Viviana Niro

DAMA/LIBRA data and leptonically interacting dark matter

We consider the hypothesis that dark matter (DM) has tree-level interactions only with leptons. Such a framework, where DM recoils against electrons bound in atoms, has been proposed as an explanation for the annually modulated scintillation signal in DAMA/LIBRA data versus the absence of a signal for nuclear recoils in experiments like CDMS or XENON10. However, even in such a leptophilic DM scenario there are loop-induced DM-hadron interactions, where photons emitted from virtual leptons couple to the charge of a nucleus. Using a general effective field theory approach we show that, if such an interaction is induced at one- or two-loop level, then DM-nucleus scattering dominates over DM-electron scattering. This is because the latter is suppressed by the bound state wave function. One obtains a situation similar to standard DM-nucleus scattering analyses with considerable tension between the results of DAMA and CDMS/XENON10. This conclusion does not apply in the case of pseudoscalar or axialvector coupling between DM and leptons, where the loop diagrams vanish. In this case the explanation of the DAMA signal in terms of DM-electron scattering is strongly disfavored by the spectral shape of the signal. Furthermore, if DM can annihilate into neutrinos or tau leptons, the required cross sections are excluded by many orders of magnitude using the Super-Kamiokande bound on neutrinos from DM annihilations in the Sun.

New Production Mechanism for keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter by Decays of Frozen-In Scalars

We propose a new production mechanism for keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter. In our setting, we assume the existence of a scalar singlet particle which never entered thermal equilibrium in the early Universe, since it only couples to the Standard Model fields by a really small Higgs portal interaction. For suitable values of this coupling, the scalar can undergo the so-called freeze-in process, and in this way be efficiently produced in the early Universe. These scalars can then decay into keV sterile neutrinos and produce the correct Dark Matter abundance. While similar settings in which the scalar does enter thermal equilibrium and then freezes out have been studied previously, the mechanism proposed here is new and represents a versatile extension of the known case. We perform a detailed numerical calculation of the DM production using a set of coupled Boltzmann equations, and we illustrate the successful regions in the parameter space. Our production mechanism notably can even work in models where active-sterile mixing is completely absent.

Soft Le-Lμ-Lτ flavour symmetry breaking and sterile neutrino keV Dark Matter

We discuss how a Le−Lμ−Lτ flavour symmetry that is softly broken leads to keV sterile neutrinos, which are a prime candidate for Warm Dark Matter. This is to our knowledge the first model where flavour symmetries are applied simultaneously to active and sterile neutrinos explaining at the same time active neutrino properties and this peculiar Dark Matter scenario. The essential point is that different scales of the symmetry breaking and the symmetry preserving entries in the mass matrix lead to one right-handed neutrino which is nearly massless compared to the other two. Furthermore, we naturally predict vanishing θ13 and maximal θ23, while the correct value of θ12 must come from the mixing of the charged leptons. We can furthermore predict an exact mass spectrum for the light neutrinos, which will be testable in the very near future.

Deriving models for keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter with the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism

Sterile neutrinos with a mass around the keV scale are an attractive particle physics candidate for Warm Dark Matter. Although many frameworks have been presented in which these neutrinos can fulfill all phenomenological constraints, there are hardly any models known that can explain such a peculiar mass pattern, one sterile neutrino at the keV scale and the other two considerably heavier, while at the same time being compatible with low-energy neutrino data. In this paper, we present models based on the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism, which can give such an explanation. We explain how to assign Froggatt-Nielsen charges in a successful way, and we give a detailed discussion of all conditions to be fulfilled. It turns out that the typical arbitrariness of the charge assignments is greatly reduced when trying to carefully account for all constraints. We furthermore present analytical calculations of a few simplified models, while quasi-perfect models are found numerically.

Enhancing dark matter annihilation into neutrinos

We perform a detailed and quasi model-independent analysis of direct annihilation of dark matter into neutrinos. Considering different cases for scalar and fermionic dark matter, we identify several settings in which this annihilation is enhanced, contrary to some statements in the literature. The key point is that several restrictions of, e.g., a supersymmetric framework do not hold in general. The mass generation mechanism of the neutrinos plays an important role, too. We illustrate our considerations by two examples that are not (as usually) suppressed by the smallness of the neutrino mass, for which we also present a numerical analysis. Our results can be easily used as guidelines for model building.

Statistical tests of sterile neutrinos using cosmology and short-baseline data

A bstractIn this paper we revisit the question of the information which cosmology provides on the scenarios with sterile neutrinos invoked to describe the SBL anomalies using Bayesian statistical tests. We perform an analysis of the cosmological data in ΛCDM+r + νs cosmologies for different cosmological data combinations, and obtain the marginalized cosmological likelihood in terms of the two relevant parameters, the sterile neutrino mass ms and its contribution to the energy density of the early Universe ΔNeff. We then present an analysis to quantify at which level a model with one sterile neutrino is (dis)favoured with respect to a model with only three active neutrinos, using results from both short-baseline experiments and cosmology. We study the dependence of the results on the cosmological data considered, in particular on the inclusion of the recent BICEP2 results and the SZ cluster data from the Planck mission. We find that only when the cluster data is included the model with one extra sterile neutrino can become more favoured that the model with only the three active ones provided the sterile neutrino contribution to radiation density is suppressed with respect to the fully thermalized scenario. We have also quantified the level of (in)compatibility between the sterile neutrino masses implied by the cosmological and SBL results.

Influence of a keV sterile neutrino on neutrinoless double beta decay: How things changed in recent years

Earlier studies of the influence of Dark Matter keV sterile neutrinos on neutrino-less double beta decay concluded that there is no significant modification of the decay rate. These studies have focused only on a mass of the keV sterile neutrino above 2 and 4 keV, respectively, as motivated by certain production mechanisms. On the other hand, alternative production mechanisms have been proposed, which relax the lower limit for the mass, and new experimental/observational data is available, too. For this reason, an updated study is timely and worthwhile. We focus on the most recent data, i.e., the newest Chandra and XMM-Newton observational bounds on the X-ray line originating from radiative keV sterile neutrino decay, as well as the new measurement of the previously unknown leptonic mixing angle �13 by the Daya Bay, RENO, and Double Chooz experiments. We find that, while the previous works had been too short-sighted, the new observational bounds do indeed render any influences of keV sterile neutrinos on neutrino-less double beta decay small. This conclusion even holds in case not all the Dark Matter is made up of keV sterile neutrinos. The bounds are so powerful that they strongly constrain form-dominant neutrino mixing, which is of interest for models of keV sterile neutrinos.

Consistency of perturbativity and gauge coupling unification

We investigate constraints that the requirements of perturbativity and gauge coupling unification impose on extensions of the Standard Model and of the MSSM. In particular, we discuss the renormalization group running in several SUSY left-right symmetric and Pati-Salam models and show how the various scales appearing in these models have to be chosen in order to achieve unification. We find that unification in the considered models occurs typically at scales below M min B = 10 16 GeV, implying potential conflicts with the non-observation of proton decay. We emphasize that extending the particle content of a model in order to push the GUT scale higher or to achieve unification in the first place will very often lead to non-perturbative evolution. We generalize this observation to arbitrary extensions of the Standard Model and of the MSSM and show that the requirement of perturbativity up to M min B , if considered a valid guideline for model building, severely limits the particle content of any such model, especially in the supersymmetric case. However, we also discuss several mechanisms to circumvent perturbativity and proton decay issues, for example in certain classes of extra dimensional models.

Dark radiation and decaying matter

A bstractRecent cosmological measurements favour additional relativistic energy density beyond the one provided by the three active neutrinos and photons of the Standard Model (SM). This is often referred to as “dark radiation”, suggesting the need of new light states in the theory beyond those of the SM. In this paper, we study and numerically explore the alternative possibility that this increase comes from the decay of some new form of heavy matter into the SM neutrinos. We study the constraints on the decaying matter density and its lifetime, using data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, the South Pole Telescope, measurements of the Hubble constant at present time, the results from high-redshift Type-I supernovae and the information on the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation scale. We, moreover, include in our analysis the information on the presence of additional contributions to the expansion rate of the Universe at the time of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We compare the results obtained in this decaying matter scenario with those obtained withthe standard analysis in terms of a constant Neff.

Leptophilic Dark Matter in Direct Detection Experiments and in the Sun

Dark matter interacting predominantly with leptons instea d of nuclear matter has received a lot of interest recently. In this talk, we investigate the signa ls expected from such ’leptophilic Dark Matter’ in direct detection experiments and in experiments looking for Dark Matter annihilation into neutrinos in the Sun. In a model-independent framework, we calculate the expected interaction rates for different scattering processes, including e lastic and inelastic scattering off atomic electron shells, as well as loop-induced scattering off ato mic nuclei. In those cases where the last effect dominates, leptophilic Dark Matter cannot be distin guished from conventional WIMPs. On the other hand, if inelastic scattering off the electron she ll dominates, the expected event spectrum in direct detection experiments is different and would provide a distinct signal. However, we find that the signals in DAMA and/or CoGeNT cannot be explaine d by invoking leptophilic DM because the predicted and observed energy spectra do not match, and because of neutrino bounds from the Sun.