Neutrino-flavoured sneutrino dark matter

Abstract

A simple theory of supersymmetric dark matter (DM) naturally linked to neutrino flavour physics is studied. The DM sector comprises a spectrum of mixed lhd-rhd sneutrino states where both the sneutrino flavour structure and mass splittings are determined by the associated neutrino masses and mixings. Prospects for indirect detection from solar capture are good due to a large sneutrino-nucleon cross-section afforded by the inelastic splitting (solar capture limits exclude an explanation of DAMA/LIBRA). We find parameter regions where all heavier states will have decayed, leaving only one flavour mixture of sneutrino as the candidate DM. Such regions have a unique `smoking gun' signature--sneutrino annihilation in the Sun produces a pair of neutrino mass eigenstates free from vacuum oscillations, with the potential for detection at neutrino telescopes through the observation of a hard spectrum of nu_mu and nu_tau (for a normal neutrino hierarchy). Next generation direct detection experiments can explore much of the parameter space through both elastic and inelastic scattering. We show in detail that the observed neutrino masses and mixings can arise as a consequence of supersymmetry breaking effects in the sneutrino DM sector, consistent with all experimental constraints.