https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-008-0760-x
Letter
Neutrinos, axions and conformal symmetry
1
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw, Hoża 69, 00-681, Warsaw, Poland
2
Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Mühlenberg 1, 14476, Potsdam, Germany
* e-mail: hermann.nicolai@aei.mpg.de
Received:
20
May
2008
Revised:
4
September
2008
Published online:
22
October
2008
We demonstrate that radiative breaking of conformal symmetry (and simultaneously electroweak symmetry) in the standard model with right-chiral neutrinos and a minimally enlarged scalar sector induces spontaneous breaking of lepton number symmetry, which naturally gives rise to an axion-like particle with some unusual features. The couplings of this ‘axion’ to standard model particles, in particular photons and gluons, are entirely determined (and computable) via the conformal anomaly, and their smallness turns out to be directly related to the smallness of the masses of the light neutrinos.
© Springer-Verlag , 2008
