MeV dark matter in the 3+1+1 model

TL;DR

This paper explores a model combining MeV-scale dark matter and sterile neutrinos to address neutrino oscillation anomalies and the galactic 511 keV gamma-ray excess, proposing a consistent theoretical framework.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 3+1+1 neutrino model with a light scalar dark matter candidate interacting with sterile neutrinos, linking neutrino anomalies and dark matter phenomena.

Findings

The model can explain neutrino oscillation anomalies.

It provides a potential explanation for the galactic 511 keV gamma-ray excess.

The theory remains consistent with collider, supernova, and cosmological constraints.

Abstract

The existence of light sterile neutrinos in the eV mass range with relatively large mixing angles with the active neutrinos has been proposed for a variety of reasons, including to improve the fit to the LSND and MiniBooNE neutrino oscillation experiments, and reactor disappearance experiments. In ref. Phys. Rev. D 84, 053001 (2011), it was shown that neutrino mixing with a heavier sterile neutrino, in the mass range between 33 eV and several GeV, could significantly affect and improve the agreement between neutrino oscillation models with light sterile neutrinos and short baseline experimental results, allowing for a new source of CP violation in appearance experiments and for different apparent mixing angles in appearance and disappearance experiments. However in refs. Phys. Rev. D 86, 033015 (2012) and JHEP 1204, 083 (2012) it was shown that various collider experiment, supernovae, and cosmological constraints can eliminate most of the parameter region where such a heavy sterile neutrino can have a significant effect on neutrino oscillations. In this paper we consider the effects of allowing a new light scalar in the MeV mass region, which is a potential dark matter candidate, to interact with the sterile neutrinos, and show that the resulting model is a consistent theory of neutrino oscillation anomalies and dark matter which can also potentially explain the INTEGRAL excess of 511 keV gamma rays in the central region of the galaxy.