Sterile neutrinos, dark matter, and the pulsar velocities in models with a Higgs singlet

We identify the range of parameters for which the sterile neutrinos can simultaneously explain the cosmological dark matter and the observed velocities of pulsars. To satisfy all cosmological bounds, the relic sterile neutrinos must be produced sufficiently cold. This is possible in a class of models with a gauge-singlet Higgs boson coupled to the neutrinos. Sterile dark matter can be detected by the x-ray telescopes. The presence of the singlet in the Higgs sector can be tested at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 4 pages, one figur

Sterile neutrinos in cosmology and how to find them in the lab

A number of observed phenomena in high energy physics and cosmology lack their resolution within the Standard Model of particle physics. These puzzles include neutrino oscillations, baryon asymmetry of the universe and existence of dark matter. We discuss the suggestion that all these problems can be solved by new physics which exists only below the electroweak scale. The dedicated experiments that can confirm or rule out this possibility are discussed.Comment: Invited talk at XXIII Int. Conf. on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, May 25-31, Christchurch, New Zealan

Affleck-Dine mechanism with negative thermal logarithmic potential

We investigate whether the Affleck-Dine (AD) mechanism works when the contribution of the two-loop thermal correction to the potential is negative in the gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models. The AD field is trapped far away from the origin by the negative thermal correction for a long time until the temperature of the universe becomes low enough. The most striking feature is that the Hubble parameter becomes much smaller than the mass scale of the radial component of the AD field, during the trap. Then, the amplitude of the AD field decreases so slowly that the baryon number is not fixed even after the onset of radial oscillation. The resultant baryon asymmetry crucially depends on whether the Hubble parameter, $H$, is larger than the mass scale of the phase component of the AD field, $M_\theta$, at the beginning of oscillation. If $H < M_\theta$ holds, the formation of Q balls plays an essential role to determine the baryon number, which is found to be washed out due to the nonlinear dynamics of Q-ball formation. On the other hand, if $H > M_\theta$ holds, it is found that the dynamics of Q-ball formation does not affect the baryon asymmetry, and that it is possible to generate the right amount of the baryon asymmetry.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX4, 9 postscript figures included, final version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Right-Handed Sneutrino as Cold Dark Matter

We consider supersymmetric models with right-handed neutrinos where neutrino masses are purely Dirac-type. In this model, right-handed sneutrino can be the lightest supersymmetric particle and can be a viable candidate of cold dark matter of the universe. Right-handed sneutrinos are never thermalized in the early universe because of weakness of Yukawa interaction, but are effectively produced by decays of various superparticles. We show that the present mass density of right-handed sneutrino can be consistent with the observed dark matter density.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

The masses of active neutrinos in the nuMSM from X-ray astronomy

In an extention of the Standard Model by three relatively light right-handed neutrinos (the nuMSM model) the role of the dark matter particle is played by the lightest sterile neutrino. We demonstrate that the observations of the extragalactic X-ray background allow to put a strong upper bound on the mass of the lightest active neutrino and predict the absolute values of the mass of the two heavier active neutrinos in the nuMSM, provided that the mass of the dark matter sterile neutrino is larger than 1.8 keV.Comment: 6 pages. revtex

Hadronic Axion Model in Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking and Cosmology of Saxion

Recently we have proposed a simple hadronic axion model within gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. In this paper we discuss various cosmological consequences of the model in great detail. A particular attention is paid to a saxion, a scalar partner of an axion, which is produced as a coherent oscillation in the early universe. We show that our model is cosmologically viable, if the reheating temperature of inflation is sufficiently low. We also discuss the late decay of the saxion which gives a preferable power spectrum of the density fluctuation in the standard cold dark matter model when compared with the observation.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

On the hadronic contribution to sterile neutrino production

Sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range are considered to be a viable candidate for warm dark matter. The rate of their production through active-sterile neutrino transitions peaks, however, at temperatures of the order of the QCD scale, which makes it difficult to estimate their relic abundance quantitatively, even if the mass of the sterile neutrino and its mixing angle were known. We derive here a relation, valid to all orders in the strong coupling constant, which expresses the production rate in terms of the spectral function associated with active neutrinos. The latter can in turn be expressed as a certain convolution of the spectral functions related to various mesonic current-current correlation functions, which are being actively studied in other physics contexts. In the naive weak coupling limit, the appropriate Boltzmann equations can be derived from our general formulae.Comment: 28 pages. v2: small clarifications added, published versio

Sterile neutrino dark matter in B−LB-L extension of the standard model and galactic 511 keV line

Sterile right-handed neutrinos can be naturally embedded in a low scale gauged $U(1)_{B-L}$ extension of the standard model. We show that, within a low reheating scenario, such a neutrino is an interesting candidate for dark matter. We emphasize that if the neutrino mass is of order of MeV, then it accounts for the measured dark matter relic density and also accommodates the observed flux of 511 keV photons from the galactic bulge.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, references added, final version appeared in JCA

On the Moduli Problem and Baryogenesis in Gauge-mediated SUSY Breaking Models

We investigate whether the Affleck-Dine mechanism can produce sufficient baryon number of the universe in the gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, while evading the cosmological moduli problem by late-time entropy production. We find that the Q-ball formation renders the scenario very difficult to work, irrespective of the detail mechanism of the entropy production.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 5 postscript figures include

Some constraints on the Yukawa parameters in the neutrino modification of the Standard Model (nuMSM) and CP-violation

The equations connecting elements of the Yukawa matrix to elements of the active neutrino mass matrix in the \nu MSM theory (an extension of the Standard Model by a singlet of three right-handed neutrinos) was analyzed, and explicit relations for the ratio of the Yukawa matrix elements through elements of the active neutrino mass matrix were obtained. This relation can be used for getting more accurate constraints on the model parameters. Particularly, with the help of the obtained results we investigated CP-violating phase in the \nu MSM theory. We demonstrate that even in the case when elements of the active neutrino mass matrix are real the baryon asymmetry can be generated also.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, many clarifications and references adde