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Di Bari, P., King, S. F., & Hossain Rahat, M. (2024). Gravitational waves from phase transitions and cosmic strings in neutrino mass models with multiple majorons. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 068–31pp.
Abstract: We explore the origin of Majorana masses within the majoron model and how this can lead to the generation of a distinguishable primordial stochastic background of gravitational waves. We first show how in the simplest majoron model only a contribution from cosmic string can be within the reach of planned experiments. We then consider extensions containing multiple complex scalars, demonstrating how in this case a spectrum comprising contributions from both a strong first order phase transition and cosmic strings can naturally emerge. We show that the interplay between multiple scalar fields can amplify the phase transition signal, potentially leading to double peaks over the wideband sloped spectrum from cosmic strings. We also underscore the possibility of observing such a gravitational wave background to provide insights into the reheating temperature of the universe. We conclude highlighting how the model can be naturally combined with scenarios addressing the origin of matter of the universe, where baryogenesis occurs via leptogenesis and a right-handed neutrino plays the role of dark matter.
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Ghoshal, A., Gouttenoire, Y., Heurtier, L., & Simakachorn, P. (2023). Primordial black hole archaeology with gravitational waves from cosmic strings. J. High Energy Phys., 08(8), 196–43pp.
Abstract: Light primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses smaller than 10(9) g (10(-24) M-circle dot) evaporate before the onset of Big-Bang nucleosynthesis, rendering their detection rather challenging. If efficiently produced, they may have dominated the universe energy density. We study how such an early matter-dominated era can be probed successfully using gravitational waves (GW) emitted by local and global cosmic strings. While previous studies showed that a matter era generates a single-step suppression of the GW spectrum, we instead find a double-step suppression for local-string GW whose spectral shape provides information on the duration of the matter era. The presence of the two steps in the GW spectrum originates from GW being produced through two events separated in time: loop formation and loop decay, taking place either before or after the matter era. The second step – called the knee – is a novel feature which is universal to any early matter-dominated era and is not only specific to PBHs. Detecting GWs from cosmic strings with LISA, ET, or BBO would set constraints on PBHs with masses between 10(6) and 10(9) g for local strings with tension G μ= 10(-11), and PBHs masses between 10(4) and 10(9) g for global strings with symmetry-breaking scale eta = 10(15) GeV. Effects from the spin of PBHs are discussed.
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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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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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Blennow, M., Fernandez-Martinez, E., Mena, O., Redondo, J., & Serra, E. P. (2012). Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Radiation. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 022–23pp.
Abstract: Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) models invoke a particle-antiparticle asymmetry, similar to the one observed in the Baryon sector, to account for the Dark Matter (DM) abundance. Both asymmetries are usually generated by the same mechanism and generally related, thus predicting DM masses around 5 GeV in order to obtain the correct density. The main challenge for successful models is to ensure efficient annihilation of the thermally produced symmetric component of such a light DM candidate without violating constraints from collider or direct searches. A common way to overcome this involves a light mediator, into which DM can efficiently annihilate and which subsequently decays into Standard Model particles. Here we explore the scenario where the light mediator decays instead into lighter degrees of freedom in the dark sector that act as radiation in the early Universe. While this assumption makes indirect DM searches challenging, it leads to signals of extra radiation at BBN and CMB. Under certain conditions, precise measurements of the number of relativistic species, such as those expected from the Planck satellite, can provide information on the structure of the dark sector. We also discuss the constraints of the interactions between DM and Dark Radiation from their imprint in the matter power spectrum.
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