Lepton-number violation (LNV), in general, implies nonzero Majorana masses for the Standard Model neutrinos. Since neutrino masses are very small, for generic candidate models of the physics responsible for LNV, the rates for almost all experimentally accessible LNV observables—except for neutrinoless double-beta decay—are expected to be exceedingly small. Guided by effective-operator considerations of LNV phenomena, we identify a complete family of models where lepton number is violated but the generated Majorana neutrino masses are tiny, even if the new-physics scale is below 1 TeV. We explore the phenomenology of these models, including charged-lepton flavor-violating phenomena and baryon-number-violating phenomena, identifying scenarios where the allowed rates for ${\mu }^{-}\to e^{+}$-conversion in nuclei are potentially accessible to next-generation experiments.

• Received 18 July 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.075033

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Published by the American Physical Society