- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Minimal sterile neutrino dark matter

Torsten Bringmann1,2,*, Paul Frederik Depta3,†, Marco Hufnagel4,‡, Jörn Kersten5,6,§, Joshua T. Ruderman7,∥, and Kai Schmidt-Hoberg8,¶

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Box 1048, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
  • 2Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  • 3Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
  • 4Service de Physique Théorique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, CP225, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
  • 5Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul 02455, Republic of Korea
  • 6Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway
  • 7Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
  • 8Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany

  • *torsten.bringmann@fys.uio.no
  • †frederik.depta@mpi-hd.mpg.de
  • ‡marco.hufnagel@ulb.be
  • §joern.kersten@uib.no
  • ∥ruderman@nyu.edu
  • kai.schmidt-hoberg@desy.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 107, L071702 – Published 24 April, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.L071702

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism to generate sterile neutrinos νs in the early Universe, by converting ordinary neutrinos να in scattering processes νsνα→νsνs. After initial production by oscillations, this leads to an exponential growth in the νs abundance. We show that such a production regime naturally occurs for self-interacting νs, and that this opens up significant new parameter space where νs make up all of the observed dark matter. Our results provide strong motivation to further push the sensitivity of X-ray line searches, and to improve on constraints from structure formation.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (91)

  1. P. Minkowski, μ→eγ at a rate of one out of 109 muon decays?, Phys. Lett. B 67, 421 (1977).
  2. T. Yanagida, Horizontal gauge symmetry and masses of neutrinos, in Proceedings of the Workshop on the Unified Theory and the Baryon Number in the Universe, edited by O. Sawada and A. Sugamoto (KEK, Tsukuba, Japan, 1979), p. 95.
  3. S. L. Glashow, The future of elementary particle physics, in Proceedings of the 1979 Cargèse Summer Institute on Quarks and Leptons, edited by M. Lévy, J.-L. Basdevant, D. Speiser, J. Weyers, R. Gastmans, and M. Jacob (Plenum Press, New York, 1980), pp. 687–713.
  4. M. Gell-Mann, P. Ramond, and R. Slansky, Complex spinors and unified theories, in Supergravity, edited by P. van Nieuwenhuizen and D. Z. Freedman (North Holland, Amsterdam, 1979), p. 315.
  5. R. N. Mohapatra and G. Senjanović, Neutrino Mass and Spontaneous Parity Nonconservation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 44, 912 (1980).
  6. M. Sajjad Athar et al., Status and perspectives of neutrino physics, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 124, 103947 (2022).
  7. A. Boyarsky, M. Drewes, T. Lasserre, S. Mertens, and O. Ruchayskiy, Sterile neutrino dark matter, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 104, 1 (2019).
  8. K. Abazajian, G. M. Fuller, and W. H. Tucker, Direct detection of warm dark matter in the x-ray, Astrophys. J. 562, 593 (2001).
  9. K. N. Abazajian et al., Synergy between cosmological and laboratory searches in neutrino physics: A white paper, arXiv:2203.07377.
  10. E. Bulbul, M. Markevitch, A. Foster, R. K. Smith, M. Loewenstein, and S. W. Randall, Detection of an unidentified emission line in the stacked x-ray spectrum of galaxy clusters, Astrophys. J. 789, 13 (2014).
  11. A. Boyarsky, O. Ruchayskiy, D. Iakubovskyi, and J. Franse, Unidentified Line in X-Ray Spectra of the Andromeda Galaxy and Perseus Galaxy Cluster, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 251301 (2014).
  12. S. Dodelson and L. M. Widrow, Sterile-Neutrinos as Dark Matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 17 (1994).
  13. K. N. Abazajian, Sterile neutrinos in cosmology, Phys. Rep. 711–712, 1 (2017).
  14. X. Shi and G. M. Fuller, New Dark Matter Candidate: Nonthermal Sterile Neutrinos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2832 (1999).
  15. M. Shaposhnikov and I. Tkachev, The nuMSM, inflation, and dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 639, 414 (2006).
  16. A. Kusenko, Sterile Neutrinos, Dark Matter, and the Pulsar Velocities in Models with a Higgs Singlet, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 241301 (2006).
  17. K. Petraki and A. Kusenko, Dark-matter sterile neutrinos in models with a gauge singlet in the Higgs sector, Phys. Rev. D 77, 065014 (2008).
  18. S. B. Roland, B. Shakya, and J. D. Wells, Neutrino masses and sterile neutrino dark matter from the PeV scale, Phys. Rev. D 92, 113009 (2015).
  19. A. Merle and M. Totzauer, keV sterile neutrino dark matter from singlet scalar decays: Basic concepts and subtle features, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2015) 011.
  20. J. König, A. Merle, and M. Totzauer, keV sterile neutrino dark matter from singlet scalar decays: The most general case, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2016) 038.
  21. F. Bezrukov, H. Hettmansperger, and M. Lindner, keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter in gauge extensions of the Standard Model, Phys. Rev. D 81, 085032 (2010).
  22. A. Kusenko, F. Takahashi, and T. T. Yanagida, Dark matter from split seesaw, Phys. Lett. B 693, 144 (2010).
  23. J. A. Dror, D. Dunsky, L. J. Hall, and K. Harigaya, Sterile neutrino dark matter in left-right theories, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2020) 168.
  24. A. De Gouvêa, M. Sen, W. Tangarife, and Y. Zhang, Dodelson-Widrow Mechanism in the Presence of Self-Interacting Neutrinos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 081802 (2020).
  25. K. J. Kelly, M. Sen, W. Tangarife, and Y. Zhang, Origin of sterile neutrino dark matter via secret neutrino interactions with vector bosons, Phys. Rev. D 101, 115031 (2020).
  26. C. Chichiri, G. B. Gelmini, P. Lu, and V. Takhistov, Cosmological dependence of sterile neutrino dark matter with self-interacting neutrinos, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 09 (2022) 036.
  27. C. Benso, W. Rodejohann, M. Sen, and A. U. Ramachandran, Sterile neutrino dark matter production in presence of nonstandard neutrino self-interactions: An EFT approach, Phys. Rev. D 105, 055016 (2022).
  28. R. S. L. Hansen and S. Vogl, Thermalizing Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 251305 (2017).
  29. T. Bringmann, P. F. Depta, M. Hufnagel, J. T. Ruderman, and K. Schmidt-Hoberg, Dark Matter from Exponential Growth, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 191802 (2021).
  30. A. Hryczuk and M. Laletin, Dark matter freeze-in from semi-production, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2021) 026.
  31. L. J. Hall, K. Jedamzik, J. March-Russell, and S. M. West, Freeze-in production of FIMP dark matter, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2010) 080.
  32. M. Pospelov, A. Ritz, and M. B. Voloshin, Secluded WIMP dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 662, 53 (2008).
  33. J. L. Feng, H. Tu, and H.-B. Yu, Thermal relics in hidden sectors, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2008) 043.
  34. M. Pospelov, Secluded U(1) below the weak scale, Phys. Rev. D 80, 095002 (2009).
  35. C. Cheung, G. Elor, L. J. Hall, and P. Kumar, Origins of hidden sector dark matter I: Cosmology, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2011) 042.
  36. S. Hannestad, R. S. Hansen, and T. Tram, How Self-Interactions can Reconcile Sterile Neutrinos with Cosmology, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 031802 (2014).
  37. B. Dasgupta and J. Kopp, Cosmologically Safe eV-Scale Sterile Neutrinos and Improved Dark Matter Structure, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 031803 (2014).
  38. T. Bringmann, J. Hasenkamp, and J. Kersten, Tight bonds between sterile neutrinos and dark matter, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2014) 042.
  39. P. Ko and Y. Tang, νΛMDM: A model for sterile neutrino and dark matter reconciles cosmological and neutrino oscillation data after BICEP2, Phys. Lett. B 739, 62 (2014).
  40. M. Archidiacono, S. Hannestad, R. S. Hansen, and T. Tram, Cosmology with self-interacting sterile neutrinos and dark matter—A pseudoscalar model, Phys. Rev. D 91, 065021 (2015).
  41. A. Mirizzi, G. Mangano, O. Pisanti, and N. Saviano, Collisional production of sterile neutrinos via secret interactions and cosmological implications, Phys. Rev. D 91, 025019 (2015).
  42. Y. Tang, More is different: Reconciling eV sterile neutrinos with cosmological mass bounds, Phys. Lett. B 750, 201 (2015).
  43. N. Saviano, O. Pisanti, G. Mangano, and A. Mirizzi, Unveiling secret interactions among sterile neutrinos with big-bang nucleosynthesis, Phys. Rev. D 90, 113009 (2014).
  44. C. Kouvaris, I. M. Shoemaker, and K. Tuominen, Self-interacting dark matter through the Higgs portal, Phys. Rev. D 91, 043519 (2015).
  45. X. Chu, B. Dasgupta, and J. Kopp, Sterile neutrinos with secret interactions—lasting friendship with cosmology, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2015) 011.
  46. M. Archidiacono, S. Hannestad, R. S. Hansen, and T. Tram, Sterile neutrinos with pseudoscalar self-interactions and cosmology, Phys. Rev. D 93, 045004 (2016).
  47. Z. Tabrizi and O. L. G. Peres, Hidden interactions of sterile neutrinos as a probe for new physics, Phys. Rev. D 93, 053003 (2016).
  48. T. Binder, L. Covi, A. Kamada, H. Murayama, T. Takahashi, and N. Yoshida, Matter power spectrum in hidden neutrino interacting dark matter models: A closer look at the collision term, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2016) 043.
  49. M. Archidiacono, S. Gariazzo, C. Giunti, S. Hannestad, R. Hansen, M. Laveder, and T. Tram, Pseudoscalar—sterile neutrino interactions: Reconciling the cosmos with neutrino oscillations, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 08 (2016) 067.
  50. F. Forastieri, M. Lattanzi, G. Mangano, A. Mirizzi, P. Natoli, and N. Saviano, Cosmic microwave background constraints on secret interactions among sterile neutrinos, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2017) 038.
  51. F. Bezrukov, A. Chudaykin, and D. Gorbunov, Hiding an elephant: Heavy sterile neutrino with large mixing angle does not contradict cosmology, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2017) 051.
  52. Y. S. Jeong, S. Palomares-Ruiz, M. H. Reno, and I. Sarcevic, Probing secret interactions of eV-scale sterile neutrinos with the diffuse supernova neutrino background, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2018) 019.
  53. N. Song, M. C. Gonzalez-Garcia, and J. Salvado, Cosmological constraints with self-interacting sterile neutrinos, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2018) 055.
  54. X. Chu, B. Dasgupta, M. Dentler, J. Kopp, and N. Saviano, Sterile neutrinos with secret interactions—cosmological discord?, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2018) 049.
  55. M. Blennow, E. Fernandez-Martinez, A. Olivares-Del Campo, S. Pascoli, S. Rosauro-Alcaraz, and A. V. Titov, Neutrino portals to dark matter, Eur. Phys. J. C 79, 555 (2019).
  56. P. Ballett, M. Hostert, and S. Pascoli, Dark neutrinos and a three portal connection to the Standard Model, Phys. Rev. D 101, 115025 (2020).
  57. L. Johns and G. M. Fuller, Self-interacting sterile neutrino dark matter: The heavy-mediator case, Phys. Rev. D 100, 023533 (2019).
  58. C. A. de S. Pires, A cosmologically viable eV sterile neutrino model, Phys. Lett. B 800, 135135 (2020).
  59. M. Archidiacono, S. Gariazzo, C. Giunti, S. Hannestad, and T. Tram, Sterile neutrino self-interactions: H0 tension and short-baseline anomalies, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 12 (2020) 029.
  60. M. Berbig, S. Jana, and A. Trautner, The Hubble tension and a renormalizable model of gauged neutrino self-interactions, Phys. Rev. D 102, 115008 (2020).
  61. M. A. Corona, R. Murgia, M. Cadeddu, M. Archidiacono, S. Gariazzo, C. Giunti, and S. Hannestad, Pseudoscalar sterile neutrino self-interactions in light of Planck, SPT and ACT data, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2022) 010.
  62. T. Asaka, M. Laine, and M. Shaposhnikov, Lightest sterile neutrino abundance within the nuMSM, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2007) 091; 02 (2015) 028.
  63. T. Bringmann, P. F. Depta, M. Hufnagel, and K. Schmidt-Hoberg, Precise dark matter relic abundance in decoupled sectors, Phys. Lett. B 817, 136341 (2021).
  64. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.L071702 for more technical details and additional plots relevant to our setup.
  65. N. Aghanim et al. (Planck Collaboration), Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters, Astron. Astrophys. 641, A6 (2020); 652, C4(E) (2021).
  66. C. Mondino, M. Pospelov, J. T. Ruderman, and O. Slone, Dark Higgs dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 103, 035027 (2021).
  67. J. March-Russell, H. Tillim, and S. M. West, Reproductive freeze-in of self-interacting dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 102, 083018 (2020).
  68. S. Horiuchi, P. J. Humphrey, J. Onorbe, K. N. Abazajian, M. Kaplinghat, and S. Garrison-Kimmel, Sterile neutrino dark matter bounds from galaxies of the local group, Phys. Rev. D 89, 025017 (2014).
  69. D. Malyshev, A. Neronov, and D. Eckert, Constraints on 3.55 keV line emission from stacked observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, Phys. Rev. D 90, 103506 (2014).
  70. J. W. Foster, M. Kongsore, C. Dessert, Y. Park, N. L. Rodd, K. Cranmer, and B. R. Safdi, Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 051101 (2021).
  71. D. Sicilian, N. Cappelluti, E. Bulbul, F. Civano, M. Moscetti, and C. S. Reynolds, Probing the Milky Way’s dark matter halo for the 3.5 keV line, Astrophys. J. 905, 146 (2020).
  72. B. M. Roach, K. C. Y. Ng, K. Perez, J. F. Beacom, S. Horiuchi, R. Krivonos, and D. R. Wik, NuSTAR tests of sterile-neutrino dark matter: New galactic bulge observations and combined impact, Phys. Rev. D 101, 103011 (2020).
  73. A. Boyarsky, D. Malyshev, A. Neronov, and O. Ruchayskiy, Constraining DM properties with SPI, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 387, 1345 (2008).
  74. A. Dekker, E. Peerbooms, F. Zimmer, K. C. Y. Ng, and S. Ando, Searches for sterile neutrinos and axionlike particles from the Galactic halo with eROSITA, Phys. Rev. D 104, 023021 (2021).
  75. S. Ando et al., Decaying dark matter in dwarf spheroidal galaxies: Prospects for x-ray and gamma-ray telescopes, Phys. Rev. D 104, 023022 (2021).
  76. D. Malyshev, C. Thorpe-Morgan, A. Santangelo, J. Jochum, and S.-N. Zhang, eXTP perspectives for the νMSM sterile neutrino dark matter model, Phys. Rev. D 101, 123009 (2020).
  77. A. Hryczuk and M. Laletin, Impact of dark matter self-scattering on its relic abundance, Phys. Rev. D 106, 023007 (2022).
  78. D. Egana-Ugrinovic, R. Essig, D. Gift, and M. LoVerde, The cosmological evolution of self-interacting dark matter, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2021) 013.
  79. M. Vogelsberger, J. Zavala, F.-Y. Cyr-Racine, C. Pfrommer, T. Bringmann, and K. Sigurdson, ETHOS—an effective theory of structure formation: Dark matter physics as a possible explanation of the small-scale CDM problems, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 460, 1399 (2016).
  80. A. Garzilli, A. Magalich, O. Ruchayskiy, and A. Boyarsky, How to constrain warm dark matter with the Lyman-α forest, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 502, 2356 (2021).
  81. N. Palanque-Delabrouille, C. Yèche, N. Schöneberg, J. Lesgourgues, M. Walther, S. Chabanier, and E. Armengaud, Hints, neutrino bounds and WDM constraints from SDSS DR14 Lyman-α and Planck full-survey data, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 04 (2020) 038.
  82. S. Tulin and H.-B. Yu, Dark matter self-interactions and small scale structure, Phys. Rep. 730, 1 (2018).
  83. F. Kahlhoefer, K. Schmidt-Hoberg, M. T. Frandsen, and S. Sarkar, Colliding clusters and dark matter self-interactions, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 437, 2865 (2014).
  84. M. Kaplinghat, S. Tulin, and H.-B. Yu, Dark Matter Halos as Particle Colliders: Unified Solution to Small-Scale Structure Puzzles from Dwarfs to Clusters, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 041302 (2016).
  85. K. E. Andrade, J. Fuson, S. Gad-Nasr, D. Kong, Q. Minor, M. G. Roberts, and M. Kaplinghat, A stringent upper limit on dark matter self-interaction cross section from cluster strong lensing, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 510, 54 (2021).
  86. K. Bondarenko, A. Boyarsky, T. Bringmann, and A. Sokolenko, Constraining self-interacting dark matter with scaling laws of observed halo surface densities, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 04 (2018) 049.
  87. T. Bringmann, Particle models and the small-scale structure of dark matter, New J. Phys. 11, 105027 (2009).
  88. S. Bose, M. Vogelsberger, J. Zavala, C. Pfrommer, F.-Y. Cyr-Racine, S. Bohr, and T. Bringmann, ETHOS—an effective theory of structure formation: Detecting dark matter interactions through the Lyman-α forest, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 487, 522 (2019).
  89. J. B. Muñoz, C. Dvorkin, and F.-Y. Cyr-Racine, Probing the small-scale matter power spectrum with large-scale 21-cm data, Phys. Rev. D 101, 063526 (2020).
  90. J. B. Muñoz, S. Bohr, F.-Y. Cyr-Racine, J. Zavala, and M. Vogelsberger, ETHOS—an effective theory of structure formation: Impact of dark acoustic oscillations on cosmic dawn, Phys. Rev. D 103, 043512 (2021).
  91. T. Schaeffer and A. Schneider, Dark acoustic oscillations: Imprints on the matter power spectrum and the halo mass function, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 504, 3773 (2021).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 107, L071702– Published 24 April, 2023
  • Received 7 September 2022
  • Revised 1 December 2022
  • Accepted 31 March 2023
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation