Minimal Majoron Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates the viability of Majoron as a dark matter candidate within a minimal Type-I seesaw framework, analyzing production mechanisms and observational constraints.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of Majoron dark matter production via freeze-in and misalignment, establishing bounds on the Majoron mass and compatibility with leptogenesis.

Findings

Majoron mass is bounded by approximately 10 MeV without fine-tuning.

Leptogenesis favors low Majoron mass around 100 eV for misalignment production.

Freeze-in production requires mild fine-tuning of initial conditions.

Abstract

We study Majoron dark matter (DM) in its minimal realization, based on the Type-I seesaw framework extended by a SM-singlet complex scalar. Remaining agnostic about the origin and value of the Majoron mass, we evaluate the DM abundance from both the freeze-in and misalignment mechanisms, and identify the viable parameter space consistent with observational constraints. Without fine-tuning of the initial misalignment angle, we find that the Majoron mass is bounded by $m_J \lesssim \mathcal{O}(10)~\mathrm{MeV}$. We also discuss compatibility with thermal leptogenesis. Successful leptogenesis with two right-handed neutrinos favors misalignment-dominated production with the Majoron mass $m_J \lesssim \mathcal{O}(100)~\mathrm{eV}$, while freeze-in dominated production is compatible with leptogenesis only with a mild fine-tuning of the initial misalignment angle, $\theta_i \lesssim \mathcal{O}(0.01)$.