The nature of dark matter is one of the open problems of the Standard Model of particle physics. Despite the great experimental efforts, we have not yet found a positive signal of its interactions with ordinary matter. One possible explanation would be that the dark matter particle is primarily coupled to another elusive particle, neutrinos. In this work we study this possibility with several realisations.
In the classic type I seesaw mechanism with very heavy right-handed (RH) neutrinos, it is possible to account for dark matter via RH neutrino portal couplings to a feebly interacting massive particle (FIMP) dark sector. However, for large RH neutrino masses, gravity can play an important role. We study the interplay between the neutrino portal through the right-handed neutrinos and the gravity portal through the massless spin-2 graviton in producing dark matter particles in the early universe. As a concrete example, we consider the minimal and realistic Littlest Seesaw model with two RH neutrinos, augmented with a dark scalar and a dark fermion charged under a global $U(1)_D$ dark symmetry. In the model, the usual seesaw neutrino Yukawa couplings and the right-handed neutrino masses (the lightest being about $5times 10^{10}$ GeV) are fixed by neutrino oscillations data and leptogenesis. Hence, we explore the parameter space of the two RH neutrino portal couplings, the two dark particle masses and the reheating temperature of the universe, where the correct dark matter relic abundance is achieved through the freeze-in mechanism. In particular, we highlight which class of processes dominate the dark matter production. We find that, despite the presence of the gravity portal, the dark matter production relies on the usual seesaw neutrino Yukawa coupling in some regions of the parameter space, so realising a direct link between dark matter and neutrino phenomenology. Finally, we report the threshold values for the neutrino portal couplings below which the neutrino portal is irrelevant and the Planckian Interacting Dark Matter paradigm is preserved.
We show that in a multi-Higgs model in which one Higgs fits the LHC 125 GeV state, one or more of the other Higgs bosons can mediate DM-nucleon interactions with maximal DM isospin violation being possible for appropriate Higgs-quark couplings, independent of the nature of DM. We then consider the explicit example of a Type II two-Higgs-doublet model, identifying the h or H as the 125 GeV state while the H or h, respectively, mediates DM-nucleon interactions. Finally, we show that if a stable scalar, S, is added then it can be a viable light DM candidate with correct relic density while obeying all direct and indirect detection limits.
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.
We study neutrino oscillations in a medium of dark matter which generalizes the standard matter effect. A general formula is derived to describe the effect of various mediums and their mediators to neutrinos. Neutrinos and anti-neutrinos receive opposite contributions from asymmetric distribution of (dark) matter and anti-matter, and thus it could appear in precision measurement of neutrino or anti-neutrino oscillations. Furthermore, the standard neutrino oscillation can occur from the symmetric dark matter effect even for massless neutrinos.
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.