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 ballpark 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). While DM annihilation into charged lepton final states is kept either suppressed or in a kinematically forbidden ballpark to avoid cosmic microwave background (CMB) bounds, the RHN, active neutrino final states remain safe from such bounds even if they are allowed kinematically. We discuss the interplay of forbidden and non-forbidden channels in generating light thermal DM relic while incorporating constraints from cosmology as well as laboratory experiments. 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 the lightest RHN, the mass of which is kept in the same ballpark as DM.