Atomki anomaly and dark matter in a radiative seesaw model with gauged $B-L$ symmetry

Abstract

Motivated by recently reported anomalies in a decay of an excited state of beryllium by the Atomki collaboration, we study a radiative seesaw model with gauged $B-L$ symmetry and a $Z_2$ parity. Assuming that the anomalies originate from the decay of the $B-L$ gauge boson followed by the nuclear decay, the mass of the lightest right-handed neutrino or the dark matter candidate can be determined below $10$ GeV. We show that for this mass range, the model can explain the anomalies in the beryllium decay and the relic dark matter abundance consistent with neutrino masses. We also predict its spin-independent cross section in direct detection experiments for this mass range.