Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unified model linking neutrino masses, dark matter, and high-energy neutrinos through right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal interactions, explaining IceCube observations and baryogenesis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework connecting leptogenesis, dark matter, and high-energy neutrino flux with specific Higgs portal interactions and hierarchical neutrino masses.

Findings

Allowed dark matter mass window identified

Model can explain high-energy neutrino flux features

Potential to test with future neutrino observations

Abstract

We revisit a model in which neutrino masses and mixing are described by a two right-handed (RH) neutrino seesaw scenario, implying a strictly hierarchical light neutrino spectrum. A third decoupled RH neutrino, $N_{\rm DM}$ with mass $M_{\rm DM}$, plays the role of cold dark matter (DM) and is produced by the mixing with a source RH neutrino, $N_{\rm S}$ with mass $M_{\rm S}$, induced by Higgs portal interactions. The same interactions are also responsible for $N_{\rm DM}$ decays. We discuss in detail the constraints coming from DM abundance and stability conditions, showing that in the hierarchical case ($M_{\rm DM} \gg M_{\rm S}$) there is an allowed window on $M_{\rm DM}$, which necessarily implies a contribution from DM decays to the high-energy neutrino flux recently detected by IceCube. We also show how the model can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis in the quasi-degenerate limit. In this case, the DM mass should be within the range 300 GeV $\lesssim M_{\rm S} < M_{\rm DM} \lesssim$ 10 PeV. We discuss the specific properties of this high-energy neutrino flux and show the predicted event spectrum for two exemplary cases. Although DM decays, with a relatively hard spectrum, cannot account for all the IceCube high-energy data, we illustrate how this extra source of high-energy neutrinos could reasonably explain some potential features in the observed spectrum. In this way, this represents a unified scenario for leptogenesis and DM that could be tested during the next years with more high-energy neutrino events.