https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-014-3252-1
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Sterile neutrino dark matter and low scale leptogenesis from a charged scalar
1
Laboratoire Charles Coulomb, UMR 5221 (CNRS/Université Montpellier 2), 34095 , Montpellier, France
2
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 9, 48149 , Münster, Germany
* e-mail: carlos.yaguna@uni-muenster.de
Received:
24
September
2014
Accepted:
26
December
2014
Published online:
27
January
2015
We show that novel paths to dark matter generation and baryogenesis are open when the standard model is extended with three sterile neutrinos and a charged scalar
. Specifically, we propose a new production mechanism for the dark matter particle—a multi-keV sterile neutrino,
—that does not depend on the active-sterile mixing angle and does not rely on a large primordial lepton asymmetry. Instead,
is produced, via freeze-in, by the decays of
while it is in equilibrium in the early Universe. In addition, we demonstrate that, thanks to the couplings between the heavier sterile neutrinos
and
, baryogenesis via leptogenesis can be realized close to the electroweak scale. The lepton asymmetry is generated either by
-decays for masses
TeV, or by
-oscillations for
GeV. Experimental signatures of this scenario include an X-ray line from dark matter decays, and the direct production of
at the LHC. This model thus describes a minimal, testable scenario for neutrino masses, the baryon asymmetry, and dark matter.
© SIF and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015