Connecting neutrino physics with dark matter

TL;DR

This paper explores theoretical models linking neutrino mass generation mechanisms with dark matter properties, examining their phenomenology and observational constraints to address two fundamental questions in astro-particle physics.

Contribution

It reviews minimal see-saw based models like majoron and sterile neutrino scenarios, and discusses how flavor symmetries can stabilize dark matter.

Findings

Majoron and sterile neutrino models can simultaneously explain neutrino masses and dark matter.

Phenomenological predictions are consistent with current cosmological and astrophysical observations.

Flavor symmetries like A_4 can provide a natural stability mechanism for dark matter.

Abstract

The origin of neutrino masses and the nature of dark matter are two of the most pressing open questions of the modern astro-particle physics. We consider here the possibility that these two problems are related, and review some theoretical scenarios which offer common solutions. A simple possibility is that the dark matter particle emerges in minimal realizations of the see-saw mechanism, like in the majoron and sterile neutrino scenarios. We present the theoretical motivation for both models and discuss their phenomenology, confronting the predictions of these scenarios with cosmological and astrophysical observations. Finally, we discuss the possibility that the stability of dark matter originates from a flavour symmetry of the leptonic sector. We review a proposal based on an A_4 flavour symmetry.