Alternatives to the seesaw mechanism

Abstract

The observed pattern of lepton mixing does not give an evidence of the seesaw. It is easier to disprove seesaw showing that one of the alternatives gives dominant contribution to the neutrino mass. We consider alternative mechanisms based on (i) small (tree level) effective couplings, (ii) small VEV, (iii) radiative generation of masses, (iv) protection by SUSY breaking scale or by $μ$-term, (v) small overlap of wave functions of the left and right handed neutrino components in extra dimensions. Seesaw can be the mechanism of suppression of the Dirac mass terms and not dominant mechanism of the neutrino mass giving just a sub-leading contribution.