Self-interacting Dark Matter via Right Handed Neutrino Portal

We propose a self-interacting dark matter (DM) scenario with right handed neutrino (RHN) portal to the standard model (SM). The dark sector consists of a particle DM, assumed to be a Dirac fermion, and a light mediator in terms of a dark Abelian vector boson to give rise to the required velocity dependent self-interactions in agreement with astrophysical observations. Irrespective of thermal or non-thermal production of such a DM, its final relic remains under-abundant due to efficient annihilation rates of DM into light mediators by virtue of large self-interaction coupling. We then show that a feeble portal of DM-SM interaction via RHN offers a possibility to fill the relic deficit of DM via the late decay of RHN. As RHN also arises naturally in seesaw models explaining the origin of light neutrino masses, we outline two UV complete realizations of the minimal setup in terms of scotogenic and gauged B-L frameworks where connection to neutrino mass and other phenomenology like complementary discovery prospects are discussed.
Comment: 48 pages, 21 captioned figures, version accepted for publication in PRD