Relaxing Limits from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis on Heavy Neutral Leptons with Axion-like Particles
arXiv:2410.06970 · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2025/02/054
Abstract
Heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) are constrained by requirements of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) as their decays significantly impact the formation of the primordial elements. We propose here a model where the primary decay channel for the HNLs is to an axion-like particle (ALP) and a neutrino. Consequently, HNLs can decay earlier and evade the BBN bound for lower masses, provided the ALPs themselves decay considerably later. Further cosmological and astrophysical constraints limit severely the range of validity of the ALP properties. We find that a new parameter region opens up for HNLs with masses between 1 MeV and 1 GeV, and active-sterile neutrino mixing strengths between and that is consistent with constraints and can be probed in future searches. In such a scenario, current bounds as well as sensitivities of future direct HNL searches such as at NA62 and DUNE will be affected.
32 pages, 7 figures, matches published version
References in corpus (57)
- Axion Cosmology
- The fate of hints: updated global analysis of three-flavor neutrino oscillations
- The Search for Heavy Majorana Neutrinos
- Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and Hadronic Decay of Long-Lived Massive Particles
- The landscape of QCD axion models
- MeV-scale Reheating Temperature and Thermalization of Neutrino Background
- Primordial Nucleosynthesis: from precision cosmology to fundamental physics
- Hadronic Decay of Late-Decaying Particles and Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
- Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Hadronically and Electromagnetically Decaying Relic Neutral Particles
- Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis After Planck
- MeV-scale reheating temperature and thermalization of oscillating neutrinos by radiative and hadronic decays of massive particles
- Cosmological bounds on pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons
- Cool WISPs for stellar cooling excesses
- Neutrinoless double beta decay versus other probes of heavy sterile neutrinos
- Precision Early Universe Thermodynamics made simple: and Neutrino Decoupling in the Standard Model and beyond
- The Present and Future Status of Heavy Neutral Leptons
- Heavy sterile neutrinos: Bounds from big-bang nucleosynthesis and SN 1987A
- Neutrino decoupling beyond the Standard Model: CMB constraints on the Dark Matter mass with a fast and precise evaluation
- Decay photons from the ALP burst of type-II supernovae
- Primordial nucleosynthesis and hadronic decay of a massive particle with a relatively short lifetime
- Combining Experimental and Cosmological Constraints on Heavy Neutrinos
- Improved BBN constraints on Heavy Neutral Leptons
- The PHLEK Survey: A New Determination of the Primordial Helium Abundance
- Primordial nucleosynthesis
- Restrictions on the lifetime of sterile neutrinos from primordial nucleosynthesis
- BBN constraints on MeV-scale dark sectors. Part II. Electromagnetic decays
- Cosmological and astrophysical bounds on a heavy sterile neutrino and the KARMEN anomaly
- Heavy Neutral Leptons from low-scale seesaws at the DUNE Near Detector
- An Extended Analysis of Heavy Neutral Leptons during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
- Neutrino Flavor Conversion in a Supernova Core
- A frequentist analysis of three right-handed neutrinos with GAMBIT
- NA62 sensitivity to heavy neutral leptons in the low scale seesaw model
- Updated constraints on axion-like particles from temporal information in supernova SN1987A gamma-ray data
- Axion-sourced fireballs from supernovae
- GeV-scale neutrinos: interactions with mesons and DUNE sensitivity
- Strong Supernova 1987A Constraints on Bosons Decaying to Neutrinos
- Cosmological Constraints on Gravitino LSP Scenario with Sneutrino NLSP
- Heavy sterile neutrinos and supernova explosions
- Updated BBN constraints on electromagnetic decays of MeV-scale particles
- Searches for Long-Lived Particles at the Future FCC-ee
- Multimessenger Constraints on Radiatively Decaying Axions from GW170817
- Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis
- Heavy sterile neutrino emission in core-collapse supernovae: Constraints and signatures
- Cosmological Constraints on Neutrino Injection
- Heavy neutral leptons below the kaon mass at hodoscopic detectors
- Comprehensive constraints on heavy sterile neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae
- Gravitino Decay into a Neutrino and a Sneutrino in the Inflationary Universe
- CosmoBit: A GAMBIT module for computing cosmological observables and likelihoods
- Simple and statistically sound recommendations for analysing physical theories
- When FIMPs Decay into Neutrinos: The Story
- ALP-portal majorana dark matter
- Probing HNL-ALP couplings at colliders
- Right-handed sneutrino dark matter and big-bang nucleosynthesis
- PIONEER: Studies of Rare Pion Decays
- Searching for heavy neutral leptons coupled to axion-like particles at the LHC far detectors and SHiP
- Probing the Nature of Heavy Neutral Leptons in Direct Searches and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
- Testing heavy neutral leptons produced in the supernovae explosions with future neutrino detectors