Observable gravitational waves and $ΔN_{\rm eff}$ with global lepton number symmetry and dark matter

Abstract: We study the possibility of testing a dark matter (DM) scenario embedded in a global lepton number symmetry $U(1)L$ via gravitational waves (GW) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. The spontaneous breaking of $U(1)_L$ symmetry generates the seesaw scale as well as DM mass dynamically. The (pseudo) Nambu-Goldstone boson, known as majoron, acquires non-zero mass due to soft symmetry breaking terms of quadratic type in the scalar potential, which eventually breaks $U(1)_L$ to its $Z_2$ subgroup. The spontaneous symmetry breaking, which effectively breaks $Z_2$, leads to the formation of domain walls (DW), posing a threat to successful cosmology, if allowed to dominate. As gravity does not respect any global symmetries, we consider higher dimensional operators suppressed by the scale of quantum gravity (QG) namely, $\Lambda{\rm QG}$ which introduces the required bias leading to DW annihilation and emission of stochastic gravitational waves (GW) observable at near future experiments. The same operators also lead to decay of DM bringing interesting indirect detection aspects. While DM is produced non-thermally via scalar portal interactions, light majoron can give rise to additional $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$ within reach of future CMB experiments.