Have mirror micrometeorites been detected?

Slow-moving ($v \sim 15$ km/s) 'dark matter particles' have allegedly been discovered in a recent experiment. We explore the possibility that these slow moving dark matter particles are small mirror matter dust particles originating from our solar system. Ways of further testing our hypothesis, including the possibility of observing these dust particles in cryogenic detectors such as NAUTILUS, are also discussed.Comment: Few changes, about 8 pages lon

Solutions of the atmospheric, solar and LSND neutrino anomalies from TeV scale quark-lepton unification

There is a unique $SU(4) \otimes SU(2)_L \otimes SU(2)_R$ gauge model which allows quarks and leptons to be unified at the TeV scale. It is already known that the neutrino masses arise radiatively in the model and are naturally light. We study the atmospheric, solar and LSND neutrino anomalies within the framework of this model.Comment: Minor changes, 31 page

Supersymmetric 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos

We consider the supersymmetric extension of the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos. We study the mass spectra in the scalar and pseudoscalar sectors, and for a given set of the input parameters, we find that the lightest scalar in the model has a mass of 130 GeV and the lightest pseudoscalar has mass of 5 GeV. However, this pseudoscalar decouples from the $Z^0$ at high energy scales since it is almost a singlet under $SU(2)_L\otimes U(1)_Y$.Comment: Revtex4, 16 pages, no figure

Spheroidal galactic halos and mirror dark matter

Mirror matter has been proposed as a dark matter candidate. It has several very attractive features, including automatic stability and darkness, the ability to mimic the broad features of cold dark matter while in the linear density perturbation regime, and consistency with all direct dark matter search experiments, both negative (e.g. CDMS II) and positive (DAMA). In this paper we consider an important unsolved problem: Are there plausible reasons to explain why most of the mirror matter in spiral galaxies exists in the form of gaseous {\it spheroidal} galactic halos around ordinary matter {\it disks}? We compute an order-of-magnitude estimate that the mirror photon luminosity of a typical spiral galaxy today is around $10^{44}$ erg/s. Interestingly, this rate of energy loss is similar to the power supplied by ordinary supernova explosions. We discuss circumstances under which supernova power can be used to heat the gaseous part of the mirror matter halo and hence prevent its collapse to a disk. The {\it macro}scopic ordinary-mirror asymmetry plays a fundamental role in our analysis.Comment: about 6 page

Maximum lepton asymmetry from active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the Early Universe

A large lepton asymmetry could be generated in the Early Universe by oscillations of active to sterile neutrinos with a small mixing angle sin 2 \theta < 10^-2. The final order of magnitude of the lepton asymmetry \eta is mainly determined by its growth in the last stage of evolution when the MSW resonance dominates the kinetic equations. In this paper we present a simple way of calculating the maximum possible lepton asymmetry which can be created. Our results are in good agreement to previous calculations. Furthermore, we find that the growth of asymmetry does not obey any particular power law. We find that the maximum possible asymmetry at the freeze-out of the n/p ratio at T \sim 1 MeV strongly depends on the mass-squared difference \delta m^2: the asymmetry is negligible for \delta m^2 \ll 1 eV^2 and reaches asymptotically large values for \delta m^2 \ge 50 eV^2.Comment: 14 pp, 4 figure

Active-Sterile neutrino oscillations and BBN+CMBR constraints

We show how active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early Universe can play an interesting role in explaining the current observations of CMBR anisotropies and light element abundances. We describe different possible phenomenological scenarios in the interpretation of present data and how active-sterile neutrino oscillations can provide a viable theoretical framework.Comment: Some changes, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Mirror World and its Cosmological Consequences

We briefly review the concept of a parallel `mirror' world which has the same particle physics as the observable world and couples to the latter by gravity and perhaps other very weak forces. The nucleosynthesis bounds demand that the mirror world should have a smaller temperature than the ordinary one. By this reason its evolution should substantially deviate from the standard cosmology as far as the crucial epochs like baryogenesis, nucleosynthesis etc. are concerned. In particular, we show that in the context of certain baryogenesis scenarios, the baryon asymmetry in the mirror world should be larger than in the observable one. Moreover, we show that mirror baryons could naturally constitute the dominant dark matter component of the Universe, and discuss its cosmological implications

An apparatus to search for mirror dark matter via the invisible decay of orthopositronium in vacuum

Mirror matter is a possible dark matter candidate. It is predicted to exist if parity is an unbroken symmetry of the vacuum. The existence of the mirror matter, which in addition to gravity is coupled to our world through photon-mirror photon mixing, would result in orthopositronium (o-Ps) to mirror orthopositronium (o-Ps') oscillations. The experimental signature of this effect is the invisible decay of o-Ps in vacuum. This paper describes the design of the new experiment for a search for the o-Ps -> invisible decay in vacuum with a sensitivity in the branching ratio of Br(o-Ps -> invisible)\simeq 10^{-7}, which is an order of magnitude better than the present limit on this decay mode from the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. The experiment is based on a high-efficiency pulsed slow positron beam, which is also applicable for other experiments with o-Ps, and (with some modifications) for applied studies. Details of the experimental design and of a new pulsing method, as well as preliminary results on requirements for the pulsed beam components are presented. The effects of o-Ps collisions with the cavity walls as well as the influence of external fields on the o-Ps to o-Ps' oscillation probability are also discussed.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figure

Explaining ΩBaryon≈0.2ΩDark\Omega_{Baryon} \approx 0.2 \Omega_{Dark} through the synthesis of ordinary matter from mirror matter: a more general analysis

The emerging cosmological picture is of a spatially flat universe composed predominantly of three components: ordinary baryons ($\Omega_B \approx 0.05$), non-baryonic dark matter ($\Omega_{Dark} \approx 0.22$) and dark energy ($\Omega_{\Lambda} \approx 0.7$). We recently proposed that ordinary matter was synthesised from mirror matter, motivated by the argument that the observed similarity of $\Omega_B$ and $\Omega_{Dark}$ suggests an underlying similarity between the fundamental properties of ordinary and dark matter particles. In this paper we generalise the previous analysis by considering a wider class of effective operators that non-gravitationally couple the ordinary and mirror sectors. We find that while all considered operators imply $\Omega_{Dark} =$ few$\times \Omega_B$, only a subset quantitatively reproduce the observed ratio $\Omega_B/\Omega_{Dark} \approx 0.20$. The $\sim 1$ eV mass scale induced through these operators hints at a connection with neutrino oscillation physics.Comment: minor changes, some references added, about 10 page

Neutrino physics and the mirror world: how exact parity symmetry explains the solar neutrino deficit, the atmospheric neutrino anomaly and the LSND experiment

Evidence for $\bar \nu_{\mu} \rightarrow \bar \nu_e$ oscillations has been reported at LAMPF using the LSND detector. Further evidence for neutrino mixing comes from the solar neutrino deficit and the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. All of these anomalies require new physics. We show that all of these anomalies can be explained if the standard model is enlarged so that an unbroken parity symmetry can be defined. This explanation holds independently of the actual model for neutrino masses. Thus, we argue that parity symmetry is not only a beautiful candidate for a symmetry beyond the standard model, but it can also explain the known neutrino physics anomalies.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, no figures, additional discussion on big bang nucleosynthesis, some additional references, to appear in Phys. Rev.