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Di Bari, P., Ludl, P. O., & Palomares-Ruiz, S. (2016). Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 044–41pp.
Abstract: We revisit a model in which neutrino masses and mixing are described by a two right-handed (RH) neutrino seesaw scenario, implying a strictly hierarchical light neutrino spectrum. A third decoupled RH neutrino, N-DM with mass M-DM, plays the role of cold dark matter (DM) and is produced by the mixing with a source RH neutrino, Ns with mass M-S, induced by Higgs portal interactions. The same interactions are also responsible for N-DM decays. We discuss in detail the constraints coming from DM abundance and stability conditions showing that in the hierarchical case, for M-DM >> M-S, there is an allowed window on M-DM values necessarily implying a contribution, from DM decays, to the high-energy neutrino flux recently detected by IceCube. We also show how the model can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis in the quasi-degenerate limit. In this case, the DM mass should be within the range 300 GeV less than or similar to M-S < M-DM < 10PeV. We discuss the specific properties of this high-energy neutrino flux and show the predicted event spectrum for two exemplary cases. Although DM decays, with a relatively hard spectrum, cannot account for all the IceCube high-energy data, we illustrate how this extra source of high-energy neutrinos could reasonably explain some potential features in the observed spectrum. In this way, this represents a unified scenario for leptogenesis and DM that could be tested during the next years with more high-energy neutrino events.
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Lopez-Honorez, L., Mena, O., Moline, A., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Vincent, A. C. (2016). The 21 cm signal and the interplay between dark matter annihilations and astrophysical processes. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 004–40pp.
Abstract: Future dedicated radio interferometers, including HERA and SKA, are very promising tools that aim to study the epoch of reionization and beyond via measurements of the 21 cm signal from neutral hydrogen. Dark matter (DM) annihilations into charged particles change the thermal history of the Universe and, as a consequence, affect the 21 cm signal. Accurately predicting the effect of DM strongly relies on the modeling of annihilations inside halos. In this work, we use up-to-date computations of the energy deposition rates by the products from DM annihilations, a proper treatment of the contribution from DM annihilations in halos, as well as values of the annihilation cross section allowed by the most recent cosmological measurements from the Planck satellite. Given current uncertainties on the description of the astrophysical processes driving the epochs of reionization, X-ray heating and Lyman-alpha pumping, we find that disentangling DM signatures from purely astrophysical effects, related to early-time star formation processes or late-time galaxy X-ray emissions, will be a challenging task. We conclude that only annihilations of DM particles with masses of similar to 100 MeV, could leave an unambiguous imprint on the 21 cm signal and, in particular, on the 21cm power spectrum. This is in contrast to previous, more optimistic results in the literature, which have claimed that strong signatures might also be present even for much higher DM masses. Additional measurements of the 21cm signal at different cosmic epochs will be crucial in order to break the strong parameter degeneracies between DM annihilations and astrophysical effects and undoubtedly single out a DM imprint for masses different from similar to 100 MeV.
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Martinelli, M., Scarcella, F., Hogg, N. B., Kavanagh, B. J., Gaggero, D., & Fleury, P. (2022). Dancing in the dark: detecting a population of distant primordial black holes. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 006–47pp.
Abstract: Primordial black holes (PBHs) are compact objects proposed to have formed in the early Universe from the collapse of small-scale over-densities. Their existence may be detected from the observation of gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by PBH mergers, if the signals can be distinguished from those produced by the merging of astrophysical black holes. In this work, we forecast the capability of the Einstein Telescope, a proposed third-generation GW observatory, to identify and measure the abundance of a subdominant population of distant PBHs, using the difference in the redshift evolution of the merger rate of the two populations as our discriminant. We carefully model the merger rates and generate realistic mock catalogues of the luminosity distances and errors that would be obtained from GW signals observed by the Einstein Telescope. We use two independent statistical methods to analyse the mock data, finding that, with our more powerful, likelihood-based method, PBH abundances as small as fPBH approximate to 7 x 10(-6) ( fPBH approximate to 2 x 10(-6)) would be distinguishable from f(PBH) = 0 at the level of 3 sigma with a one year (ten year) observing run of the Einstein Telescope. Our mock data generation code, darksirens, is fast, easily extendable and publicly available on GitLab.
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Aoki, M., Toma, T., & Vicente, A. (2015). Non-thermal production of minimal dark matter via right-handed neutrino decay. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 09(9), 063–19pp.
Abstract: Minimal Dark Matter (MDM) stands as one of the simplest dark matter scenarios. In MDM models, annihilation and co-annihilation processes among the members of the MDM multiplet are usually very efficient, pushing the dark matter mass above O(10) TeV in order to reproduce the observed dark matter relic density. Motivated by this little drawback, in this paper we consider an extension of the MDM scenario by three right-handed neutrinos. Two specific choices for the MDM multiplet are studied: a fermionic SU(2)(L) quintuplet and a scalar SU(2)(L) septuplet. The lightest right-handed neutrino, with tiny Yukawa couplings, never reaches thermal equilibrium in the early universe and is produced by freeze-in. This creates a link between dark matter and neutrino physics: dark matter can be non-thermally produced by the decay of the lightest right-handed neutrino after freeze-out, allowing to lower significantly the dark matter mass. We discuss the phenomenology of the non-thermally produced MDM and, taking into account significant Sommerfeld corrections, we find that the dark matter mass must have some specific values in order not to be in conflict with the current bounds from gamma-ray observations.
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Escudero, M., Mena, O., Vincent, A. C., Wilkinson, R. J., & Boehm, C. (2015). Exploring dark matter microphysics with galaxy surveys. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 09(9), 034–16pp.
Abstract: We use present cosmological observations and forecasts of future experiments to illustrate the power of large-scale structure (LSS) surveys in probing dark matter (DM) microphysics and unveiling potential deviations from the standard ACDM scenario. To quantify this statement, we focus on an extension of ACDM with DM-neutrino scattering, which leaves a distinctive imprint on the angular and matter power spectra. After finding that future CMB experiments (such as COrE+) will not significantly improve the constraints set by the Planck satellite, we show that the next generation of galaxy clustering surveys (such as DESI) could play a leading role in constraining alternative cosmologies and even have the potential to make a discovery. Typically we find that DESI would be an order of magnitude more sensitive to DM interactions than Planck, thus probing effects that until now have only been accessible via N-body simulations.
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Achterberg, A., van Beekveld, M., Caron, S., Gomez-Vargas, G. A., Hendriks, L., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2017). Implications of the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 Galactic Center excess on supersymmetric dark matter. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 040–23pp.
Abstract: The Fermi Collaboration has recently updated their analysis of gamma rays from the center of the Galaxy. They reconfirm the presence of an unexplained emission feature which is most prominent in the region of 1-10 GeV, known as the Galactic Center GeV excess (GCE). Although the GCE is now fi rmly detected, an interpretation of this emission as a signal of self-annihilating dark matter (DM) particles is not unambiguously possible due to systematic effects in the gamma-ray modeling estimated in the Galactic Plane. In this paper we build a covariance matrix, collecting different systematic uncertainties investigated in the Fermi Collaboration's paper that affect the GCE spectrum. We show that models where part of the GCE is due to annihilating DM is still consistent with the new data. We also re-evaluate the parameter space regions of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that can contribute dominantly to the GCE via neutralino DM annihilation. All recent constraints from DM direct detection experiments such as PICO, LUX, PandaX and Xenon1T, limits on the annihilation cross section from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the Large Hadron Collider limits are considered in this analysis. Due to a slight shift in the energy spectrum of the GC excess with respect to the previous Fermi analysis, and the recent limits from direct detection experiments, we find a slightly shifted parameter region of the MSSM, compared to our previous analysis, that is consistent with the GCE. Neutralinos with a mass between 85-220 GeV can describe the excess via annihilation into a pair of W-bosons or top quarks. Remarkably, there are models with low fine-tuning among the regions that we have found. The complete set of solutions will be probed by upcoming direct detection experiments and with dedicated searches in the upcoming data of the Large Hadron Collider.
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Lineros, R. A., & Pereira dos Santos, F. A. (2014). Inert scalar dark matter in an extra dimension inspired model. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 059–17pp.
Abstract: In this paper we analyze a dark matter model inspired by theories with extra dimensions. The dark matter candidate corresponds to the first Kaluza-Klein mode of an real scalar added to the Standard Model. The tower of new particles enriches the calculation of the relic abundance. For large mass splitting, the model converges to the predictions of the inert singlet dark matter model. For nearly degenerate mass spectrum, coannihilations increase the cross-sections used for direct and indirect dark matter searches. Moreover, the Kaluza-Klein zero mode can mix with the SM higgs and further constraints can be applied.
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Villaescusa-Navarro, F., & Dalal, N. (2011). Cores and cusps in warm dark matter halos. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 024–16pp.
Abstract: The apparent presence of large core radii in Low Surface Brightness galaxies has been claimed as evidence in favor of warm dark matter. Here we show that WDM halos do not have cores that are large fractions of the halo size: typically, r(core)/r(200) less than or similar to 10(-3). This suggests an astrophysical origin for the large cores observed in these galaxies, as has been argued by other authors.
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Achterberg, A., Amoroso, S., Caron, S., Hendriks, L., Ruiz de Austri, R., & Weniger, C. (2015). A description of the Galactic Center excess in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 08(8), 006–27pp.
Abstract: Observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) indicate an excess in gamma rays originating from the center of our Galaxy. A possible explanation for this excess is the annihilation of Dark Matter particles. We have investigated the annihilation of neutralinos as Dark Matter candidates within the phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (pMSSM). An iterative particle filter approach was used to search for solutions within the pMSSM. We found solutions that are consistent with astroparticle physics and collider experiments, and provide a fit to the energy spectrum of the excess. The neutralino is a Bino/Higgsino or Bino/Wino/Higgsino mixture with a mass in the range 84-92 GeV or 87-97 GeV annihilating into W bosons. A third solutions is found for a neutralino of mass 174-187 GeV annihilating into top quarks. The best solutions yield a Dark Matter relic density 0.06 < Omega h(2) < 0.13. These pMSSM solutions make clear forecasts for LHC, direct and indirect DM detection experiments. If the pMSSM explanation of the excess seen by Fermi-LAT is correct, a DM signal might be discovered soon.
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Moline, A., Ibarra, A., & Palomares-Ruiz, S. (2015). Future sensitivity of neutrino telescopes to dark matter annihilations from the cosmic diffuse neutrino signal. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 005–34pp.
Abstract: Cosmological observations and cold dark matter N-body simulations indicate that our Universe is populated by numerous halos, where dark matter particles annihilate, potentially producing Standard Model particles. In this paper we calculate the contribution to the diffuse neutrino background from dark matter annihilations in halos at all redshifts and we estimate the future sensitivity to the annihilation cross section of neutrino telescopes such as IceCube or ANTARES. We consider various parametrizations to describe the internal halo properties and for the halo mass function in order to bracket the theoretical uncertainty in the limits from the modeling of the cosmological annihilation flux. We find that observations of the cosmic diffuse neutrino flux at large angular distances from the galactic center lead to constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section which are complementary to ( and for some extrapolations of the astrophysical parameters, better than) those stemming from observations of the Milky Way halo, especially for neutrino telescopes not pointing directly to the Milky Way center, as is the case of IceCube.
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