The EDGES signal: An imprint from the mirror world?

TL;DR

The paper proposes that mirror neutrinos and their decay into mirror photons, which convert into visible photons, could explain the anomalous 21-cm absorption signal detected by EDGES, offering a novel cosmological insight.

Contribution

It introduces a new mechanism involving mirror neutrinos and photon conversion to explain EDGES results, extending beyond standard model neutrino decay explanations.

Findings

Mirror neutrino decay can produce mirror photons.

Resonant conversion of mirror to visible photons explains EDGES signal.

Applicable to scenarios with heavier or degenerate mirror neutrinos.

Abstract

Recent results from the Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature (EDGES) show an anomalous spectral feature at redshifts $z\sim 15-20$ in its 21-cm absorption signal. This deviation from cosmological predictions can be understood as a consequence of physics that either lower the hydrogen spin temperature or increases the radiation temperature through the injection of soft photons in the bath. In the latter case, standard model neutrino decays $\nu_i \to \nu_j\,\gamma$ induced by effective magnetic and electric transition moments ($\mu_\text{eff}$) are precluded by the tight astrophysical constraints on $\mu_\text{eff}$. We show that if mirror neutrinos are present in the bath at early times, an analogous mechanism in the mirror sector can lead to a population of mirror photons that are then "processed" into visible photons through resonant conversion, thus accounting for the EDGES signal. We point out that the mechanism can work for mirror neutrinos which are either heavier than or degenerate with the standard model (SM) neutrinos, a scenario naturally realized in mirror twin Higgs models.