Torsten Bringmann (U. Oslo), Minimal sterile neutrino dark matter

Tuesday 14 Jan 2025, 11:15 → 12:15 Europe/Stockholm

Sterile neutrinos constitute a very well-motivated extension of the standard model 

of particle physics. For masses in the keV range, furthermore, they provide excellent 

candidates for the cosmologically observed dark matter. Producing them with the correct 

primordial abundance requires additional new physics, however, given that the simplest 

production mechanism via oscillations is observationally ruled out.

In this talk I will briefly review generic mechanisms for the genesis of dark matter, 

with a focus on a recently proposed production scenario that is characterized by an era of 

exponential growth of the dark matter density in the early universe. I will then demonstrate 

how such a scenario is naturally realized for sterile neutrinos in a very minimal setup. 

I further show how this idea opens up highly relevant -- and relatively shortly testable -- 

new parameter space for sterile neutrino dark matter.