Astrophysical constraints on massive unstable neutral relic particles
Dec, 1990
39 pages
Published in:
- Nucl.Phys.B 373 (1992) 399-437
- Published: 1992
Report number:
- CERN-TH-5853-90,
- CTP-TAMU-96-90,
- ACT-24
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Abstract: (Elsevier)
There has recently been renewed interest in massive neutral dark-matter particle candidates with masses greater than ∼ 1 TeV which may be unstable. We re-evaluate the constraints on such particles from the possible effects of their decays on the spectrum of the microwave background-radiation and the primordially synthesised abundances of the light elements, from observations of the diffuse gamma-ray background radiation, and from searches for muons and neutrinos in nucleon-decay and cosmic-ray detectors. We find that such unstable neutral relics may well have the cosmological critical density if their lifetime exceeds ∼ 10 16 yr. We illustrate our arguments by applying them to technicolour baryons and to “cryptons” in superstring-inspired models.- dark matter
- neutral particle: massive
- massive: neutral particle
- neutral particle: decay
- decay: neutral particle
- cosmic radiation: microwaves
- photon: cosmic radiation
- light nucleus: production
- production: light nucleus
- muon: cosmic radiation
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