2012/05/31 by Miha Nemevsek, Goran Senjanovic, Yue Zhang · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.CO #hep-ex #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2012/07/006
32 pages, 7 figures; reference added, further discussion on the flavor structure added, final version accepted by JCAP
arxiv created 2012/06/08 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05
We investigate the viability of having dark matter in the minimal left-right symmetric theory. We find the lightest right-handed neutrino with a mass around keV as the only viable candidate consistent with a TeV scale of left-right symmetry. In order to account for the correct relic density with such low scales, the thermal overproduction of the dark matter in the early universe is compensated by a sufficient late entropy production due to late decay of heavier right-handed neutrinos. We point out that the presence of the right-handed charge-current interactions, operative around the QCD phase transition, has a crucial impact on the amount of dilution, as does the nature of the phase transition itself. A careful numerical study, employing the Boltzmann equations, reveals the existence of a narrow window for the right-handed gauge boson mass, possibly within the reach of LHC (in disagreement with a previous study). We also elaborate on a variety of astrophysical, cosmological and low energy constraints on this scenario.