Neutrino lines from DM decay induced by high-scale seesaw interactions

TL;DR

This paper explores how high-scale seesaw interactions can induce dark matter decay, potentially producing detectable neutrino lines, especially if the seesaw scale aligns with the Weinberg operator scale.

Contribution

It demonstrates that neutrino lines from dark matter decay can arise from UV physics related to the seesaw mechanism, linking neutrino mass origin to dark matter phenomenology.

Findings

Neutrino lines could be detectable with current neutrino telescopes.

Seesaw physics at the Weinberg scale can induce observable dark matter decay signals.

Models with gauge boson dark matter can produce neutrino lines consistent with experimental sensitivity.

Abstract

If the stability of the dark matter (DM) particle is due to an accidental symmetry, nothing prevents UV physics from destabilising it by inducing DM decays suppressed by powers of the UV scale. The seesaw physics, presumably at the origin of neutrino mass, could induce such a decay. We show that if the seesaw scale lies around the usual Weinberg operator scale, the induced DM decay could generically lead to neutrino lines whose intensity is of the order of the present sensitivity of neutrino telescopes. We illustrate this possibility with models in which the DM is made of the gauge boson(s) of an abelian or non-abelian gauge symmetry.