Possible capture of keV sterile neutrino dark matter on radioactive β-decaying nuclei

There exists an observed desert spanning six orders of magnitude between O(0.5) eV and O(0.5) MeV in the fermion mass spectrum. We argue that it might accommodate one or more keV sterile neutrinos as a natural candidate for warm dark matter. To illustrate this point of view, we simply assume that there is one key sterile neutrino nu(4) and its flavor eigenstate nu(s) weakly mixes with three active neutrinos. We clarify different active-sterile neutrino mixing factors for the radiative decay of nu(4) and beta decays in a self-consistent parametrization. A direct detection of this keV sterile neutrino dark matter in the laboratory is in principle possible since the nu(4) component of nu(e) can leave a distinct imprint on the electron energy spectrum when it is captured on radioactive beta-decaying nuclei. We carry out an analysis of its signatures in the capture reactions nu(e) + H-3 -> He-3 + e(-) and nu(e) + Ru-106 -> Rh-106 + e(-) against the beta-decay backgrounds, and conclude that this experimental approach might not be hopeless in the long run. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.