Addressing the Hubble tension with Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel mass-varying sterile neutrino model coupled to a scalar field that can produce the observed dark matter relic density and help resolve the Hubble tension, with testable predictions for future X-ray observations.

Contribution

It introduces a new mass-varying sterile neutrino mechanism coupled to a scalar field, expanding the parameter space and addressing the Hubble tension.

Findings

The model can generate the correct dark matter relic density.

It alleviates the Hubble tension.

Future X-ray missions can fully probe this parameter space.

Abstract

One of the promising dark matter (DM) candidates is a keV scale sterile neutrino. In the early universe the observed relic of the sterile neutrino DM is generated via the \textit{Dodelson-Widrow} mechanism. However, this production scenario is severely constraint by various astrophysical observations. Many non-standard interactions between active ($\nu_a$) and sterile ($\nu_s$) neutrino have been proposed to evade these astrophysical bounds. Here, we study sterile neutrino in the context of a mass-varying scenario by coupling both active and sterile neutrino to a scalar field. This novel mechanism opens up a new parameter space that generates the observed DM relic and alleviates the \textit{Hubble tension}. We find that the resulting parameter space can be fully probed by future X-ray missions.