Warm dark matter in two Higgs doublet models

Abstract

We show that a neutral scalar field, \sigma, of two Higgs doublet extensions of the Standard Model incorporating the seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses can be identified as a consistent {\it warm} dark matter candidate with a mass of order keV. The relic density of $\sigma$ is correctly reproduced by virtue of the late decay of a right-handed neutrino N participating in the seesaw mechanism. Constraints from cosmology determine the mass and lifetime of N to be M_N = 25 GeV - 20 TeV and \tau_N = (10^{-4} - 1) sec. These models can also explain the 3.5 keV X-ray anomaly in the extra-galactic spectrum that has been recently reported in terms of the decay \sigma \to \gamma \gamma. Future tests of these models at colliders and in astrophysical settings are outlined.