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Searching for dark matter sterile neutrino in laboratory

Fedor Bezrukov, Mikhail Shaposhnikov

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of testing keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter, a candidate motivated by the νMSM and cosmological structure formation arguments. It proposes a laboratory approach based on COLTRIMS to perform full kinematic reconstruction in β-decays, enabling event-by-event inference of the neutrino mass via $m_\nu^2 = (Q - E_e - E_p)^2 - (\mathbf{p} + \mathbf{k})^2$ and focusing on $^3$H decay with $Q = 18.591$ keV. With realistic cold-source temperatures ($T$ on the order of 0.01 K) and high statistics, the method can probe mixing angles $\theta$ and sterile-neutrino masses in the keV range, potentially surpassing or complementing X-ray bounds in significant regions of parameter space. The approach is technically challenging due to backgrounds, source densities, and non-Gaussian velocity tails, but offers a unique, model-independent terrestrial probe of DM sterile neutrinos. Extensions to electron-capture decays and careful background analyses are discussed as avenues for future feasibility studies.

Abstract

If the dark matter of the Universe is made of sterile neutrinos with the mass in keV region they can be searched for with the help of X-ray satellites. We discuss the prospects of laboratory experiments that can be competitive and complimentary to Space missions. We argue that the detailed study of beta decays of tritium and other nuclei with the help of Cold Target Recoil Ion Momentum Spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) can potentially enter into interesting parameter range and even supersede the current astronomical bounds on the properties of dark matter sterile neutrino.

Searching for dark matter sterile neutrino in laboratory

TL;DR

The paper addresses the challenge of testing keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter, a candidate motivated by the νMSM and cosmological structure formation arguments. It proposes a laboratory approach based on COLTRIMS to perform full kinematic reconstruction in β-decays, enabling event-by-event inference of the neutrino mass via and focusing on H decay with keV. With realistic cold-source temperatures ( on the order of 0.01 K) and high statistics, the method can probe mixing angles and sterile-neutrino masses in the keV range, potentially surpassing or complementing X-ray bounds in significant regions of parameter space. The approach is technically challenging due to backgrounds, source densities, and non-Gaussian velocity tails, but offers a unique, model-independent terrestrial probe of DM sterile neutrinos. Extensions to electron-capture decays and careful background analyses are discussed as avenues for future feasibility studies.

Abstract

If the dark matter of the Universe is made of sterile neutrinos with the mass in keV region they can be searched for with the help of X-ray satellites. We discuss the prospects of laboratory experiments that can be competitive and complimentary to Space missions. We argue that the detailed study of beta decays of tritium and other nuclei with the help of Cold Target Recoil Ion Momentum Spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) can potentially enter into interesting parameter range and even supersede the current astronomical bounds on the properties of dark matter sterile neutrino.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 4 sections, 10 equations, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction.
  2. DM sterile neutrinos in the laboratory.
  3. COLTRIMS and $\beta$-decays.
  4. Conclusions.

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Constraints on the mixing angle $\theta$ of sterile neutrino with active neutrino from X-ray observations of Large Magellanic Clouds and Milky Way by XMM-Newton and Milky Way by HEAO-1 satellites and from kink searches in beta decay. The X-ray bound is in the assumption that sterile neutrinos constitute $p=100\%$ of the DM, for smaller $p$ the bound is relaxed accordingly. The boundaries of the parameter space accessible to $\beta$--decay experiments are shown for various values of the source temperature, kinematic cuts and collected statistics.