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Jimenez, R., Kitching, T., Pena-Garay, C., & Verde, L. (2010). Can we measure the neutrino mass hierarchy in the sky? J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 05(5), 035–14pp.
Abstract: Cosmological probes are steadily reducing the total neutrino mass window, resulting in constraints on the neutrino-mass degeneracy as the most significant outcome. In this work we explore the discovery potential of cosmological probes to constrain the neutrino hierarchy, and point out some subtleties that could yield spurious claims of detection. This has an important implication for next generation of double beta decay experiments, that will be able to achieve a positive signal in the case of degenerate or inverted hierarchy of Majorana neutrinos. We find that cosmological experiments that nearly cover the whole sky could in principle distinguish the neutrino hierarchy by yielding 'substantial' evidence for one scenario over the another, via precise measurements of the shape of the matter power spectrum from large scale structure and weak gravitational lensing.
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Jeong, Y. S., Palomares-Ruiz, S., Reno, M. H., & Sarcevic, I. (2018). Probing secret interactions of eV-scale sterile neutrinos with the diffuse supernova neutrino background. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 019–43pp.
Abstract: Sterile neutrinos with mass in the eV-scale and large mixings of order theta(0) similar or equal to 0.1 could explain some anomalies found in short-baseline neutrino oscillation data. Here, we revisit a neutrino portal scenario in which eV-scale sterile neutrinos have self-interactions via a new gauge vector boson phi. Their production in the early Universe via mixing with active neutrinos can be suppressed by the induced effective potential in the sterile sector. We study how different cosmological observations can constrain this model, in terms of the mass of the new gauge boson, M-phi, and its coupling to sterile neutrinos, g(s). Then, we explore how to probe part of the allowed parameter space of this particular model with future observations of the diffuse supernova neutrino background by the Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE detectors. For M-phi similar to 5 – 10 keV and g(s) similar to 10-(4) – 10(-2), as allowed by cosmological constraints, we find that interactions of diffuse supernova neutrinos with relic sterile neutrinos on their way to the Earth would result in significant dips in the neutrino spectrum which would produce unique features in the event spectra observed in these detectors.
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Jeong, K. S., & Park, W. I. (2023). Cosmology with a supersymmetric local B – L model. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 016–34pp.
Abstract: We propose a minimal gauged U(1)(B-L) extension of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) which resolves the cosmological moduli problem via thermal inflation, and realizes late-time Affleck-Dine leptogensis so as to generate the right amount of baryon asymmetry at the end of thermal inflation. The present relic density of dark matter can be explained by sneutrinos, MSSM neutralinos, axinos, or axions. Cosmic strings from U(1)(B-L) breaking are very thick, and so the expected stochastic gravitational wave background from cosmic string loops has a spectrum different from the one in the conventional Abelian-Higgs model, as would be distinguishable at least at LISA and DECIGO. The characteristic spectrum is due to a flat potential, and may be regarded as a hint of supersymmetry. Combined with the resolution of moduli problem, the expected signal of gravitational waves constrains the U(1)(B-L) breaking scale to be O(10(12-13)) GeV. Interestingly, our model provides a natural possibility for explaining the observed ultra-high-energy cosmic rays thanks to the fact that the core width of strings in our scenario is very large, allowing a large enhancement of particle emissions from the cusps of string loops. Condensation of LHu flat-direction inside of string cores arises inevitably and can also be the main source of the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays accompanied by ultra-high-energy lightest supersymmetric particles.
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Jackson, C. B., Servant, G., Shaughnessy, G., Tait, T. M. P., & Taoso, M. (2010). Higgs in space! J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 004–29pp.
Abstract: We consider the possibility that the Higgs can be produced in dark matter annihilations, appearing as a line in the spectrum of gamma rays at an energy determined by the masses of the WIMP and the Higgs itself. We argue that this phenomenon occurs generally in models in which the the dark sector has large couplings to the most massive states of the SM and provide a simple example inspired by the Randall-Sundrum vision of dark matter, whose 4d dual corresponds to electroweak symmetry-breaking by strong dynamics which respect global symmetries that guarantee a stable WIMP. The dark matter is a Dirac fermion that couples to a Z' acting as a portal to the Standard Model through its strong coupling to top quarks. Annihilation into light standard model degrees of freedom is suppressed and generates a feeble continuum spectrum of gamma rays. Loops of top quarks mediate annihilation into gamma Z, gamma h, and gamma Z', providing a forest of lines in the spectrum. Such models can be probed by the Fermi/GLAST satellite and ground-based Air Cherenkov telescopes.
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Herrero-Garcia, J., Schwetz, T., & Zupan, J. (2012). On the annual modulation signal in dark matter direct detection. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 005–28pp.
Abstract: We derive constraints on the annual modulation signal in Dark Matter (DM) direct detection experiments in terms of the unmodulated event rate. A general bound independent of the details of the DM distribution follows from the assumption that the motion of the earth around the sun is the only source of time variation. The bound is valid for a very general class of particle physics models and also holds in the presence of an unknown unmodulated background. More stringent bounds are obtained, if modest assumptions on symmetry properties of the DM halo are adopted. We illustrate the bounds by applying them to the annual modulation signals reported by the DAMA and CoGeNT experiments in the framework of spin-independent elastic scattering. While the DAMA signal satisfies our bounds, severe restrictions on the DM mass can be set for CoGeNT.
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