We revisit the recently studied supersymmetric gauged inverse seesaw model [1] to incorporate astrophysical constraints on lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) lifetime such that LSP constitutes the dark matter of the Universe. The authors in [1] considered light sneutrino LSP that can play the role of inelastic dark matter (iDM) such that desired iDM mass splitting and tiny Majorana masses of neutrinos can have a common origin. Here we consider a generalized version of this model without any additional discrete symmetry. We point out that due to spontaneous R-parity(R p=(-1) 3(B-L)+2s) breaking in such generic supersymmetric gauged inverse seesaw models, LSP can not be perfectly stable but decays to standard model particles after non-renormalizable operators allowed by the gauge symmetry are introduced. We show that strong astrophysical constraints on LSP lifetime makes sneutrino dark matter more natural than standard neutralino dark matter. We also show that long-livedness of sneutrino dark matter constrains the left right symmetry breaking scale M R<10 4 GeV.
Left-Right Symmetric Models (LRSM) [2-6] provide a framework within which spontaneous parity breaking as well as tiny neutrino masses [7-10] can be successfully implemented without reference to very high scale physics such as grand unification. Incorporating Supersymmetry (SUSY) into it comes with other advantages like providing a solution to the gauge hierarchy problem, and providing a Cold Dark Matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). In Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), the stability of LSP is guaranteed by R-parity, defined as where is the spin of the particle. This is a discrete symmetry put by hand in MSSM to keep the baryon number (B) and lepton number (L) violating terms away from the superpotential. In generic implementations of Left-Right symmetry, R-parity is a part of the gauge symmetry and hence not ad-hoc like in the MSSM. In one class of models [11-14], spontaneous parity breaking is achieved without breaking R-parity. This was not possible in minimal supersymmetric left right (SUSYLR) models where the only way to break parity is to consider spontaneous R-parity violation [
Here we study a different SUSYLR model which belong to a more general class of models where both R-parity and D-parity break spontaneously [
considered an additional discrete symmetry so as to guarantee a perfectly stable LSP. Here we consider a generalized version of this model without any additional symmetries apart from the gauge symmetry. We point out that LSP dark matter, although stable at the renormalizable level, decays after higher dimensional gauge invariant terms are introduced. The strength of such operators will be tightly constrained from the fact that LSP lifetime should be longer than the age of the Universe and large enough so as to agree with astrophysical observations of nearby galaxies and clusters [
This letter is organized as follows. In Section 2 we briefly review the model. In Section 3 we discuss the higher dimensional operators in the model and astrophysical constraints. We summarise the constraints from gauge coupling unification and domain wall disappearance from our earlier work [
Spontaneous R-parity breaking can be achieved even without giving vev to the sneutrino fields. If the symmetry is broken by a Higgs field which has odd charge then R-parity is spontaneously broken. We call this model as Minimal Higgs Doublet (MHD) Model. The minimal such model [16,24] has the following particle content
where the numbers in brackets correspond to the quantum numbers corresponding to
.
The symmetry breaking pattern is
Neutrino masses arise naturally in this model by so called inverse seesaw mechanism by virtue of the presence of singlet superfields (one per generation). The renormalizable superpotential relevant for the spontaneous parity violation and neutrino mass is given as follows
We denote the vev of the neutral components of as
The neutrino mass matrix in the basis is given by
where
.
After orthogonalization we get the following expression for mass
where
It should be noted from the neutrino mass matrix that these mass terms allow the mixing of an R-parity odd singlet fermion with an R-parity even neutrino. Note that the superpotential preserves R parity. The mild R parity violation occurring in the neutrino mass matrix should be understood as an accidental consequence of gauge symmetry breakdown.
Neutrino mass can arise from type III seesaw mechanism [
The authors of [
In the model we are studying, the effective terms in the superpotential leading to LSP decay can arise after introduing dimension four and dimension five operators as follows:
The first term give rise to terms like in the low energy effective theory after gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken. The strength of such a term is dictated by. Here is the leftright symmetry breaking scale which has a lower bound of [
As shown in [
with constant of proportionality of order unity. Now, for generic neutralino dark matter with mass of the order of, the astrophysical constraint on LSP lifetime gives rise to
Clearly the astrophysical bound (8) does not agree with the strength of arising from generic nonrenormalizable operators in the theory. If we fine tune to be as small as electron Yukawa coupling, then can be as small as. But this lies around seven orders of magnitude above the upper bound set by astrophysical constraints (8). Thus, standard neutraino dark matter is very unlikely in these models unless we have unnatural fine tuning of the dimensionless coefficients in the non-renormalizable operators. It should be noticed that a term like arise at tree level in generic spontaneous R-parity violating models with nonzero right handed sneutrino vev [17-19].
The second term in the non-renormalizable superpotential gives rise to an effective term of the form which opens the decay channel of sneutrino into two standard model fermions. The strength of such a term is given by where and. For such a term is of strength
The decay width of a sneutrino to standard model fermion-antifermion pairs is given by
Now, for sneutrino LSP mass of the order of, the astrophysical constraint on LSP lifetime gives rise to
which agrees with the generic arising from the non-renormalizable operators in the theory (9). Thus sneutrino LSP in such a model can be a viable dark matter candidate provided it satisfies other relevant constraints of relic density, direct detection etc. Recently it was shown that such a right handed sneutrino dark matter (within the framework of a similar left right model) can satisfy relic density as well as direct detection constraints [
For right handed sneutrino dark matter to obey the relevant astrophysical constraints (11), the left right symmetry breaking scale should however have an upper bound. Requiring gives rise to a bound on the left-right symmetry breaking scale
for generic GUT scale and order one dimensionless couplings. However, as studied in [16,23] and summarised in the next section, successful gauge coupling unification in such a minimal model puts a lower bound on left-right symmetry breaking scale.
Similar to generic SUSYLR models, here also the intermediate symmetry breaking scales are constrained by demanding successful gauge coupling unification at a very high scale. The couplings of and meet much before the allowed Unification scale if the intermediate symmetry breaking scale is lower than a certain value. For the minimal SUSYLR model with Higgs doublets, this lower bound on is found to be of the order of GeV. We also consider two additional heavy colored superfields so that the coupling meet the other two couplings at one point. They are denoted as and can be accommodated within GUT theory in the representations. Here we assume that the structure of the GUT theory is such that these fields survive the symmetry breaking and can be as light as the breaking scale. The resulting gauge coupling unification as shown in the
As discussed in details in [
can be removed by including a parity odd singlet to our model. As studied in [16,26,30], such a framework allows even a TeV scale from the requirement of successful gauge coupling unification as can be seen from
We have discussed the issue of stability of LSP dark matter in a specific version of SUSYLR model with inverse seesaw mechanism of neutrino mass where both D-parity and R-parity are spontaneously broken. We point out that, although LSP is a stable particle in the renormalizable version of the model, it can decay into standard model fermions after the non-renormalizable terms are introduced. The requirement that LSP dark matter should be long lived so as to satisfy strict astrophysical and cosmological bounds constrains the strength of these higher dimensional operators suppressed by
GUT scale. We point out that standard neutralino dark matter (decaying through dimension four operators in the superpotential) scenario is disfavored in this model unless one considers unnatural fine-tuning of the dimensionless coefficients in the higher dimensional operators. However, right handed sneutrino dark matter (decaying through dimension five operators in the superpotential) satisfy the astrophysical bounds more naturally and can be a viable dark matter candidate provided it satisfies other relevant constraints like relic density, direct detection etc.
Interestingly, the dimension five operators leading to sneutrino decay involve the left right symmetry breaking scale. The requirement that the strength of such an operator should be small enough to satisfy astrophysical bounds constrains the left right symmetry breaking scale. For generic GUT scale and order one dimensionless couplings, we find this bound to be. However, as studied in [16,23], successful gauge coupling unification puts a lower bound. The mismatch between these two bounds can be fixed by introducing a parity odd singlet [16,26,30] which allow as low as a TeV from the requirement of successful gauge coupling unification. Such TeV scale gauge bosons, apart from satisfying the astrophysical constraints also opens up new dark matter annihilation channels [
I would like to thank Prof Urjit A. Yajnik, IIT Bombay for useful comments and discussions.