Flipped cryptons and the UHECRs
Mar, 20048 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.D 70 (2004) 075015
e-Print:
- hep-ph/0403144 [hep-ph]
Report number:
- ACT-02-04,
- CERN-PH-TH-2004-049,
- MIFP-04-05
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Abstract:
Cryptons are metastable bound states of fractionally-charged particles that arise generically in the hidden sectors of models derived from heterotic string. We study their properties and decay modes in a specific flipped SU(5) model with long-lived four-particle spin-zero bound states called {\it tetrons}. We show that the neutral tetrons are metastable, and exhibit the tenth-order non-renormalizable superpotential operators responsible for their dominant decays. By analogy with QCD, we expect charged tetrons to be somewhat heavier, and to decay relatively rapidly via lower-order interactions that we also exhibit. The expected masses and lifetimes of the neutral tetrons make them good candidates for cold dark matter (CDM), and a potential source of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) which have been observed, whereas the charged tetrons would have decayed in the early Universe.- 04.60.-m
- 12.60.Jv
- 11.25.Pm
- krypton: mass
- charged particle: bound state
- gauge field theory: SU(5) x U(1)
- krypton: decay modes
- krypton: lifetime
- dark matter
- cosmic radiation: particle source
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