Speaker
Description
It is well known in the literature that the "Scotogenic" model explains dark-matter (DM) along with neutrino mass generation in a very simple and elegant way. However, it needs an 'ad-hoc' $Z_2$ symmetry to explain DM and also does not shed any light on the neutrino flavor sector, for which typically another "flavor symmetry" needs to be added to the model. Furthermore, neither the dark symmetry nor the flavor symmetry shed any light on the existence of two different mass square scales in neutrino oscillation data. In this talk, we will show how the scotogenic dark symmetry and scoto-seesaw mass mechanism can naturally arise from the $A_4$ flavor symmetry. It will be discussed that the breaking of the flavor $A_4$ symmetry to its $Z_2$ sub-group automatically leads to a hybrid mass mechanism where neutrinos get mass from a combination of seesaw and loop mechanism. In addition, the unbroken $Z_2$ sub-group plays the role of the scotogenic dark symmetry. We will show that the model successfully explains the dark matter phenomenology. Finally, we will analyze the potential of testing the model for neutrino oscillations as well as at $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay experiments.
