Viable secret neutrino interactions with ultralight dark matter

Abstract

Several anomalies in neutrino oscillation experiments point to the existence of a $\sim 1$eV sterile neutrino ${\nu }_s$ mixing with ${\nu }_e$ at the level of $U_{e4}\cong 0.1$, but such a neutrino is strongly disfavored by constraints on additional light degrees of freedom ($\delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}$) and total neutrino mass (${\sum }_{\nu }{m}_{\nu }$) from cosmology. "Secret neutrino interactions" that have been invoked to suppress the cosmological production of ${\nu }_s$ typically falter, but recently it was pointed out that ${\nu }_s$ could get a large mass in the early universe by coupling to ultralight dark matter $\varphi$, which can robustly suppress its production. The model has essentially two free parameters: $m_{\varphi }$, and $m_{s,0}$, the mass of the sterile neutrino at early times, enhanced by its coupling to $\varphi$. I determine the parameter regions allowed by limits on $\delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ and ${\sum }_{\nu }{m}_{\nu }$ from the cosmic microwave background and big bang nucleosynthesis, using a simplified yet accurate treatment of neutrino oscillations in the early universe. This mechanism could have an important impact on laboratory experiments that suggest oscillations with sterile neutrinos.

5 pages, 1 figure, submitted to PLB. v2: corrected ${\nu }_e$ damping rate and thermal self-energy, added discussion of spectral distortion and references

References in corpus (10)

• Ultralight scalars as cosmological dark matter
• Sterile neutrino search at NEOS Experiment
• Neutrino Oscillations as a Probe of Light Scalar Dark Matter
• Thermalisation of sterile neutrinos in the early Universe in the 3+1 scheme with full mixing matrix
• Collisional production of sterile neutrinos via secret interactions and cosmological implications
• The gallium anomaly revisited
• KATRIN Sensitivity to Sterile Neutrino Mass in the Shadow of Lightest Neutrino Mass
• Unveiling secret interactions among sterile neutrinos with big-bang nucleosynthesis
• IceCube Sterile Neutrino Searches
• Scalar induced resonant sterile neutrino production in the early Universe

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Sterile Neutrinos
• Explaining the MiniBooNE Excess Through a Mixed Model of Oscillation and Decay
• Signatures of Ultralight Dark Matter in Neutrino Oscillation Experiments
• Cosmological Dependence of Non-resonantly Produced Sterile Neutrinos
• How to Identify Different New Neutrino Oscillation Physics Scenarios at DUNE
• Sterile Neutrino Searches with MicroBooNE: Electron Neutrino Disappearance
• Sterile Neutrino Shape-shifting Caused by Dark Matter
• Constraining Feeble Neutrino Interactions with Ultralight Dark Matter
• An Altarelli Cocktail for the MiniBooNE Anomaly?
• Probing the Local Dark Matter Halo with Neutrino Oscillations
• Constraints on Decaying Sterile Neutrinos from Solar Antineutrinos
• European Spallation Source as a searching tool for an ultralight scalar field
• Probing Light Mediators in the Radiative Emission of Neutrino Pair
• Black Holes as Fermion Factories
• Scalar induced resonant sterile neutrino production in the early Universe
• Characterising Dark Matter-induced neutrino potentials
• Does the 220 PeV Event at KM3NeT Point to New Physics?
• Light Sterile Neutrinos in the Early Universe: Effects of Altered Dispersion Relations and a coupling to Axion-Like Dark Matter