Majoron Dark Matter from Type II Seesaw

• Lorenzo Calibbi

Room: G/1-G.1.03 - J. Sacton The Type II seesaw mechanism is among the simplest extensions of the Standard Model accounting for neutrino masses. These are naturally induced by the vacuum expectation value (vev) of a scalar triplet coupling to the Standard Model Higgs and lepton doublets. In this talk, I will show that the "type-II majoron" - the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson that arises in this context if the lepton number is spontaneously broken by the vev of an additional scalar singlet - can naturally account for the dark matter (DM) observed in the universe. I will discuss majoron production in the early universe through both the freeze-in and misalignment mechanism and its signatures and constraints at direct and indirect DM searches.