Adhikari, R. et al, Pastor, S., & Valle, J. W. F. (2017). A White Paper on keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 01(1), 025–247pp.
Abstract: We present a comprehensive review of keV-scale sterile neutrino Dark Matter, collecting views and insights from all disciplines involved – cosmology, astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics – in each case viewed from both theoretical and experimental/observational perspectives. After reviewing the role of active neutrinos in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, we focus on sterile neutrinos in the context of the Dark Matter puzzle. Here, we first review the physics motivation for sterile neutrino Dark Matter, based on challenges and tensions in purely cold Dark Matter scenarios. We then round out the discussion by critically summarizing all known constraints on sterile neutrino Dark Matter arising from astrophysical observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical considerations. In this context, we provide a balanced discourse on the possibly positive signal from X-ray observations. Another focus of the paper concerns the construction of particle physics models, aiming to explain how sterile neutrinos of keV-scale masses could arise in concrete settings beyond the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The paper ends with an extensive review of current and future astrophysical and laboratory searches, highlighting new ideas and their experimental challenges, as well as future perspectives for the discovery of sterile neutrinos.
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Kim, J., Ko, P., & Park, W. I. (2017). Higgs-portal assisted Higgs inflation with a sizeable tensor-to-scalar ratio. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 003–16pp.
Abstract: We show that the Higgs portal interactions involving extra dark Higgs field can save generically the original Higgs inflation of the standard model (SM) from the problem of a deep non-SM vacuum in the SM Higgs potential. Specifically, we show that such interactions disconnect the top quark pole mass from inflationary observables and allow multi-dimensional parameter space to save the Higgs inflation, thanks to the additional parameters (the dark Higgs boson mass m(phi), the mixing angle a between the SM Higgs H and dark Higgs Phi, and the mixed quartic coupling) affecting RG-running of the Higgs quartic coupling. The effect of Higgs portal interactions may lead to a larger tensor-to-scalar ratio, 0.08 less than or similar to r less than or similar to 0.1, by adjusting relevant parameters in wide ranges of alpha and m(phi), some region of which can be probed at future colliders. Performing a numerical analysis we find an allowed region of parameters, matching the latest Planck data.
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Diamanti, R., Ando, S., Gariazzo, S., Mena, O., & Weniger, C. (2017). Cold dark matter plus not-so-clumpy dark relics. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 008–17pp.
Abstract: Various particle physics models suggest that, besides the (nearly) cold dark matter that accounts for current observations, additional but sub-dominant dark relics might exist. These could be warm, hot, or even contribute as dark radiation. We present here a comprehensive study of two-component dark matter scenarios, where the first component is assumed to be cold, and the second is a non-cold thermal relic. Considering the cases where the non-cold dark matter species could be either a fermion or a boson, we derive consistent upper limits on the non-cold dark relic energy density for a very large range of velocity dispersions, covering the entire range from dark radiation to cold dark matter. To this end, we employ the latest Planck Cosmic Microwave Background data, the recent BOSS DR11 and other Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements, and also constraints on the number of Milky Way satellites, the latter of which provides a measure of the suppression of the matter power spectrum at the smallest scales due to the free-streaming of the non-cold dark matter component. We present the results on the fraction f(ncdm) of non-cold dark matter with respect to the total dark matter for different ranges of the non-cold dark matter masses. We find that the 2 sigma limits for non-cold dark matter particles with masses in the range 1-10 keV are f(ncdm) <= 0.29 (0.23) for fermions (bosons), and for masses in the 10-100 keV range they are f(ncdm) <= 0.43 (0.45), respectively.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Lotze, M., et al. (2018). All-flavor Search for a Diffuse Flux of Cosmic Neutrinos with Nine Years of ANTARES Data. Astrophys. J. Lett., 853(1), L7–5pp.
Abstract: The ANTARES detector is at present the most sensitive neutrino telescope in the northern hemisphere. The highly significant cosmic neutrino excess observed by the Antarctic IceCube detector can be studied with ANTARES, exploiting its complementing field of view, exposure, and lower energy threshold. Searches for an all-flavor diffuse neutrino signal, covering nine years of ANTARES data taking, are presented in this Letter. Upward-going events are used to reduce the atmospheric muon background. This work includes for the first time in ANTARES both track-like (mainly nu mu) and shower-like (mainly nu(e)) events in this kind of analysis. Track-like events allow for an increase of the effective volume of the detector thanks to the long path traveled by muons in rock and/ or sea water. Shower-like events are well reconstructed only when the neutrino interaction vertex is close to, or inside, the instrumented volume. A mild excess of high-energy events over the expected background is observed in nine years of ANTARES data in both samples. The best fit for a single power-law cosmic neutrino spectrum, in terms of perflavor flux at 100 TeV, is Phi(1f)(0) (100 TeV) = (1.7 +/- 1.0) x 10(-18) GeV-1 cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1) with spectral index Gamma = 2.4(-0.4)(+0.5) .The null cosmic flux assumption is rejected with a significance of 1.6 sigma .
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KM3NeT Collaboration(Aiello, S. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Calvo, D., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Gozzini, S. R., et al. (2018). Characterisation of the Hamamatsu photomultipliers for the KM3NeT Neutrino Telescope. J. Instrum., 13, P05035–17pp.
Abstract: The Hamamatsu R12199-023-inch photomultiplier tube is the photodetector chosen for the first phase of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. About 7000 photomultipliers have been characterised for dark count rate, timing spread and spurious pulses. The quantum efficiency, the gain and the peak-to-valley ratio have also been measured for a sub-sample in order to determine parameter values needed as input to numerical simulations of the detector.
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