Resonant production of sterile neutrino dark matter with a refined numerical scheme

Abstract

The existence of a large primordial neutrino asymmetry is an intriguing possibility, both observationally and theoretically. Such an asymmetry can lead to the resonant production of $\mathrm{keV}$-scale sterile neutrinos, which are a fascinating candidate for dark matter. In this paper, we comprehensively revisit the resonant production processes with a refined numerical analysis, adopting a dynamical discretization of momentum modes to take care of the sharpness of the resonance. We find parameter regions consistent with X-ray and Lyman-$\alpha$ constraints for lepton-to-entropy ratio $\gtrsim \mathcal{O}(10^{-3})$ and $m_{\nu_s}\gtrsim 20\,$keV. We also explore the Affleck-Dine mechanism as a possible origin for such asymmetries. While previous studies considered resonant production after lepton number generation, we numerically investigate cases where a fraction of sterile neutrinos is produced during lepton number injection. In this regime, some parameter sets can shorten the free-streaming length and reduce the required mixing angle to match the observed dark matter abundance, thereby mitigating the observational constraints.