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arXiv · 2301.08299

Can Neutrino Self-interactions Save Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter?

Rui An·Vera Gluscevic·Ethan O. Nadler·Yue Zhang
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Abstract

Sterile neutrinos only interact with the Standard Model through the neutrino sector, and thus represent a simple dark matter (DM) candidate with many potential astrophysical and cosmological signatures. Recently, sterile neutrinos produced through self-interactions of active neutrinos have received attention as a particle candidate that can yield the entire observed DM relic abundance without violating the most stringent constraints from X-ray observations. We examine consistency of this production mechanism with the abundance of small-scale structure in the universe, as captured by the population of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, and derive a lower bound on the sterile-neutrino particle mass of $37$ keV. Combining these results with previous limits from particle physics and astrophysics excludes $100\%$ sterile neutrino DM produced by strong neutrino self-coupling, mediated by a heavy ($\gtrsim 1~\mathrm{GeV}$) scalar particle; however, data permits sterile-neutrino DM production via a light mediator.

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Rui An, Vera Gluscevic, Ethan O. Nadler, Yue Zhang. 2023-01-19. Can Neutrino Self-interactions Save Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter?. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213%2Facf049

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