Dark matter, singlet extensions of the νMSM, and symmetries

Abstract

We consider an extension of the nuMSM in which sterile neutrino masses originate from the VEV of a Higgs singlet phi and dark matter is produced through the decays of phi rather than through active-sterile neutrino mixing. This model, which we refer to as the nuNMSM, can readily satisfy or escape the constraints on warm dark matter from the Lyman-alpha forest and other small scale structure. However, it requires a particular hierarchy of Majorana masses and Yukawa couplings without an obvious origin. We show that the hierarchical parameters of the nuNMSM can arise from symmetries broken at or near the Planck scale for two specific examples of this model: one in which phi helps stabilize the electroweak vacuum through a scalar threshold effect and one in which phi is a light inflaton. Both examples require a complex phi and have several experimental signatures that are distinct from the nuMSM. These signatures include additional dark radiation that is relativistic at both primordial nucleosynthesis and CMB decoupling and, for the former, a large invisible branching ratio of the Higgs.