Primordial black hole sterile neutrinogenesis: sterile neutrino dark matter production independent of couplings

Abstract Sterile neutrinos ( ν s s) are well-motivated and actively searched for hypothetical neutral particles that would mix with the Standard Model active neutrinos. They are considered prime warm dark matter (DM) candidates, typically when their mass is in the keV range, although they can also be hot or cold DM components. We discuss in detail the characteristics and phenomenology of ν s s that minimally couple only to active neutrinos and are produced in the evaporation of early Universe primordial black holes (PBHs), a process we called “PBH sterile neutrinogenesis”. Contrary to the previously studied ν s production mechanisms, this novel mechanism does not depend on the active-sterile mixing. The resulting ν s s have a distinctive spectrum and are produced with larger energies than in typical scenarios. This characteristic enables ν s s to be WDM in the unusual 0.3 MeV to 0.3 TeV mass range, if PBHs do not matter-dominate the Universe before evaporating. When PBHs matter-dominate before evaporating, the possible coincidence of induced gravitational waves associated with PBH evaporation and astrophysical X-ray observations from ν s decays constitutes a distinct signature of our scenario.