Diluted equilibrium sterile neutrino dark matter

We present a model where sterile neutrinos with rest masses in the range ~ keV to ~ MeV can be the dark matter and be consistent with all laboratory, cosmological, large-scale structure, as well as x-ray constraints. These sterile neutrinos are assumed to freeze out of thermal and chemical equilibrium with matter and radiation in the very early Universe, prior to an epoch of prodigious entropy generation (dilution) from out-of-equilibrium decay of heavy particles. In this work, we consider heavy, entropy-producing particles in the ~ TeV to ~ EeV rest-mass range, possibly associated with new physics at high-energy scales. The process of dilution can give the sterile neutrinos the appropriate relic densities, but it also alters their energy spectra so that they could act like cold dark matter, despite relatively low rest masses as compared to conventional dark matter candidates. Moreover, since the model does not rely on active-sterile mixing for producing the relic density, the mixing angles can be small enough to evade current x-ray or lifetime constraints. Nevertheless, we discuss how future x-ray observations, future lepton number constraints, and future observations and sophisticated simulations of large-scale structure could, in conjunction, provide evidence for this model and/or constrain and probe its parameters.

Heavy sterile neutrinos, entropy and relativistic energy production, and the relic neutrino background

We explore the implications of the existence of heavy neutral fermions (i.e., sterile neutrinos) for the thermal history of the early universe. In particular, we consider sterile neutrinos with rest masses in the 100 MeV to 500 MeV range, with couplings to ordinary active neutrinos large enough to guarantee thermal and chemical equilibrium at epochs in the early universe with temperatures T > 1 GeV, but in a range to give decay lifetimes from seconds to minutes. Such neutrinos would decouple early, with relic densities comparable to those of photons, but decay out of equilibrium, with consequent prodigious entropy generation prior to, or during, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). Most of the ranges of sterile neutrino rest mass and lifetime considered are at odds with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) limits on the relativistic particle contribution to energy density (e.g., as parameterized by N_eff). However, some sterile neutrino parameters can lead to an acceptable N_eff. These parameter ranges are accompanied by considerable dilution of the ordinary background relic neutrinos, possibly an adverse effect on BBN, but sometimes fall in a range which can explain measured neutrino masses in some particle physics models. A robust signature of these sterile neutrinos would be a measured N_eff not equal to 3 coupled with no cosmological signal for neutrino rest mass when the detection thresholds for these probes are below laboratory-established neutrino mass values, either as established by the atmospheric neutrino oscillation scale or direct measurements with, e.g., KATRIN or neutrino-less double beta decay experiments.

Pulsar Kicks from Active-Sterile Neutrino Transformation in Supernovae

Observations of radio pulsars have revealed that they have large velocities which may be greater than 1000 km/s. In this work, the efficacy of an active-sterile neutrino transformation mechanism to provide these large pulsar kicks is investigated. A phase-space based approach is adopted to follow the the transformation of active neutrinos to sterile neutrinos through an MSW-like resonance in the protoneutron star to refine an estimate to the magnitude of the pulsar kick that can be generated in such an event. The result is that this mechanism can create the large pulsar kicks that are observed while not overcooling the star.

Quantum Coherence of Relic Neutrinos

We argue that in at least a portion of the history of the universe the relic background neutrinos are spatially-extended, coherent superpositions of mass states. We show that an appropriate quantum mechanical treatment affects the neutrino mass values derived from cosmological data. The coherence scale of these neutrino flavor wavepackets can be an appreciable fraction of the causal horizon size, raising the possibility of spacetime curvature-induced decoherence.

Lepton Number-Driven Sterile Neutrino Production in the Early Universe

We examine medium-enhanced, neutrino scattering-induced decoherent production of dark matter candidate sterile neutrinos in the early universe. In cases with a significant net lepton number we find two resonances, where the effective in-medium mixing angles are large. We calculate the lepton number depletion-driven evolution of these resonances. We describe the dependence of this evolution on lepton numbers, sterile neutrino rest mass, and the active-sterile vacuum mixing angle. We find that this resonance evolution can result in relic sterile neutrino energy spectra with a generic form which is sharply peaked in energy. We compare our complete quantum kinetic equation treatment with the widely-used quantum Zeno ansatz.