Speaker
Description
Speaker: Anil Thapa
Abstract: Neutrino interactions with dark matter provide a promising window into physics beyond the Standard Model. In this talk, I will present a general effective field theory framework for studying neutrino–dark matter interactions and use it to identify simple UV models that can generate sizable effects. I will first describe the low-energy operator basis for neutrino–dark matter scattering and show how these operators can be embedded in a gauge-invariant SMEFT. I will then explain how renormalizable tree-level UV completions can be systematically classified up to dimension-eight operators using a topology-based approach.
The main goal is to find minimal models in which neutrino–dark matter interactions can be much larger than the weak interaction strength while remaining consistent with existing theoretical and experimental constraints, especially those from neutrino masses and charged-lepton observables. I will discuss examples involving pseudo-Dirac fermion dark matter in the scotogenic model, as well as Majorana dark matter models motivated by type-II and inverse-seesaw neutrino mass mechanisms.