Theory seminar: Not so weakly interacting dark matter bonding with sterile neutrinos

Jörn Kersten, Universitetet i Bergen [slides]

Despite the astonishing success of the standard LambdaCDM cosmological scenario, there is mounting evidence for a tension with observations. For example, some measurements indicate that a part of the dark matter is hot. In addition, the observed properties of relatively small galaxies do not quite agree with the predictions by simulations of structure formation.

I will discuss a simple particle physics model containing cold dark matter (DM) and sterile neutrinos. Both are charged under a new gauge interaction. The resulting DM self-interactions and DM-neutrino interactions resolve the problems with structure formation. The sterile neutrinos can account for both a small hot DM component and the neutrino anomalies found in short-baseline experiments.