Abstract:
Standard 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 newly 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 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.

Join Zoom Meeting - Meeting ID: 933 4269 3866 Passcode: 185096
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