Neutrino sector impacts SUSY dark matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how neutrino Yukawa couplings influence neutralino dark matter properties within a supersymmetric seesaw framework, revealing significant effects on relic density and detection rates.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of neutrino Yukawa couplings on neutralino dark matter observables in supersymmetric models, highlighting regions with large soft SUSY-breaking parameters.

Findings

Neutrino couplings significantly alter neutralino relic density.

Dark matter detection rates can vary by several orders of magnitude.

Relic density spans over an order of magnitude in key parameter regions.

Abstract

Motivated by the fact that neutrinos are massive, we study the effect of neutrino Yukawa couplings on neutralino dark matter observables within the framework of a supersymmetric seesaw. We find that neutrino couplings significantly affect the neutralino relic density in regions of parameter space where soft SUSY-breaking slepton masses and/or trilinear couplings are large. Depending on the size of the couplings, the neutralino relic density spans over an order of magnitude in the A-funnel, focus point and stop-coannihilation regions of mSUGRA. We also show that dark matter detection rates can be modified by up to several orders of magnitude.