Testing a new sterile neutrino dark matter candidate

A new class of sterile neutrino dark matter is suggested by an explanation for time variations in the solar neutrino flux in which coupling of sterile neutrinos to other matter is via a very small flavor off-diagonal transition magnetic moment, TMM. The dark matter sterile neutrino’s decay in the radiative channel then depends on the local magnetic field and the unknown value of the TMM. An interesting application of this model uses the DAMA/LIBRA claimed detection of dark matter (assuming they are observing the electromagnetic signal) to provide the decay rate in the Earth’s field, and hence the TMM value. That version of the model is then examined to see if it can be falsified by cosmic X-ray observations or by other direct detection experiments. Particularly the latter could provide a simple, definitive test of this dark matter candidate, which would bring concordance to these experiments.