New Dark Matter Candidate: Nonthermal Sterile Neutrinos

1998/10/31 by X.R. Shi, Xiangdong Shi, George M. Fuller · 29 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmology #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dark matter #Hot dark matter #Lepton #Lepton number #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino oscillation #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Physics #Sterile neutrino #Warm dark matter #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.82.2832

published as Phys.Rev.Lett. 82 (1999) 2832-2835 · Latex 11 pages + 1 figure

arxiv created 1999/04/03 · openalex publication_date 1999/04/05 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We propose a new and unique dark matter candidate: \ensuremath∼100 eV to \ensuremath∼10 keV sterile neutrinos produced via lepton-number-driven resonant Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein conversion of active neutrinos. The requisite lepton number asymmetries in any of the active neutrino flavors range from 10^\ensuremath-3 to 10^\ensuremath-1 of the photon number. The unique feature here is that the adiabaticity condition of the resonance strongly favors the production of lower energy sterile neutrinos. The resulting nonthermal (cold) energy spectrum can cause these sterile neutrinos to revert to nonrelativistic kinematics at an early epoch, so that free-streaming lengths at or below the dwarf galaxy scale are possible. Therefore, the main problem associated with light neutrino dark matter can be circumvented in our model.

Citations

• Large neutrino asymmetries from neutrino oscillations
• A new mechanism for baryogenesis
• A Large Structure of Galaxies at Redshiftz∼ 3 and Its Cosmological Implications
• Sterile neutrinos as dark matter
• Neutrino oscillations and stellar collapse

Cited by

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• X-Ray Lines from Dark Matter Annihilation at the keV Scale
• Large lepton asymmetry for small baryon asymmetry and warm dark matter
• Glueball scattering cross section in lattice SU(2) Yang-Mills theory
• Bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos revisited
• The dark matter interpretation of the 3.5-keV line is inconsistent with blank-sky observations
• Sterile neutrino dark matter, neutrino secret self-interactions, and extra radiation
• Probing leptogenesis
• Constraints on dark matter particles from theory, galaxy observations, andN-body simulations
• Dark matter model favoured by reionization data: 7 keV sterile neutrino versus cold dark matter
• Perturbative Resonance during Dark Matter Production and Its Cosmological Implications
• Addressing the too big to fail problem with baryon physics and sterile neutrino dark matter
• Sterile neutrino dark matter with supersymmetry
• Impact of Massive Neutrinos and Dark Radiation on the High-redshift Cosmic Web. I. Lyα Forest Observables
• Realistic Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter with keV Mass does not Contradict Cosmological Bounds
• Combining experimental and cosmological constraints on heavy neutrinos
• Improved limits on sterile neutrino dark matter using full-sky Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor data
• Neutrinos in cosmology
• Model-independent analysis of dark matter points to a particle mass at the keV scale
• Dark matter progenitor: Light vector boson decay into sterile neutrinos
• The search for heavy Majorana neutrinos
• N-body simulations of structure formation in thermal inflation cosmologies
• Axion–Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• Improved big bang nucleosynthesis constraints on heavy neutral leptons
• Low scale left-right symmetry and naturally small neutrino mass