Cosmology with self-interacting sterile neutrinos and dark matter - A pseudoscalar model

Abstract

Short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments have shown hints of the existence of additional sterile neutrinos in the eV mass range. Such sterile neutrinos are incompatible with cosmology because they suppress structure formation unless they can be prevented from thermalising in the early Universe or removed by subsequent decay or annihilation. Here we present a novel scenario in which both sterile neutrinos and dark matter are coupled to a new, light pseudoscalar. This can prevent thermalisation of sterile neutrinos and make dark matter sufficiently self-interacting to have an impact on galactic dynamics and possibly resolve some of the known problems with the standard cold dark matter scenario. Even more importantly it leads to a strongly self-interacting plasma of sterile neutrinos and pseudoscalars at late times and provides an excellent fit to CMB data. The usual cosmological neutrino mass problem is avoided by sterile neutrino annihilation to pseudoscalars. The preferred value of $H_0$ is substantially higher than in standard $\Lambda$CDM and in much better agreement with local measurements.

8 pages, 4 figures, matches published version

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• Monochromatic dark neutrinos and boosted dark matter in noble liquid direct detection
• Linear scale bounds on dark matter--dark radiation interactions and connection with the small scale crisis of cold dark matter
• Light Sterile Neutrinos and Inflationary Freedom
• Light sterile neutrinos from a late phase transition
• Reducing cosmological small scale structure via a large dark matter-neutrino interaction: constraints and consequences
• Massive Fermi Gas in the Expanding Universe
• Light sterile neutrinos and pseudoscalar interactions in cosmology