Mass bounds for baryogenesis from particle decays and the inert doublet model

In models for thermal baryogenesis from particle decays, the mass of the decaying particle is typically many orders of magnitude above the TeV scale. We will discuss different ways to lower the energy scale of baryogenesis and present the corresponding lower bounds on the particle's mass. This is done specifically for the inert doublet model with heavy Majorana neutrinos and then we indicate how to extrapolate the results to other scenarios. We also revisit the question of whether or not dark matter, neutrino masses, and the cosmic baryon asymmetry can be explained simultaneously at low energies in the inert doublet model.Comment: 25 pages - 5 figures - typos corrected and references added - accepted for publication in JCA

On different approaches to freeze-in and freeze-out leptogenesis with quasi-degenerate neutrinos

We compare two approaches for determining the generation of lepton asymmetry during production and decay of quasi-degenerate neutrinos, namely the density matrix formalism and a recent proposal which does not involve any counting of neutrino number densities and is based on plugging the resummed propagator in a quantum field theory model for neutrino oscillations. We show numerically and analytically that they are almost equivalent except in the limit of very large mass splittings. The comparison, performed in a simple scalar toy model, helps to understand several issues that have been discussed in the literature.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Washout processes in post-sphaleron baryogenesis from way-out-of-equilibrium decays

We study washout processes in post-sphaleron baryogenesis, a mechanism where the matter-antimatter asymmetry is generated in the decay of exotic particles after the electroweak phase transition. In particular we focus, in a quite model independent way, on those scattering processes that have an amplitude proportional to the CP asymmetry. We find that when the scatterings involve only massless particles, the washouts are very severe for light decaying particles (with masses below a few hundred of GeV) and successful baryogenesis is only possible in a small portion of parameter space. Instead, if even a very light particle participates in these processes, the allowed region of parameter space opens considerably, although the final amount of baryon asymmetry may differ significantly from the expression which is typically used and neglects washouts. Furthermore, we analyze washouts from the non-thermal spectrum of energetic particles produced in cascade decays and indicate in which models they can be relevant.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

On baryogenesis from dark matter annihilation

We study in detail the conditions to generate the baryon asymmetry of the universe from the annihilation of dark matter. This scenario requires a low energy mechanism for thermal baryogenesis, hence we first discuss some of these mechanisms together with the specific constraints due to the connection with the dark matter sector. Then we show that, contrary to what stated in previous studies, it is possible to generate the cosmological asymmetry without adding a light sterile dark sector, both in models with violation and with conservation of B-L. In addition, one of the models we propose yields some connection to neutrino masses.Comment: 30 pages, 9 artistic figures. V2 minor changes, matches published version in JCA

CP Violation from Scatterings with Gauge Bosons in Leptogenesis

We present an explicit computation of the CP asymmetry in scattering processes involving the heavy right-handed neutrinos of the type I seesaw framework and the Standard Model gauge bosons. Compared to CP violation in two--body decays and in scatterings with top quarks there are new contributions at one loop in the form of new type of vertex corrections as well as of box diagrams. We show that their presence implies that, unlike the CP asymmetry in scatterings with top quarks, the CP asymmetry in scatterings with gauge bosons is different from the two-body decay asymmetry even for hierarchical right-handed neutrinos. This also holds for the L-conserving CP asymmetry in scatterings with U(1)$_Y$ gauge bosons.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Non-resonant leptogenesis in seesaw models with an almost conserved B-L

We review the motivations and some results on leptogenesis in seesaw models with an almost conserved lepton number. The paper is based on a talk given at the 5th International Symposium on Symmetries in Subatomic Physics, SSP2012.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Published in the proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Symmetries in Subatomic Physics, SSP201

On fast CP violating interactions in leptogenesis

We show that when the relevant CP violating interactions in leptogenesis are fast, the different matter density asymmetries are determined at each instant by a balance condition between the amount of asymmetry being created and destroyed. This fact allows to understand in a simple way many features of leptogenesis in the strong washout regime. In particular, we find some non-trivial effects of flavour changing interactions that conserve lepton number, which are specially relevant in models for leptogenesis that rely heavily on flavour effects.Comment: V2: To match published version in JCAP. Minor changes, including one figure, with respect to V1. 17 pages, 4 figure

Flavour Issues in Leptogenesis

We study the impact of flavour in thermal leptogenesis, including the quantum oscillations of the asymmetries in lepton flavour space. In the Boltzmann equations we find different numerical factors and additional terms which can affect the results significantly. The upper bound on the CP asymmetry in a specific flavour is weaker than the bound on the sum. This suggests that -- when flavour dynamics is included -- there is no model-independent limit on the light neutrino mass scale,and that the lower bound on the reheat temperature is relaxed by a factor ~ (3 - 10).Comment: 19 pages, corrected equations for flavour oscillation