Sterile neutrino dark matter in warped extra dimensions

We consider a (long-lived) sterile neutrino dark matter scenario in a five dimensional (5D) warped extra dimension model where the fields can live in the bulk, which is partly motivated from the absence of the absolutely stable particles in a simple Randall-Sundrum model. The dominant production of the sterile neutrino can come from the decay of the radion (the scalar field representing the brane separation) around the electroweak scale. The suppressions of the 4D parameters due to the warp factor and the small wave function overlaps in the extra dimension help alleviate the exceeding fine-tunings typical for a sterile neutrino dark matter scenario in a 4D setup.Comment: Typos corrected and references adde

Limit on T-violating P-conserving rhoNN interaction from the gamma decay of Fe-57

We use the experimental limit on the interference of M1 and E2 multipoles in the γ decay of 57Fe to bound the time-reversal-violating parity-conserving ρNN vertex. Our approach is a large-basis shell-model calculation of the interference. We find an upper limit on the parameter g¯ρ, the relative strength of the T-violating ρNN vertex, of close to 10^(-2), a value similar to the best limits from other experiments

Revisiting cosmological bounds on radiative neutrino lifetime

Neutrino oscillation experiments and direct bounds on absolute masses constrain neutrino mass differences to fall into the microwave energy range, for most of the allowed parameter space. As a consequence of these recent phenomenological advances, older constraints on radiative neutrino decays based on diffuse background radiations and assuming strongly hierarchical masses in the eV range are now outdated. We thus derive new bounds on the radiative neutrino lifetime using the high precision cosmic microwave background spectral data collected by the Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer instrument on board of Cosmic Background Explorer. The lower bound on the lifetime is between a few x 10^19 s and 5 x 10^20 s, depending on the neutrino mass ordering and on the absolute mass scale. However, due to phase space limitations, the upper bound in terms of the effective magnetic moment mediating the decay is not better than ~ 10^-8 Bohr magnetons. We also comment about possible improvements of these limits, by means of recent diffuse infrared photon background data. We compare these bounds with pre-existing limits coming from laboratory or astrophysical arguments. We emphasize the complementarity of our results with others available in the literature.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes in the text, few references added. Matches the published versio

Bulk Viscosity, Decaying Dark Matter, and the Cosmic Acceleration

We discuss a cosmology in which cold dark-matter particles decay into relativistic particles. We argue that such decays could lead naturally to a bulk viscosity in the cosmic fluid. For decay lifetimes comparable to the present hubble age, this bulk viscosity enters the cosmic energy equation as an effective negative pressure. We investigate whether this negative pressure is of sufficient magnitude to account fo the observed cosmic acceleration. We show that a single decaying species in a flat, dark-matter dominated cosmology without a cosmological constant cannot reproduce the observed magnitude-redshift relation from Type Ia supernovae. However, a delayed bulk viscosity, possibly due to a cascade of decaying particles may be able to account for a significant fraction of the apparent cosmic acceleration. Possible candidate nonrelativistic particles for this scenario include sterile neutrinos or gauge-mediated decaying supersymmetric particles.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Direct Detection of Warm Dark Matter in the X-ray

We point out a serendipitous link between warm dark matter (WDM) models for structure formation on the one hand and the high sensitivity energy range (1-10 keV) for x-ray photon detection on the Chandra and XMM-Newton observatories on the other. This fortuitous match may provide either a direct detection of the dark matter or exclusion of many candidates. We estimate expected x-ray fluxes from field galaxies and clusters of galaxies if the dark matter halos of these objects are composed of WDM candidate particles with rest masses in the structure formation-preferred range (~1 keV to ~20 keV) and with small radiative decay branches. Existing observations lead us to conclude that for singlet neutrinos (possessing a very small mixing with active neutrinos) to be a viable WDM candidate they must have rest masses < 5 keV in the zero lepton number production mode. Future deeper observations may detect or exclude the entire parameter range for the zero lepton number case, perhaps restricting the viability of singlet neutrino WDM models to those where singlet production is driven by a significant lepton number. The Constellation X project has the capability to detect/exclude singlet neutrino WDM for lepton number values up to 10% of the photon number. We also consider diffuse x-ray background constraints on these scenarios. These same x-ray observations additionally may constrain parameters of active neutrino and gravitino WDM candidates.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, replacement to match ApJ versio

SUSY Dark Matter in the Universe- Theoretical Direct Detection Rates

Exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy or cosmological constant seem to dominate in the Universe. An even higher density of such matter seems to be gravitationally trapped in the Galaxy. Thus its direct detection is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current supersymmetric models provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). Such models combined with fairly well understood physics like the quark substructure of the nucleon and the nuclear structure (form factor and/or spin response function), permit the evaluation of the event rate for LSP-nucleus elastic scattering. The thus obtained event rates are, however, very low or even undetectable. So it is imperative to exploit the modulation effect, i.e. the dependence of the event rate on the earth's annual motion. Also it is useful to consider the directional rate, i.e its dependence on the direction of the recoiling nucleus. In this paper we study such a modulation effect both in non directional and directional experiments. We calculate both the differential and the total rates using both isothermal, symmetric as well as only axially asymmetric, and non isothermal, due to caustic rings, velocity distributions. We find that in the symmetric case the modulation amplitude is small. The same is true for the case of caustic rings. The inclusion of asymmetry, with a realistic enhanced velocity dispersion in the galactocentric direction, yields an enhanced modulation effect, especially in directional experiments.Comment: 17 LATEX pages, 1 table and 6 ps figures include

Model-Independent Comparison of Direct vs. Indirect Detection of Supersymmetric Dark Matter

We compare the rate for elastic scattering of neutralinos from various nuclei with the flux of upward muons induced by energetic neutrinos from neutralino annihilation in the Sun and Earth. We consider both scalar and axial-vector interactions of neutralinos with nuclei. We find that the event rate in a kg of germanium is roughly equivalent to that in a $10^5$- to $10^7$-m$^2$ muon detector for a neutralino with primarily scalar coupling to nuclei. For an axially coupled neutralino, the event rate in a 50-gram hydrogen detector is roughly the same as that in a 10- to 500-m$^2$ muon detector. Expected experimental backgrounds favor forthcoming elastic-scattering detectors for scalar couplings while the neutrino detectors have the advantage for axial-vector couplings.Comment: 10 pages, self-unpacking uuencoded PostScript fil