Dark matter produced from right-handed neutrinos

Abstract

Right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) provide a natural portal to a dark sector accommodating dark matter (DM). In this work, we consider that the dark sector is connected to the standard model only via RHNs and ask how DM can be produced from RHNs. Our framework concentrates on a rather simple and generic interaction that couples RHNs to a pair of dark particles. Depending on whether RHNs are light or heavy in comparison to the dark sector and also on whether one or both of them are in the freeze-in/out regime, there are many distinct scenarios resulting in rather different results. We conduct a comprehensive and systematic study of all possible scenarios in this paper. For illustration, we apply our generic results to the type-I seesaw model with the dark sector extension, addressing whether and when DM in this model can be in the freeze-in or freeze-out regime. Some observational consequences in this framework are also discussed.

33 pages, 5 figures; calculations on non-thermal spectra added; matching the JCAP published version

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• High-Energy and Ultra-High-Energy Neutrinos from Primordial Black Holes
• Dark matter freeze-in via a light fermion mediator: forbidden decay and scattering
• No Hiding in the Dark: Cosmological Bounds on Heavy Neutral Leptons with Dark Decay Channels
• Scattering versus Forbidden Decay in Dark Matter Freeze-in
• Reviving $Z^{\prime }$ Portal Dark Matter with Conversion Mechanism
• Imprints of light dark matter on the evolution of cosmic neutrinos