Sterile Neutrinos as the Origin of Dark and Baryonic Matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes that three sterile neutrinos can simultaneously explain neutrino oscillations, dark matter, and baryon asymmetry without new physics beyond the Fermi scale, through a novel leptogenesis mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces leptogenesis after sphaleron freeze-out as a new approach to resonant dark matter production, compatible with existing constraints.

Findings

Identifies sterile neutrino parameter ranges consistent with all constraints.

Proposes experimental methods to detect these sterile neutrinos with current technology.

Demonstrates that sterile neutrinos can account for dark matter and baryon asymmetry simultaneously.

Abstract

We demonstrate for the first time that three sterile neutrinos alone can simultaneously explain neutrino oscillations, the observed dark matter and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe without new physics above the Fermi scale. The key new point of our analysis is leptogenesis after sphaleron freeze-out, which leads to resonant dark matter production, evading thus the constraints on sterile neutrino dark matter from structure formation and x-ray searches. We identify the range of sterile neutrino properties that is consistent with all known constraints. We find a domain of parameters where the new particles can be found with present day experimental techniques, using upgrades to existing experimental facilities.