Predictive one-zero with vanishing sub-trace texture in neutrino mass matrix in light of dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay

Abstract

In this work, we investigate a predictive class of neutrino mass matrices characterized by one texture zero and one vanishing sub-trace within the framework of the scotogenic model, wherein neutrino masses, dark matter, and neutrinoless double beta decay are intrinsically correlated. We analyze twelve viable texture structures -- namely $B_{1,4,5}$, $C_{1,2,\ldots,5}$, $D_{4,5}$, and $F_{5,6}$ -- and examine their implications for the effective Majorana mass $(|M_{ee}|)$ governing neutrinoless double beta decay $(0\nu\beta\beta)$. Remarkably, all non-zero entries of the neutrino mass matrix can be parametrized in terms of this effective Majorana mass, establishing a direct theoretical link between low-energy observables and high-scale parameters of the model. Among the twelve textures, eleven predict dark matter masses of order TeV and yield correlated bounds on $|M_{ee}|$ -- making them testable in current and forthcoming $0\nu\beta\beta$ experiments -- while the textures $D_4$ and $F_{5,6}$ exhibit comparatively weaker correlations. In contrast, the texture $C_5$ is excluded due to its requirement of unrealistically large Yukawa couplings and its inability to realize dark matter in the TeV regime. Our analysis thus identifies a subset of predictive neutrino mass textures that consistently relate dark matter phenomenology and neutrinoless double beta decay observables within the scotogenic paradigm.