Captures of hot and warm sterile antineutrino dark matter on EC-decaying ⁶³Ho nuclei

Capturing low-energy electron antineutrinos on radioactive ¹⁶³Ho nuclei, which decay into ¹⁶³Dy via electron capture (EC), is a noteworthy opportunity to detect relic sterile antineutrinos. Such hypothetical particles are more or less implied by current experimental and cosmological data, and they might be a part of hot dark matter or a candidate for warm dark matter in the Universe. Using the isotope ¹⁶³Ho as a target and assuming reasonable active-sterile antineutrino mixing angles, we calculate the capture rate of relic electron antineutrinos against the corresponding EC-decay background in the presence of sterile antineutrinos at the sub-eV or keV mass scale. We show that the signature of hot or warm sterile antineutrino dark matter should in principle be observable, provided the target is big enough and the energy resolution is good enough.