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Freeze-in and freeze-out in a right-handed neutrino extended MSSM with a seesaw mechanism

Tushar Gupta*, Matti Heikinheimo†, and Katri Huitu‡

Harri Waltari§

  • Department of Physics, and Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 516, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden

  • *Contact author: tushar.gupta@helsinki.fi
  • †Contact author: matti.heikinheimo@helsinki.fi
  • ‡Contact author: katri.huitu@helsinki.fi
  • §Contact author: harri.waltari@physics.uu.se
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 035019 – Published 17 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n6nb-klgc

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of saturating the relic density bound with light Higgsinos. When the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model is extended with right-handed neutrino superfields and the seesaw scale is very low, right-handed sneutrinos can be produced via the freeze-in mechanism. In such a case, we can have essentially two independent sources for dark matter, the traditional freeze-out of Higgsinos and the freeze-in of right-handed sneutrinos. The heavier of these two will decay to the lighter species with a delay. We rule out such a scenario for all seesaw models as the lifetime of sterile neutrinos produced overabundantly via the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism exceeds the age of the Universe and will contribute to the relic density.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 035019– Published 17 February, 2026
  • Received 13 November 2025
  • Accepted 21 January 2026
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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.

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