A Bayesian analysis of sneutrino DM in the NMSSM with Type-I seesaw mechanism

TL;DR

This paper explores sneutrino dark matter within an extended NMSSM framework incorporating a Type-I seesaw mechanism, analyzing its viability through comprehensive statistical scans and comparing predictions with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian and frequentist analysis of sneutrino DM in the NMSSM with Type-I seesaw, highlighting viable parameter regions and naturalness in Higgsino mass predictions.

Findings

Sneutrino DM scenarios are viable over broad parameter regions.

Higgsino mass can be below 250 GeV, aligning with naturalness.

DM co-annihilates with Higgsinos, suppressing scattering rates.

Abstract

In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) with extra heavy neutrino superfields, neutrino may acquire its mass via a seesaw mechanism and sneutrino may act as a viable dark matter (DM) candidate. Given the strong tension between the naturalness for $Z$ boson mass and the DM direct detection experiments for customary neutralino DM candidate, we augment the NMSSM with Type-I seesaw mechanism, which is the simplest extension of the theory to predict neutrino mass, and study the scenarios of sneutrino DM. We construct likelihood function with LHC Higgs data, B-physics measurements, DM relic density and its direct and indirect search limits, and perform a comprehensive scan over the parameter space of the theory by Nested Sampling method. We adopt both Bayesian and frequentist statistical quantities to illustrate the favored parameter space of the scenarios, the DM annihilation mechanism as well as the features of DM-nucleon scattering. We find that the scenarios are viable over broad parameter regions, especially the Higgsino mass $\mu$ can be below about $250 {\rm GeV}$ for a significant part of the region, which predicts $Z$ boson mass in a natural way. We also find that the DM usually co-annihilated with the Higgsinos to get the measured relic density, and consequently the DM-nucleon scattering rate is naturally suppressed to coincide with the recent XENON-1T results even for light Higgsinos. Other issues, such as the LHC search for the Higgsinos, are also addressed.