Light thermal dark matter via type-I seesaw portal

Abstract

We propose a minimal scenario for light thermal dark matter (DM) in sub-GeV to GeV range by incorporating a scalar singlet DM in a type-I seesaw scenario extended by an additional Higgs doublet $\phi_2$. The latter permits efficient annihilation of light scalar DM into leptonic final states including right-handed neutrinos (RHN). We keep the charged fermion as well as neutral fermion final states in forbidden regime to avoid bounds from indirect search as well as cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. After studying the purely forbidden DM scenario with neutral and charged fermion final states separately, we discuss the interplay of forbidden and non-forbidden channels in generating light thermal DM relic by considering neutral fermions in non-forbidden mode due to relatively weaker constraints. The model can also explain the anomalous magnetic moment of muon, W-mass anomaly and saturate experimental bounds on charged lepton flavour violation and DM direct detection while offering tantalising detection prospects of RHN, the mass of which is kept approximately in the same range as DM.