We study the phenomenology of a keV sterile neutrino in a supersymmetric model with $U(1)_R-$ lepton number in the light of a very recent observation of an X-ray line signal at around 3.5 keV, detected in the X-ray spectra of Andromeda galaxy and various galaxy clusters including the Perseus galaxy cluster. This model not only provides a small tree level mass to one of the active neutrinos but also renders a suitable warm dark matter candidate in the form of a sterile neutrino with negligible active-sterile mixing. Light neutrino masses and mixing can be explained once one-loop radiative corrections are taken into account. The scalar sector of this model can accommodate a Higgs boson with a mass of $sim$ 125 GeV. In this model gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and we also study the cosmological implications of this light gravitino with mass $sim mathcal O$(GeV).
We present a comprehensive review of keV-scale sterile neutrino Dark Matter, collecting views and insights from all disciplines involved - cosmology, astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics - in each case viewed from both theoretical and experimental/observational perspectives. After reviewing the role of active neutrinos in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, we focus on sterile neutrinos in the context of the Dark Matter puzzle. Here, we first review the physics motivation for sterile neutrino Dark Matter, based on challenges and tensions in purely cold Dark Matter scenarios. We then round out the discussion by critically summarizing all known constraints on sterile neutrino Dark Matter arising from astrophysical observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical considerations. In this context, we provide a balanced discourse on the possibly positive signal from X-ray observations. Another focus of the paper concerns the construction of particle physics models, aiming to explain how sterile neutrinos of keV-scale masses could arise in concrete settings beyond the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The paper ends with an extensive review of current and future astrophysical and laboratory searches, highlighting new ideas and their experimental challenges, as well as future perspectives for the discovery of sterile neutrinos.
We review sterile neutrinos as possible Dark Matter candidates. After a short summary on the role of neutrinos in cosmology and particle physics, we give a comprehensive overview of the current status of the research on sterile neutrino Dark Matter. First we discuss the motivation and limits obtained through astrophysical observations. Second, we review different mechanisms of how sterile neutrino Dark Matter could have been produced in the early universe. Finally, we outline a selection of future laboratory searches for keV-scale sterile neutrinos, highlighting their experimental challenges and discovery potential.
Extending the Standard Model with three right-handed neutrinos and a simple QCD axion sector can account for neutrino oscillations, dark matter and baryon asymmetry; at the same time, it solves the strong CP problem, stabilizes the electroweak vacuum and can implement critical Higgs inflation (satisfying all current observational bounds). We perform here a general analysis of dark matter (DM) in such a model, which we call the $a u$MSM. Although critical Higgs inflation features a (quasi) inflection point of the inflaton potential we show that DM cannot receive a contribution from primordial black holes in the $a u$MSM. This leads to a multicomponent axion-sterile-neutrino DM and allows us to relate the axion parameters, such as the axion decay constant, to the neutrino parameters. We include several DM production mechanisms: the axion production via misalignment and decay of topological defects as well as the sterile-neutrino production through the resonant and non-resonant mechanisms and in the recently proposed CPT-symmetric universe.
We investigate how hypothetical particles - sterile neutrinos - can be produced in the interior of exploding supernovae via the resonant conversion of $bar u_mu$ and $bar u_tau$. The novelty of our treatment lies in the proper account of the resulting lepton number diffusion. We compute the yield of sterile neutrinos and find that even after taking into account back reaction, sterile neutrinos can carry out a sizeable fraction of the total energy of the explosion comparable to that of active neutrinos. The production is, however, exponentially sensitive to the temperature in the inner supernovae regions, making robust predictions of challenging. In order to understand whether this production affects supernova evolution and can therefore be constrained, detailed simulations including the effects of sterile neutrinos are needed.
We study a light dark matter in a radiative neutrino model to explain the X-ray line signal at about $3.5$ keV recently reported by XMN-Newton X-ray observatory using data of various galaxy clusters and Andromeda galaxy. The signal requires very tiny mixing between the dark matter and an active neutrino; $sin^2 2thetaapprox 10^{-10}$. It could suggest that such a light dark matter cannot contribute to the observed neutrino masses if we use the seesaw mechanism. In other words, neutrino masses might come a structure different from the dark matter. We propose a model in which Dirac type active neutrino masses are induced at one-loop level. On the other hand the mixing between active neutrino and dark matter are generated at two-loop level. As a result we can explain both the observed neutrino masses and the X-ray line signal from the dark matter decay with rather mild hierarchy of parameters in TeV scale.