Comment on astrophysical consequences of a neutrinophilic 2HDM

Abstract

Several authors have pointed out that the scalar-mediated interaction of neutrinos in a neutriophilic two-Higgs-doublet model (nu2HDM) can be as strong as electromagnetic interaction [1-3]. We show that the coupling constants of neutrino-scalar interaction are actually restricted to be y_i < 1.5 x 10^{-3} by supernova neutrino observation, and further constrained to be y_i < 2.3 x 10^{-4} by precision measurements of acoustic peaks of the cosmic microwave background. Based on the energy-loss argument for supernova cores, we derive a slightly more restrictive bound y_i < 3.5 x 10^{-5}. Therefore, the nu2HDM has lost its spirit of explaining tiny Dirac neutrino masses while keeping neutrino Yukawa couplings of order one.

2 pages, no figures; minor changes, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D