Using a mechanism which allows naturally small Dirac neutrino masses and its linkage to a dark gauge $U(1)_D$ symmetry, a realistic Dirac neutrino mass matrix is derived from $S_3$. The dark sector naturally contains a fermion singlet having a small seesaw mass. It is thus a good candidate for freeze-in dark matter from the decay of the $U(1)_D$ Higgs boson.
Radiative Dirac neutrino masses and their mixing are linked to dark matter through the non-Abelian discrete symmetry $A_5$ of the 4-dimensional pentatope, softly broken to $A_4$ of the 3-dimensional tetrahedron. This unifying understanding of neutrino family structure from dark matter is made possible through the interplay of gauge symmetry, renormalizable Lagrangian field theory, and softly broken discrete symmetries. Dark neutral fermions are produced through Higgs decay.
Motivated by the fact that the origin of tiny Dirac neutrino masses via the standard model Higgs field and non-thermal dark matter populating the Universe via freeze-in mechanism require tiny dimensionless couplings of similar order of magnitudes $(\sim 10^{-12})$, we propose a framework that can dynamically generate such couplings in a unified manner. Adopting a flavour symmetric approach based on $A_4$ group, we construct a model where Dirac neutrino coupling to the standard model Higgs and dark matter coupling to its mother particle occur at dimension six level involving the same flavon fie…
We discuss Dirac neutrinos whose right-handed component $ν_R$ has new interactions that may lead to a measurable contribution to the effective number of relativistic neutrino species $N_{\rm eff}$. We aim at a model-independent and comprehensive study on a variety of possibilities. Processes for $ν_R$-genesis from decay or scattering of thermal species, with spin-0, spin-1/2, or spin-1 initial or final states are all covered. We calculate numerically and analytically the contribution of $ν_R$ to $N_{\rm eff}$ primarily in the freeze-in regime, since the freeze-out regime has been studied befor…
Feebly interacting thermal relics are promising dark matter candidates. Among them, scenarios of inelastic Dark Matter evade direct detection by suppressed elastic scattering off atomic nuclei. We introduce inelastic Dirac Dark Matter, a new model with two Dirac fermions in the MeV-GeV mass range. At feeble couplings, dark matter can depart from chemical as well as kinetic equilibrium with the Standard Model before freeze-out. In this case, the freeze-out is driven by conversion processes like coscattering, rather than coannihilation. We show that inelastic Dirac relics are consistent with cos…
We propose a scenario where dark matter (DM) can be generated non-thermally due to the presence of a light Dirac neutrino portal between the standard model (SM) and dark sector particles. The SM is minimally extended by three right handed neutrinos ($ν_R$), a Dirac fermion DM candidate ($ψ$) and a complex scalar ($ϕ$), transforming non-trivially under an unbroken $\mathbb{Z}_4$ symmetry while being singlets under the SM gauge group. While DM and $ν_R$ couplings are considered to be tiny in order to be in the non-thermal or freeze-in regime, $ϕ$ can be produced either thermally or non-thermally…
We present a freeze-in realization of the Dirac neutrinogenesis in which the decaying particle that generates the lepton-number asymmetry is in thermal equilibrium. As the right-handed Dirac neutrinos are produced non-thermally, the lepton-number asymmetry is accumulated and partially converted to the baryon-number asymmetry via the rapid sphaleron transitions. The necessary CP-violating condition can be fulfilled by a purely thermal kinetic phase from the wavefunction correction in the lepton-doublet sector, which has been neglected in most leptogenesis-based setup. Furthermore, this conditio…
We consider a $U(1)_{B-L}$ model with a $Z^\prime$ portal Dirac fermion dark matter (DM) $χ$ of low mass which couples very weakly to the $B - L$ gauge boson $Z^\prime$. An arbitrary $B-L$ charge $Q\neq \pm1, \pm 3$ of the DM $χ$ ensures its stability. Motivated by the sensitivity reach of forthcoming "Lifetime Frontier" experiments, we focus on the $Z^\prime$ mass, $m_{Z^\prime}$, in the sub-GeV to few GeV range. To evaluate the DM relic abundance, we examine both the freeze-out and freeze-in DM scenarios. For the freeze-out scenario, we show that the observed DM abundance is reproduced near …
Dark matter (DM) that interacts too weakly with the Standard Model (SM) to reach full thermodynamic equilibrium can be still be created in significant amounts by rare SM collisions. This mechanism, called freeze-in, can proceed through a renormalizable connector operator with a very small coefficient, or a non-renormalizable connector operator suppressed by a large mass scale. In the latter non-renormalizable scenario, the dominant creation of DM particles typically occurs at the largest SM temperature attained during the radiation era (assuming a standard cosmological history), and for this r…
It is shown how a mechanism which allows naturally small Dirac neutrino masses is linked to the existence of dark matter through an anomaly-free U(1) gauge symmetry of fermion singlets.
A Freeze-In Interpretation of the LZ High-Energy Nuclear Recoil Event
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen(哥廷根大学);Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies(都柏林高等研究院);Helsinki Institute of Physics, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2a, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland(赫尔辛基物理研究所);Lund University(隆德大学);Universidade de Aveiro(阿威罗大学);Universidade do Minho(米尼奥大学)
Dark matter is postulated to be a neutral Dirac fermion, charged under a dark $U(1)_D$ gauge symmetry. Scalar partners of the quarks and leptons are also charged under $U(1)_D$. The dark gauge boson $Z_D$ and the dark Higgs boson $h_D$ enable either freeze-out or freeze-in mechanisms to account for the correct dark matter relic abundance. Dark number $D$ is connected to baryon number $B$ and lepton number $L$ through $D=3B+L-(2j)_{[mod~2]}$ where $j$ is the intrinsic spin of the particle.
We extend the Dirac Scotogenic model with the aim of realizing neutrino masses together with the mass of a keV-scale dark matter (DM) candidate via the same one-loop topology. Two of the Standard Model (SM) neutrinos become massive Dirac fermions while the third one remains massless. Our particle content is motivated by an anomaly free $\text{U}(1)_\text{B-L}$ gauge symmetry with exotic irrational charges and we need to enforce an additional $\mathcal{Z}_5$ symmetry. The dark matter candidate does not mix with the active neutrinos and does not have any decay modes to SM particles. DM is produc…
We propose an alternate, calculable mechanism of dark matter genesis, "thermal freeze-in," involving a Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) interacting so feebly with the thermal bath that it never attains thermal equilibrium. As with the conventional "thermal freeze-out" production mechanism, the relic abundance reflects a combination of initial thermal distributions together with particle masses and couplings that can be measured in the laboratory or astrophysically. The freeze-in yield is IR dominated by low temperatures near the FIMP mass and is independent of unknown UV physics, suc…
New gauge bosons at the MeV scale with tiny gauge couplings (so-called dark photons) can be responsible for the freeze-in production of dark matter and provide a clear target for present and future experiments. We study the effects of thermal mixing between dark photons and Standard Model gauge bosons and of the resulting plasmon decays on dark matter production before and after the electroweak phase transition. In the parameter regions preferred by the observed dark matter relic abundance, the dark photon is sufficiently long-lived to be probed with fixed-target experiments and light enough t…
We explore relativistic freeze-in production of scalar dark matter in gauged $B-L$ model, where we focus on the production of dark matter from the decay and annihilation of Standard Model (SM) and $B-L$ Higgs bosons. We consider the Bose-Einstein (BE) and Fermi-Dirac (FD) statistics, along with the thermal mass correction of the SM Higgs boson in our analysis. We show that in addition to the SM Higgs boson, the annihilation and decay of the $B-L$ scalar can also contribute substantially to the dark matter relic density. Potential effects of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) and thermal mass…
We examine simple extension of the standard model with a pair of fermions, one singlet and a doublet, in a common thread linking the dark matter problem with the smallness of neutrino masses associated with several exciting features. In the presence of a small bare Majorana mass term, the singlet fermion brings in a pseudo-Dirac dark matter capable of evading the strong spin-independent direct detection bound by suppressing the dark matter annihilation processes mediated by the neutral current. In consequence, the allowed range of mixing angle between the doublet and the singlet fermions gets …
The type Ib seesaw, as an alternative explanation to the origin of neutrino mass, provides a new intriguing way to connect the neutrino physics to cosmology. In this proceeding, we consider a minimal type Ib seesaw model where the effective neutrino mass operator involves two different Higgs doublets and a heavy Dirac mass. We propose a minimal dark matter extension of this model, in which the Dirac heavy neutrino is coupled to a dark Dirac fermion and a dark complex scalar field, both odd under a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry, where the lighter one serves as a dark matter candidate. Focussing on th…
We explore the dark matter freeze-in mechanism within the gauge mediation framework, which involves a hidden Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) coupling feebly with the messenger fields while the messengers are still in the thermal bath. The FIMP is the fermionic component of the pseudo-moduli in a generic metastable supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking model and resides in the hidden sector. The relic abundance and the mass of the FIMP are determined by the SUSY breaking scale and the feeble coupling. The gravitino, which is the canonical dark matter candidate in the gauge mediation framewor…
We propose a minimal model to simultaneously account for a realistic neutrino spectrum through a type-I seesaw mechanism and a viable dark matter relic density. The model is an extension of the Littlest Seesaw model in which the two right-handed neutrinos of the model are coupled to a $Z_2$-odd dark sector via right-handed neutrino portal couplings. In this model, a highly constrained and direct link between dark matter and neutrino physics is achieved by considering the freeze-in production mechanism of dark matter. We show that the neutrino Yukawa couplings which describe neutrino mass and m…
We point out that 7 keV axino dark matter (DM) in the R-parity violating (RPV) supersymmetric (SUSY) Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky model can simultaneously reproduce the 3.5keV X-ray excess, and evade stringent constraints from the Ly-alpha forest data. Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking naturally generates both axino interactions with minimal SUSY standard model particles and RPV interactions. The RPV interaction introduces an axino-neutrino mixing and provides axino DM as a variant of sterile neutrino DM, whose decay into a monochromatic photon can be detected by X-ray observations. Axinos,…
The freeze-out of massless particles is investigated. The effects due to quantum statistics, Fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein, of all particles relevant for the process are analyzed. Solutions of appropriate Boltzmann equation are compared with those obtained using some popular approximate methods. As an application of general results the relic density of dark radiation in Weinberg's Higgs portal model is discussed.
We show that a Dirac right-handed scalar neutrino can be weakly interacting massive particle in the neutrinophilic Higgs model. When the additional Higgs fields couple only to the leptonic sector through neutrino Yukawa couplings, the right number of relic density of dark matter can be obtained from thermal freeze-out of the dark matter annihilation into charged leptons and neutrinos. At present, this annihilation is suppressed by the velocity of dark matter. However one-loop annihilation cross section into $γγ$ can be larger than that of the helicity suppressed annihilation into fermions, bec…
We propose a unified theory of dark matter (DM) genesis and baryogenesis. It explains the observed link between the DM density and the baryon density, and is fully testable by a combination of collider experiments and precision tests. Our theory utilises the "thermal freeze-in" mechanism of DM production, generating particle anti-particle asymmetries in decays from visible to hidden sectors. Calculable, linked, asymmetries in baryon number and DM number are produced by the feeble interaction mediating between the two sectors, while the out-of-equilibrium condition necessary for baryogenesis is…
We discuss asymmetric or symmetric dark matter candidate in the supersymmetric Dirac leptogenesis scenario. By introducing a singlet superfield coupling to right-handed neutrinos, the overabundance problem of dark matter can be evaded and various possibilities for dark matter candidate arise. If the singlino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), it becomes naturally asymmetric dark matter. On the other hand, the right-handed sneutrino is a symmetric dark matter candidate whose relic density can be determined by the usual thermal freeze-out process. The conventional neutralino or gravi…
KEK Theory Center, IPNS, KEK(高能加速器研究机构理论中心,粒子核物理研究部);Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI(综合研究大学院大学高等研究院);Department of Physics, The University of Osaka(大阪大学物理学系)
We recall the argument based both on Dirac's square root procedure and an intrinsic Pauli principle that sterile fundamental fermions with spin 1/2 (sterinos) ought to appear in Nature in two or three generations, while the Standard Model leptons and quarks are forced to develop three generations. Then, sterinos in two or three generations, if stable, lead to the cold dark matter in two or three species, when the thermal freeze-out mechanism works properly. If they are stable only in their lowest generation, the so called exciting cold dark matter may be formed.
We consider a minimal type Ib seesaw model where the effective neutrino mass operator involves two different Higgs doublets, and the two right-handed neutrinos form a heavy Dirac mass. We propose a minimal dark matter extension of this model, in which the Dirac heavy neutrino is coupled to a dark Dirac fermion and a dark complex scalar field, both charged under a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry, where the lighter of the two is a dark matter candidate. Focussing on the fermionic dark matter case, we explore the parameter space of the seesaw Yukawa couplings, the neutrino portal couplings and dark scala…
We propose the simplest TeV-scale scotogenic extension of the original 3-3-1 theory, where dark matter stability is linked to the Dirac nature of neutrinos, which results from an unbroken $B-L$ gauge symmetry. The new gauge bosons get masses through the interplay of spontaneous symmetry breaking à la Higgs and the Stueckelberg mechanism.
We suggest that many of the free parameters in the supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model can be all linked together to the existence of a non universal U(1) gauge symmetry, which has been spontaneously broken at very high scale. Such a symmetry can easily generate, via non-renormalizable operators, appropriate tree level fermion mass textures as well as the $μ$-term of the Higgs potential. We give a general parametrization of those terms. As an output, R parity breaking terms only appear at a non-renormalizable level and linked to the Yukawa couplings, giving rise to the possibility …
We propose a minimal extension of the standard model of particle physics to accommodate cosmic inflation, dark matter and light neutrino masses. While the inflationary phase is obtained from a modified chaotic inflation scenario, consistent with latest cosmology data, the dark matter particle is a fermion singlet which remains out of equilibrium in the early universe. The scalar field which revives the chaotic inflation scenario by suitable modification also assists in generating tiny couplings of dark matter with its mother particle, naturally realizing the non-thermal or freeze-in type dark …
We explore a simple extension to the Standard Model containing two gauge singlets: a Dirac fermion and a real pseudoscalar. In some regions of the parameter space both singlets are stable without the necessity of additional symmetries, then becoming a possible two-component dark matter model. We study the relic abundance production via freeze-out, with the latter determined by annihilations, conversions and semi-annihilations. Experimental constraints from invisible Higgs decay, dark matter relic abundance and direct/indirect detection are studied. We found three viable regions of the paramete…
We consider a possible scenario for the generation of Dirac neutrino masses motivated by Type I string theory. The smallness of the neutrino Yukawa couplings is explained by an anisotropic compactification with one compactification radius larger than the others. In addition to this we utilise small Yukawa couplings to develop strong links between the origin of neutrino masses and the physics driving inflation. We construct a minimal model which simultaneously accommodates small Dirac neutrino masses leading to bi-large lepton mixing as well as an inflationary solution to the strong CP and to t…
The possibility of light dark matter (DM) annihilating through a dark photon (DP) which kinetically mixes (KM) with the Standard Model (SM) hypercharge field is a very attractive scenario. For DM in the interesting mass range below $\sim 1$ GeV, it is well known that bounds from the CMB provide a very strong model building constraint forcing the DM annihilation cross section to be roughly 3 orders of magnitude below that needed to reproduce the observed relic density. Under most circumstances this removes the possibility of an $s$-wave annihilation process for DM in this mass range as would be…
We study the possibility of generating tiny Dirac neutrino masses at one loop level through the \textit{scotogenic} mechanism such that one of the particles going inside the loop can be a stable cold dark matter (DM) candidate. Majorana mass terms of singlet fermions as well as tree level Dirac neutrino masses are prevented by incorporating the presence of additional discrete symmetries in a minimal fashion, which also guarantee the stability of the dark matter candidate. Due to the absence of total lepton number violation, the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe is generated through the…
For a cold dark matter (DM) originating from the co-annihilation processes, there will be excited state(s) in the dark sector, that may decay or annihilate away shortly after their freeze-out. In this paper we investigate the impact of the decay of these excited states on the effective number of neutrino species, $N_{\rm eff}^{}$, which is an important cosmological parameter and will be tested by the future CMB-S4 project. We work in the framework of pseudo-Dirac DM mode via the Higgs portal. The relic density and the direct detection signal of the DM are calculated, which gives the available …
Models that seek to produce a line at ~130 GeV as possibly present in the Fermi data face a number of phenomenological hurdles, not the least of which is achieving the high cross section into gamma gamma required. A simple explanation is a fermionic dark matter particle that couples to photons through loops of charged messengers. We study the size of the dimension 5 dipole (for a pseudo-Dirac state) and dimension 7 Rayleigh operators in such a model, including all higher order corrections in 1/M_{mess}. Such corrections tend to enhance the annihilation rates beyond the naive effective operator…
In an analytical way of studying matter effects on neutrino oscillations, the Naumov and Toshev relations have been derived to respectively link the Jarlskog invariant of CP violation and the Dirac phase in the standard parametrization of the $3\times 3$ flavor mixing matrix to their matter-corrected counterparts. Here we show that there exist similar relations for Dirac neutrinos and charged leptons evolving with energy scales via the one-loop renormalization-group (RG) equations in the tau-dominance approximation, and for the running behaviors of up- and down-type quarks in the top-dominance…
We present here a novel and testable mechanism for leptogenesis, which is characterized by a purely thermal generation of lepton asymmetry via scalar decay. Guided by the thermal mass matrix diagonalization in the finite-temperature regime, we propose a scenario in which the baryon asymmetry is formulated in terms of the masses and mixing from hierarchical Dirac neutrinos, as well as a vacuum scale accountable for the sub-eV neutrino masses. This allows a natural and direct link between the high-scale \textit{CP} asymmetry and the low-energy Dirac \textit{CP}-violating phase without involved m…
Elementary keV sterile Dirac neutrinos can be a natural ingredient of the composite neutrino scenario. For a certain class of composite neutrino theories, these sterile neutrinos naturally have the appropriate mixing angles to be resonantly produced warm dark matter (WDM). Alternatively, we show these sterile neutrinos can be WDM produced by an entropy-diluted thermal freeze-out, with the necessary entropy production arising not from an out-of-equilibrium decay, but rather from the confinement of the composite neutrino sector, provided there is sufficient supercooling.
We explore a new mechanism for reproducing the Dark Matter (DM) abundance: scatterings of one DM particle on light Standard Model particles. Strong bounds on its decays can be satisfied if DM undergoes freeze-in and has a mass around or below the pion mass. This happens, for example, in theories with a right-handed neutrino interacting with charged fermions through a leptoquark exchange. These leptoquarks can be linked to the ones motivated by the B-physics anomalies if assumptions about the flavour structure are made. DM signals are unusual, with interesting possibilities for direct and indir…