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Title: Thermal neutrino portal to sub-MeV dark matter

Abstract

Thermal relics lighter than an MeV add to the energy density of the universe at the time of nucleosynthesis and recombination. Constraints on extra radiation degrees of freedom typically exclude even the simplest of such dark sectors. We explore the possibility that a sub-MeV dark sector entered equilibrium with the Standard Model after neutrino-photon decoupling, which significantly weakens these constraints and naturally arises in the context of neutrino mass generation through the spontaneous breaking of the lepton number. Acquiring an adequate dark matter abundance independently motivates the MeV scale in these models through the coincidence of gravitational, matter-radiation equality, and neutrino mass scales, (mPl /TMRE)1/4mν ~ MeV . This class of scenarios will be decisively tested by future measurements of the cosmic microwave background and matter structure of the universe. While the dark sector dominantly interacts with Standard Model neutrinos, large couplings to nucleons are possible in principle, leading to observable signals at proposed low-threshold direct detection experiments.

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1515568
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1532390
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; NSF PHY-1748958
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Physical Review D
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Physical Review D Journal Volume: 99 Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

Citation Formats

Berlin, Asher, and Blinov, Nikita. Thermal neutrino portal to sub-MeV dark matter. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.095030.
Berlin, Asher, & Blinov, Nikita. Thermal neutrino portal to sub-MeV dark matter. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.095030
Berlin, Asher, and Blinov, Nikita. Thu . "Thermal neutrino portal to sub-MeV dark matter". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.095030.
@article{osti_1515568,
title = {Thermal neutrino portal to sub-MeV dark matter},
author = {Berlin, Asher and Blinov, Nikita},
abstractNote = {Thermal relics lighter than an MeV add to the energy density of the universe at the time of nucleosynthesis and recombination. Constraints on extra radiation degrees of freedom typically exclude even the simplest of such dark sectors. We explore the possibility that a sub-MeV dark sector entered equilibrium with the Standard Model after neutrino-photon decoupling, which significantly weakens these constraints and naturally arises in the context of neutrino mass generation through the spontaneous breaking of the lepton number. Acquiring an adequate dark matter abundance independently motivates the MeV scale in these models through the coincidence of gravitational, matter-radiation equality, and neutrino mass scales, (mPl /TMRE)1/4mν ~ MeV . This class of scenarios will be decisively tested by future measurements of the cosmic microwave background and matter structure of the universe. While the dark sector dominantly interacts with Standard Model neutrinos, large couplings to nucleons are possible in principle, leading to observable signals at proposed low-threshold direct detection experiments.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.99.095030},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 9,
volume = 99,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {5}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.095030

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Cited by: 7 works
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