Neutrinos, axions and conformal symmetry

Abstract

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. © 2008 Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica.