Shedding Light on Dark Matter and Neutrino Interactions from Cosmology

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility of dark matter-neutrino interactions within cosmology, constraining these interactions using Planck 2018 data and proposing a particle model consistent with the findings.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive cosmological constraints on DM-neutrino interactions and links these constraints to a specific particle physics model.

Findings

Constraints on DM-neutrino scattering cross-section

Limits on DM annihilation into neutrinos

Viable parameter space for a particle DM model

Abstract

In $\rm\Lambda$CDM cosmology, Dark Matter (DM) and neutrinos are assumed to be non-interacting. However, it is possible to have scenarios, where DM-neutrino interaction may be present, leading to scattering of DM with neutrinos and annihilation of DM into neutrinos. We investigate the viability of such scenarios in the light of cosmological data by making use of the Planck 2018 dataset (high-l TT+TE+EE, low-l TT, low-l EE) and constrain these processes in the light of the same. We also discuss a viable particle DM model where DM-neutrino interaction is present, and map the constraints obtained to the parameter space of the model.