117 research outputs found
Thermal Gravitino Production and Collider Tests of Leptogenesis
Considering gravitino dark matter scenarios, we obtain the full
gauge-invariant result for the relic density of thermally produced gravitinos
to leading order in the Standard Model gauge couplings. For the temperatures
required by thermal leptogenesis, we find gaugino mass bounds which will be
probed at future colliders. We show that a conceivable determination of the
gravitino mass will allow for a unique test of the viability of thermal
leptogenesis in the laboratory.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, revised version matches published versio
Metastable GeV-scale particles as a solution to the cosmological lithium problem
The persistent discrepancy between observations of 7Li with putative
primordial origin and its abundance prediction in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
(BBN) has become a challenge for the standard cosmological and astrophysical
picture. We point out that the decay of GeV-scale metastable particles X may
significantly reduce the BBN value down to a level at which it is reconciled
with observations. The most efficient reduction occurs when the decay happens
to charged pions and kaons, followed by their charge exchange reactions with
protons. Similarly, if X decays to muons, secondary electron antineutrinos
produce a similar effect. We consider the viability of these mechanisms in
different classes of new GeV-scale sectors, and find that several minimal
extensions of the Standard Model with metastable vector and/or scalar particles
are capable of solving the cosmological lithium problem. Such light states can
be a key to the explanation of recent cosmic ray anomalies and can be searched
for in a variety of high-intensity medium-energy experiments.Comment: 50 pages, 13 figures; references added, typo correcte
Scattering of massive W bosons into gravitinos and tree unitarity in broken supergravity
The WW scattering into gravitino and gaugino is here investigated in the
broken phase, by using both gauge and mass eigenstates. Differently from what
is obtained for unbroken gauge symmetry, we find in the scattering amplitudes
new structures, which can lead to violation of unitarity above a certain scale.
This happens because, in the annihilation diagram, the longitudinal degrees of
freedom in the propagator of the gauge bosons disappear from the amplitude, by
virtue of the SUGRA vertex. We show that the longitudinal polarizations of the
on-shell W become strongly interacting in the high energy limit, and that the
inclusion of diagrams with off-shell scalars of the MSSM does not cancel the
divergences.Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures. Uses JHEP3.cls, epsfig.sty and axodraw.sty.
Some references, together with Ward identities in the basis of mass
eigenstates, have been added. Version accepted for publication in JHE
Probing High Reheating Temperature Scenarios at the LHC with Long-Lived Staus
We investigate the possibility of probing high reheating temperature
scenarios at the LHC, in supersymmetric models where the gravitino is the
lightest supersymmetric particle, and the stau is the next-to-lightest
supersymmetric particle. In such scenarios, the big-bang nucleosynthesis and
the gravitino abundance give a severe upper bound on the gluino mass. We find
that, if the reheating temperature is \sim 10^8 GeV or higher, the scenarios
can be tested at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of O(1 fb^{-1}) at
\sqrt{s}=7 TeV in most of the parameter space.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, minor modification
Full Boltzmann equations for leptogenesis including scattering
We study the evolution of a cosmological baryon asymmetry produced via
leptogenesis by means of the full classical Boltzmann equations, without the
assumption of kinetic equilibrium and including all quantum statistical
factors. Beginning with the full mode equations we derive the usual equations
of motion for the right-handed neutrino number density and integrated lepton
asymmetry, and show explicitly the impact of each assumption on these
quantities. For the first time, we investigate also the effects of scattering
of the right-handed neutrino with the top quark to leading order in the Yukawa
couplings by means of the full Boltzmann equations. We find that in our full
Boltzmann treatment the final lepton asymmetry can be suppressed by as much as
a factor of 1.5 in the weak wash-out regime (K<1), compared to the usual
integrated approach which assumes kinetic equilibrium and neglects quantum
statistics. This suppression is in contrast with the enhancement seen in some
previous studies that considered only decay and inverse decay of the
right-handed neutrino. However, this suppression quickly decreases as we
increase K. In the strong wash-out regime (K>1), the full Boltzmann treatment
and the integrated approach give nearly identical final lepton asymmetries
(within 10 % of each other at K>3). Finally, we show that the opposing effects
of quantum statistics on decays/inverse decays and the scattering processes
tend to reduce the net importance of scattering on leptogenesis in the full
treatment compared to the integrated approach.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, replaced to match published
versio
Low-Energy Thermal Leptogenesis in an Extended NMSSM Model
Thermal leptogenesis in the canonical seesaw model in supersymmetry suffers
from the incompatibility of a generic lower bound on the mass scale of the
lightest right-handed neutrino and the upper bound on the reheating temperature
of the Universe after inflation. This is resolved by adding an extra singlet
superfield, with a discrete symmetry, to the NMSSM (Next to Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model). This generic mechanism is applicable to any
supersymmetric model for lowering the scale of leptogenesis.Comment: 16 pages, revtex, 9 eps figure
Probing sub-eV Dark Matter decays with PTOLEMY
Theoretical Physic
Axions and saxions from the primordial supersymmetric plasma and extra radiation signatures
We calculate the rate for thermal production of axions and saxions via
scattering of quarks, gluons, squarks, and gluinos in the primordial
supersymmetric plasma. Systematic field theoretical methods such as hard
thermal loop resummation are applied to obtain a finite result in a
gauge-invariant way that is consistent to leading order in the strong gauge
coupling. We calculate the thermally produced yield and the decoupling
temperature for both axions and saxions. For the generic case in which saxion
decays into axions are possible, the emitted axions can constitute extra
radiation already prior to big bang nucleosynthesis and well thereafter. We
update associated limits imposed by recent studies of the primordial helium-4
abundance and by precision cosmology of the cosmic microwave background and
large scale structure. We show that the trend towards extra radiation seen in
those studies can be explained by late decays of thermal saxions into axions
and that upcoming Planck results will probe supersymmetric axion models with
unprecedented sensitivity.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures; v2: references added, minor clarifying
additions, matches published versio
Gravitino dark matter in brane-world cosmology
The gravitino dark matter hypothesis in the brane cosmology is studied. The
theoretical framework is the CMSSM for particle physics and RS II brane model
for gravity. It is found that the gravitino can play the role of dark matter in
the universe and we determine what the gravitino mass should be for different
values of the five-dimensional Planck mass. An upper bound is obtained for the
latter.Comment: Improved version with minor corrections, to appear in JCA
Bounds on long-lived charged massive particles from Big Bang nucleosynthesis
The Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) in the presence of charged massive
particles (CHAMPs) is studied in detail. All currently known effects due to the
existence of bound states between CHAMPs and nuclei, including possible
late-time destruction of Li6 and Li7 are included. The study sets conservative
bounds on CHAMP abundances in the decay time range 3x10^2 sec - 10^12 sec. It
is stressed that the production of Li6 at early times T ~ 10keV is
overestimated by a factor ~ 10 when the approximation of the Saha equation for
the He4 bound state fraction is utilised. To obtain conservative limits on the
abundance of CHAMPs, a Monte-Carlo analysis with ~ 3x10^6 independent BBN runs,
varying reaction rates of nineteen different reactions, is performed (see
attached erratum, however). The analysis yields the surprising result that
except for small areas in the particle parameter space conservative constraints
on the abundance of decaying charged particles are currently very close to
those of neutral particles. It is shown that, in case a number of heretofore
unconsidered reactions may be determined reliably in future, it is conceivable
that the limit on CHAMPs in the early Universe could be tightened by orders of
magnitude. An ERRATUM gives limits on primordial CHAMP densities when the by
Ref. Kamimura et al. recently more accurately determined CHAMP reaction rates
are employed.Comment: includes Erratum showing most up to date limits after determination
of the most important reaction rate
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