Opening a new window for warm dark matter

Abstract

We explore the range of parameters for dark-matter sterile neutrinos in an extention of the Minimal Standard Model by three singlet fermions with masses below the electroweak scale (the $\nu$MSM). This simple model can explain a wide range of phenomena, including neutrino oscillations, baryogenesis, the pulsar velocities, and the early reionization. The presence of two heavier sterile neutrinos and the possibility of entropy production in their decays broadens the allowed range of parameters for the dark-matter sterile neutrinos (or other types of dark matter, for example, the gravitino). In addition, the primordial production of dark matter sterile neutrinos allows to escape most of the constraints.Comment: 7 pages, version to appear in Phys. Lett. B. A discussion of new constraints on properties of sterile neutrino, coming from X-ray observations and from Lyman-alpha forest data is adde