrium condition leading to upper bounds on the right-handed neutrino and $Z_{B-L}$ production cross-sections at colliders. We propose a brane-world scenario which motivates such TeV mass right-handed neutrinos. Our analysis opens up the possibility that the mechanism responsible for neutrino mass is testable at colliders such as the LHC or VLHC.