Dodelson-Widrow Mechanism In the Presence of Self-Interacting Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper explores how new neutrino interactions can enable keV-scale sterile neutrinos to serve as viable dark matter candidates via the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism, evading current constraints and offering testable predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scenario where self-interacting active neutrinos allow sterile neutrinos to be viable dark matter, overcoming previous astrophysical constraints.

Findings

Sterile neutrinos can constitute all dark matter with new neutrino interactions.

Current astrophysical bounds can be evaded in this new interaction framework.

Next-generation experiments like DUNE could detect signatures of these interactions.

Abstract

keV-scale gauge-singlet fermions, allowed to mix with the active neutrinos, are elegant dark matter (DM) candidates. They are produced in the early universe via the Dodelson-Widrow mechanism and can be detected as they decay very slowly, emitting X-rays. In the absence of new physics, this hypothesis is virtually ruled out by astrophysical observations. Here, we show that new interactions among the active neutrinos allow these sterile neutrinos to make up all the DM while safely evading all current experimental bounds. The existence of these new neutrino interactions may manifest itself in next-generation experiments, including DUNE.