Neutrino Masses and Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter from the PeV Scale

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified low-energy seesaw mechanism involving a PeV-scale symmetry breaking to explain active neutrino masses and sterile neutrino dark matter, with multiple production pathways for the dark matter relic.

Contribution

It introduces a novel low-energy seesaw model with PeV-scale symmetry breaking that connects neutrino masses and sterile neutrino dark matter within the nuMSM framework.

Findings

Active neutrino masses are explained by the modified seesaw.

Sterile neutrino dark matter can be produced via oscillation or freeze-in.

The model aligns with the nuMSM effective theory.

Abstract

We show that active neutrino masses and a keV-GeV mass sterile neutrino dark matter candidate can result from a modified, low energy seesaw mechanism if right-handed neutrinos are charged under a new symmetry broken by a scalar field vacuum expectation value at the PeV scale. The dark matter relic abundance can be obtained through active-sterile oscillation, freeze-in through the decay of the heavy scalar, or freeze-in via non-renormalizable interactions at high temperatures. The low energy effective theory maps onto the widely studied nuMSM framework.