Neutrino mass, leptogenesis and FIMP dark matter in a $$\mathrm{U}(1)_{B-L}$$ U ( 1 ) B - L model

Abstract

Abstract The Standard Model (SM) is inadequate to explain the origin of tiny neutrino masses, the dark matter (DM) relic abundance and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. In this work, to address all three puzzles, we extend the SM by a local U $$(1)_{B-L}$$ ( 1 ) B - L gauge symmetry, three right-handed (RH) neutrinos for the cancellation of gauge anomalies and two complex scalars having non-zero U $$(1)_{B-L}$$ ( 1 ) B - L charges. All the newly added particles become massive after the breaking of the U $$(1)_{B-L}$$ ( 1 ) B - L symmetry by the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of one of the scalar fields $$\phi _H$$ ϕ H . The other scalar field, $$\phi _\mathrm{DM}$$ ϕ DM , which does not have any VEV, becomes automatically stable and can be a viable DM candidate. Neutrino masses are generated using the Type-I seesaw mechanism, while the required lepton asymmetry to reproduce the observed baryon asymmetry can be attained from the CP violating out of equilibrium decays of the RH neutrinos in TeV scale. More importantly within this framework, we study in detail the production of DM via the freeze-in mechanism considering all possible annihilation and decay processes. Finally, we find a situation when DM is dominantly produced from the annihilation of the RH neutrinos, which are at the same time also responsible for neutrino mass generation and leptogenesis.