Opening up New Parameter Space for Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
Sterile neutrinos are compelling dark matter (DM) candidates, yet the minimal production mechanism solely based on active ($ν_a$)-sterile ($ν_s$) oscillations is excluded by astrophysical observations. Non-standard self-interactions in either active ($ν_a-ν_a$) or sterile ($ν_s-ν_s$) sector are known to alter the sterile neutrino DM production in the early Universe, which could alleviate the tension with astrophysical constraints to some extent. Here we propose a novel solution where scalar-mediated non-standard interactions between active and sterile neutrinos ($ν_a-ν_s$) generate new production channels for $ν_s$, independent of the active-sterile mixing and without the need for any fine-tuned resonance or primordial lepton asymmetry. This framework enables efficient sterile neutrino DM production even at vanishingly small mixing angles and opens up new viable regions of parameter space that can be tested with future $X$-ray and gamma-ray observations.