Neutrino Mass Models in Extra Dimensions

Abstract

Neutrinos play a crucial role in many areas of physics from very short distances to astrophysics and cosmology. It is a long held believe that they are good probes of physics at the GUT scale. Recent developments have made it clear that they can also be of fundamental importance for the physics of extra dimensions if these exist. Here we pedagogically review the construction of neutrino mass models in extra dimensions within the brane world scenarios. These models are usually nontrivial generalizations of their four dimensional counterparts. We describe the theoretical tools that have been forged and the new perpectives gained in this rapidly developing area. In particular we discuss the issues involve in building models without the use of right-handed singlets. It is very difficult to directly test the origin of neutrino masses in different models be it in four or more dimensions. We point out that different models give very different indirect signatures in the TeV region and in precision measurements.