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Carlos E. Yaguna

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos E. Yaguna.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2011

An intermediate framework between WIMP, FIMP, and EWIP dark matter

WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle), FIMP (Feebly interacting Massive Particle) and EWIP (Extremely Weakly Interacting Particle) dark matter are different theoretical frameworks that have been postulated to explain the dark matter. In this paper we examine an intermediate scenario that combines features from these three frameworks. It consists of a weakly interacting particle --a la WIMP-- that does not reach thermal equilibrium in the early Universe --a la FIMP-- and whose relic density is determined by the reheating temperature of the Universe --a la EWIP. As an example, an explicit realization of this framework, based on the singlet scalar model of dark matter, is analyzed in detail. In particular, the relic density is studied as a function of the parameters of the model, and the new viable region within this intermediate scenario is determined. Finally, it is shown that this alternative framework of dark matter allows for arbitrarily heavy dark matter particles and that it suggests a connection between dark matter and inflation.

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arXiv2011

On the importance of the 1-loop finite corrections to seesaw neutrino masses

In the standard seesaw mechanism, finite corrections to the neutrino mass matrix arise from 1-loop self-energy diagrams mediated by a heavy neutrino. We study in detail these corrections and demonstrate that they can be very significant, exceeding in several cases the tree-level result. We consider the normal and inverted hierarchy spectra for light neutrinos and compute the finite corrections to the different elements of the neutrino mass matrix. Special attention is paid to their dependence with the parameters of the seesaw model. Among the cases in which the corrections can be large, we identify the fine-tuned models considered previously in the literature, where a strong cancellation between the different parameters is required to achieve compatibility with the experimental data. As a particular example, we also analyze how these corrections modify the tribimaximal mixing pattern and find that the deviations may be sizable, in particular for $θ_{13}$. Finally, we emphasize that due to their large size, the finite corrections to neutrino masses have to be taken into account if one wants to properly scan the parameter space of seesaw models.

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arXiv2011

The singlet scalar as FIMP dark matter

The singlet scalar model is a minimal extension of the Standard Model that can explain the dark matter. We point out that in this model the dark matter constraint can be satisfied not only in the already considered WIMP regime but also, for much smaller couplings, in the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) regime. In it, dark matter particles are slowly produced in the early Universe but are never abundant enough to reach thermal equilibrium or annihilate among themselves. This alternative framework is as simple and predictive as the WIMP scenario but it gives rise to a completely different dark matter phenomenology. After reviewing the calculation of the dark matter relic density in the FIMP regime, we study in detail the evolution of the dark matter abundance in the early Universe and the predicted relic density as a function of the parameters of the model. A new dark matter compatible region of the singlet model is identified, featuring couplings of order 10^-11 to 10^-12 for singlet masses in the GeV to TeV range. As a consequence, no signals at direct or indirect detection experiments are expected. The relevance of this new viable region for the correct interpretation of recent experimental bounds is emphasized.

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arXiv2011

Indirect detection of gravitino dark matter including its three-body decays

It was recently pointed out that in supersymmetric scenarios with gravitino dark matter and bilinear R-parity violation, gravitinos with masses below Mw typically decay with a sizable branching ratio into the 3-body final states W^*+lepton and Z^*+neutrino. In this paper we study the indirect detection signatures of gravitino dark matter including such final states. First, we obtain the gamma ray spectrum from gravitino decays, which features a monochromatic contribution from the decay into photon+neutrino and a continuum contribution from the three-body decays. After studying its dependence on supersymmetric parameters, we compute the expected gamma ray fluxes and derive new constraints, from recent FERMI data, on the R-parity breaking parameter and on the gravitino lifetime. Indirect detection via antimatter searches, a new possibility brought about by the three-body final states, is also analyzed. For models compatible with the gamma ray observations, the positron signal is found to be negligible whereas the antiproton one can be significant.

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arXiv2010

A new viable region of the inert doublet model

The inert doublet model, a minimal extension of the Standard Model by a second Higgs doublet, is one of the simplest and most attractive scenarios that can explain the dark matter. In this paper, we demonstrate the existence of a new viable region of the inert doublet model featuring dark matter masses between Mw and about 160 GeV. Along this previously overlooked region of the parameter space, the correct relic density is obtained thanks to cancellations between different diagrams contributing to dark matter annihilation into gauge bosons (W+W- and ZZ). First, we explain how these cancellations come about and show several examples illustrating the effect of the parameters of the model on the cancellations themselves and on the predicted relic density. Then, we perform a full scan of the new viable region and analyze it in detail by projecting it onto several two-dimensional planes. Finally, the prospects for the direct and the indirect detection of inert Higgs dark matter within this new viable region are studied. We find that present direct detection bounds already rule out a fraction of the new parameter space and that future direct detection experiments, such as Xenon100, will easily probe the remaining part in its entirety.

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arXiv2010

The inert doublet model of dark matter revisited

The inert doublet model, a minimal extension of the Standard Model by a second higgs doublet with no direct couplings to quarks or leptons, is one of the simplest scenarios that can explain the dark matter. In this paper, we study in detail the impact of dark matter annihilation into three-body final state on the phenomenology of the inert doublet model. We find that this new annihilation mode dominates, in a relevant portion of the parameter space, over those into two-body final states considered in previous analysis. As a result, the computation of the relic density is modified and the viable regions of the model are displaced. After obtaining the genuine viable regions for different sets of parameters, we compute the direct detection cross section of inert higgs dark matter and find it to be up to two orders of magnitude smaller than what is obtained for two-body final states only. Other implications of these results, including the modification to the decay width of the higgs and to the indirect detection signatures of inert higgs dark matter, are also briefly considered. We demonstrate, therefore, that the annihilation into three-body final state can not be neglected, as it has a important impact on the entire phenomenology of the inert doublet model.

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arXiv2010

New decay modes of gravitino dark matter

We consider the three-body decays of gravitino dark matter in supersymmetric scenarios with bilinear R-parity violation. In particular, gravitino decays into lepton+W^* (lepton f\bar f') and ν+Z^* (νf\bar f) are examined for gravitino masses below Mw. After computing the gravitino decay rates into these three-body final states and studying their dependence on supersymmetric parameters, we find that these new decay modes are often more important than the two-body decay, into a photon and a neutrino, considered in previous works. Consequently, the gravitino lifetime and its branching ratios are substantially modified, with important implications for the indirect detection of gravitino dark matter.

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arXiv2010

Large contributions to dark matter annihilation from three-body final states

The annihilation rate of dark matter particles plays a crucial role in dark matter studies, for it determines their relic density and their indirect detection signal. In this paper, we show that this annihilation rate can receive large additional contributions from three-body final states consisting of a real and a virtual massive particle, such as WW* (Wf \bar f') and t \bar t* (tW\bar b). We consider two specific examples, from the singlet model and the MSSM, and find that, due to the new three-body final state contributions, the prediction for the relic density may decrease by more than a factor two, whereas the present dark matter annihilation rate gets enhanced by up to two orders of magnitude. Some of the implications of these results are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2009

Implications of an astrophysical interpretation of PAMELA and Fermi-LAT data for future searches of a positron signal from dark matter annihilations

The recent data from PAMELA and Fermi-LAT can be interpreted as evidence of new astrophysical sources of high energy positrons. In that case, such astrophysical positrons constitute an additional background against the positrons from dark matter annihilation. In this paper, we study the effect of that background on the prospects for the detection of a positron dark matter signal in future experiments. In particular, we determine the new regions in the (mass, $\sigmav$) plane that are detectable by the AMS-02 experiment for several dark matter scenarios and different propagation models. We find that, due to the increased background, these regions feature annihilation rates that are up to a factor or three larger than those obtained for the conventional background. That is, an astrophysical interpretation of the present data by PAMELA and Fermi-LAT implies that the detection of positrons from dark matter annihilation is slightly more challenging than previously believed.

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arXiv2009

Gamma ray lines: what will they tell us about SUSY?

Neutralino dark matter can be indirectly detected by observing the gamma ray lines from the annihilation processes XX-->gg and XX-->gZ. In this paper we study the implications that the observation of these two lines could have for the determination of the supersymmetric parameter space. Within the minimal supergravity framework, we find that, independently of the dark matter distribution in the Galaxy, such observations by themselves would allow to differentiate between the coannihilation region, the funnel region, and the focus point region. As a result, several restrictions on the msugra parameters can be derived. Within a more general MSSM scenario, we show that the observation of gamma-ray lines might be used to discriminate between a bino-, a wino-, and a higgsino-like neutralino, with important consequences for cosmology and for models of supersymmetry breaking. The detection of the gamma ray lines, therefore, will not only provide an unmistakable signature of dark matter, it will also open a new road toward the determination of supersymmetric parameters.

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arXiv2009

Gamma rays from the annihilation of singlet scalar dark matter

We consider an extension of the Standard Model by a singlet scalar that accounts for the dark matter of the Universe. Within this model we compute the expected gamma ray flux from the annihilation of dark matter particles in a consistent way. To do so, an updated analysis of the parameter space of the model is first presented. By enforcing the relic density constraint from the very beginning, the viable parameter space gets reduced to just two variables: the singlet mass and the higgs mass. Current direct detection constraints are then found to require a singlet mass larger than 50 GeV. Finally, we compute the gamma ray flux and annihilation cross section and show that a large fraction of the viable parameter space lies within the sensitivity of Fermi-GLAST.

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arXiv2008

Inverse decays and the relic density of the sterile sneutrino

We consider a weak scale supersymmetric seesaw model where the Higgsino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and the right-handed sneutrino is the dark matter candidate. It is shown that, in this model, inverse decays, which had been previously neglected, may suppress the sneutrino relic density by several orders of magnitude. After including such processes and numerically solving the appropriate Boltzmann equation, we study the dependence of the relic density on the mu parameter, the sneutrino mass, and the neutrino Yukawa coupling. We find that, even though much smaller than in earlier calculations, the sneutrino relic density is still larger than the observed dark matter density.

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arXiv2008

Novel Higgs decay signals in R-parity violating models

In supersymmetric models the lightest Higgs boson may decay with a sizable branching ratio into a pair of light neutralinos. We analyze such decays within the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with R-parity violation, where the neutralino itself is unstable and decays into Standard Model fermions. We show that the R-parity violating couplings induce novel Higgs decay signals that might facilitate the discovery of the Higgs boson at colliders. At the LHC, the Higgs may be observed, for instance, through its decay -via two neutralinos- into final states containing missing energy and isolated charged leptons such as $l^\pm l^\mp, l^\pm l^\pm, 3l$, and $4l$. Another promising possibility is the search for the displaced vertices associated with the neutralino decay. We also point out that Higgs searches at the LHC might additionally provide the first evidence of R-parity violation.

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arXiv2007

Higgs decays in supersymmetric models with light neutralinos

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, neutralinos lighter than 50 GeV are compatible with all accelerator, precision, and cosmological bounds. Such neutralinos might constitute a relevant decay channel for the Higgs boson, modifying its expected signatures at hadron colliders. We study the branching ratio h --> χχand determine the region in the supersymmetric parameter space where it is sizable. We have found that, in fact, the Higgs may dominantly decay into neutralino pairs. Besides, as a result of this new channel, the branching ratio into visible modes, such as h --> γγ, gets suppressed.

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arXiv2007

Sterile neutrino production in models with low reheating temperatures

By numerically solving the appropriate Boltzmann equations, we study the production of sterile neutrinos in models with low reheating temperatures. We take into account the production in oscillations as well as in direct decays and compute the sterile neutrino primordial spectrum, the effective number of neutrino species, and the sterile neutrino contribution to the mass density of the Universe as a function of the mixing and the reheating parameters. It is shown that sterile neutrinos with non-negligible mixing angles do not necessarily lead to $N_ν\sim 4$ and that sterile neutrinos may have the right relic density to explain the dark matter of the Universe. If dark matter consists of sterile neutrinos produced in oscillations, X-rays measurements set a strong limit on the reheating temperature, $\tr\gtrsim 7\mev$. We also point out that the direct decay opens up a new production mechanism for sterile neutrino dark matter where cosmological constraints can be satisfied.

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arXiv2006

Constraints on Minimal SUSY models with warm dark matter neutralinos

If the energy density of the Universe before nucleosynthesis is dominated by a scalar field $ϕ$ that decays and reheats the plasma to a low reheating temperature $T_{RH}$, neutralinos may be warm dark matter particles. We study this possibility and derive the conditions on the production mechanism and on the supersymmetric spectrum for which it is viable. Large values of the $μ$ parameter and of the slepton masses are characteristic features of these models. We compute the expected direct detection cross sections and point out that Split-SUSY provides a natural framework for neutralino warm dark matter

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arXiv2006

The effect of a late decaying scalar on the neutralino relic density

If the energy density of the Universe before nucleosynthesis is dominated by a scalar field phi that decays and reheats the plasma to a temperature T_{RH} smaller than the standard neutralino freeze out temperature, the neutralino relic density differs from its standard value. In this case, the relic density depends on two additional parameters: T_{RH}, and the number of neutralinos produced per phi decay per unit mass of the phi field. In this paper, we numerically study the neutralino relic density as a function of these reheating parameters within minimal supersymmetric standard models and show that the dark matter constraint can almost always be satisfied.

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