Feeble neutrino portal dark matter at neutrino detectors

TL;DR

This paper investigates a minimal neutrino portal dark matter model with feeble interactions, analyzing its production via freeze-in and potential detection signatures at neutrino detectors like KamLAND, Super-Kamiokande, and IceCube.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal dark sector coupled through a neutrino portal and studies its freeze-in production and detectable neutrino signals at existing neutrino observatories.

Findings

Dark matter can be produced via freeze-in with three different mechanisms.

Late decay of scalar DM produces detectable neutrino fluxes.

Potential for anomalous signals at future neutrino experiments.

Abstract

We explore the neutrino portal dark matter (DM) at its minimum of field content having two dark sector particles coupled to a right-handed neutrino. Assuming the feeble nature of their interactions with the standard model (SM) particles, we analyze the freeze-in production of the observed DM relic density characterized by three different categories depending on the major production mechanisms. The portal provides interesting signatures at the neutrino detectors like KamLAND, Super-Kamiokande and IceCube, from a very late decay of the scalar DM to the fermion DM and the SM neutrino. Such neutrino flux spectrum from the cosmic and galactic origins can produce anomalous signals at future experiments.