Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter: Case Advanced

[Chronos]

This paper, http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.6160, advances the case for sterile neutrinos as a dark matter candidate.

 

[phyzguy]

Thanks for posting this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the eV-scale sterile neutrino proposed here is heavy enough to be a dark matter candidate. Is the thinking that the eV-scale sterile neutrino resolves the discrepancies discussed in this paper and a heavier sterile neutrino is a dark matter candidate, or am I missing the point? Presumably if there are sterile neutrinos, there are at lest three of them.

 

[Chronos]

AFAIK only two species of sterile neutrinos have been proposed. One being the ~ 1 ev variety and the other in the kev range. The ~1 ev mass neutrino discussed in this paper would only constitute a modest fraction of the total DM mass budget.