Abstract
We provide a comprehensive study of observable spectra from dark matter pair-annihilation or decay into sterile (right-handed) neutrinos. This occurs, for instance, in neutrino portal dark matter models, where a sterile neutrino acts as the portal between dark matter and the Standard Model sector. The subsequent decays of right-handed neutrinos produce detectable Standard Model particles, notably photons, positrons, and neutrinos. We study the phenomenology of models where the right-handed neutrino masses are below the GeV scale, as well as models where they are at, or significantly heavier than, the TeV scale. In both instances, and for different reasons, the standard tools, including Monte Carlo simulations, are both inadequate and inaccurate. We present the complete framework to compute the relevant branching ratios for right-handed neutrino decays and the spectra of secondary photons, positrons, and neutrinos for a broad range of dark matter and right-handed neutrino masses. We discuss the general features of such signals, and compare the spectra to standard signals from dark matter annihilation/decay into bottom quarks. Additionally, we provide open source code (The code is available at https://github.com/LoganAMorrison/blackthorn) that can be used to compute such spectra.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Stefania Gori for collaboration in the early stages of the project. LM and SP are supported in part by DOE grant DE-SC0010107. The work of BS is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany, Excellence Strategy - EXC 2121 Quantum Universe - 390833306. BS thanks the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for hospitality during the completion of this project.
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Morrison, L., Profumo, S. & Shakya, B. Sterile neutrinos from dark matter: a ν nightmare?. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 163 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2023)163
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2023)163