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TeV-scale unification of light dark matter and neutrino mass

Cheng-Wei Chiang, Shu-Yu Ho, Van Que Tran

Abstract

We demonstrate that TeV-scale heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) responsible for inverse-seesaw neutrino mass generation can simultaneously fix the cosmological abundance and decay properties of dark matter (DM). The spontaneous breaking of lepton number gives rise to a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson that serves as a light DM candidate, whose mass originates from a small explicit breaking term. The same HNLs that generate neutrino masses produce the DM via freeze-in and mediate its decay into neutrinos, leading to a tight correlation among neutrino masses, DM relic abundance, and DM lifetime. For collider-accessible TeV-scale HNLs, the observed relic density and lifetime constraints point to sub-GeV DM, yielding observable neutrino signals at next-generation detectors such as Hyper-Kamiokande, DUNE, and JUNO. This framework establishes a predictive and experimentally testable link between neutrino mass generation and dark matter.

TeV-scale unification of light dark matter and neutrino mass

Abstract

We demonstrate that TeV-scale heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) responsible for inverse-seesaw neutrino mass generation can simultaneously fix the cosmological abundance and decay properties of dark matter (DM). The spontaneous breaking of lepton number gives rise to a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson that serves as a light DM candidate, whose mass originates from a small explicit breaking term. The same HNLs that generate neutrino masses produce the DM via freeze-in and mediate its decay into neutrinos, leading to a tight correlation among neutrino masses, DM relic abundance, and DM lifetime. For collider-accessible TeV-scale HNLs, the observed relic density and lifetime constraints point to sub-GeV DM, yielding observable neutrino signals at next-generation detectors such as Hyper-Kamiokande, DUNE, and JUNO. This framework establishes a predictive and experimentally testable link between neutrino mass generation and dark matter.
Paper Structure (7 sections, 24 equations, 3 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 7 sections, 24 equations, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Model
  3. Neutrino mass
  4. Lifetime of DM
  5. DM production
  6. Result
  7. Conclusion

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Triangular connection for sub-GeV DM production, DM signal, and neutrino mass generation via TeV-scale HNLs.
  • Figure 2: Time evolution of the comoving DM number density, reaction rate, and Hubble expansion rate.
  • Figure 3: Allowed parameter space in the $(m_\chi, \upsilon_\phi^{})$ plane, where the shadowed regions are excluded by up-to-date observations, the dashed curves represent the future sensitivities, and the oblique lines are benchmark points that satisfy the DM relic density.