Sterile neutrinos as dark matter

1993/03/22 by Scott Dodelson, Lawrence M. Widrow · 44 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.72.17

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.72:17-20,1994 · 10 pages (1 figure available upon request) phyzzx, FERMILAB-Pub-93/057-A

arxiv created 1993/03/22 · openalex publication_date 1994/01/03 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The simplest model that can accommodate a viable nonbaryonic dark matter candidate is the standard electroweak theory with the addition of right-handed (sterile) neutrinos. We consider a single generation of neutrinos with a Dirac mass \ensuremathμ and a Majorana mass M for the right-handed component. If M\ensuremath≫\ensuremathμ (standard hot dark matter corresponds to M=0), then sterile neutrinos are produced via oscillations in the early Universe with energy density independent of M. However, M is crucial in determining the large scale structure of the Universe; for M\ensuremath∼100 eV, sterile neutrinos make an excellent warm dark matter candidate.

Citations

• Neutrino lasing in the early Universe

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