The scenario of gravitino dark matter with broken R-parity naturally reconciles three paradigms that, albeit very well motivated separately, seem to be in mutual conflict: supersymmetric dark matter, thermal leptogenesis and standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Interestingly enough, the products of the gravitino decay could be observed, opening the possibility of indirect detection of gravitino dark matter. In this paper, we compute the positron and the antiproton fluxes from gravitino decay. We find that a gravitino with a mass of 150 GeV and a lifetime of 10^26 s could simultaneously explain the EGRET anomaly in the extragalactic diffuse gamma ray background and the HEAT excess in the positron fraction. However, the predicted antiproton flux tends to be too large, although the prediction suffers from large uncertainties and might be compatible with present observations for certain choices of propagation parameters.
The AMS experiment is shown to be sensitive to test the hypothesis on the existence of antimatter globular cluster in our Galaxy. The hypothesis follows from the analysis of possible tests for the mechanisms of baryosynthesis and uses antimatter domains in the matter dominated Universe as the probe for the physics underlying the origin of the matter. The interval of masses for the antimatter in our Galaxy is fixed from below by the condition of antimatter domain survival in the matter dominated Universe and from above by the observed gamma ray flux. For this interval the expected fluxes of ant…
The axino and the gravitino are extremely weakly interacting candidates for the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). We demonstrate that either of them could provide the right amount of cold dark matter. Assuming that a charged slepton is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), we discuss how NLSP decays into the axino/gravitino LSP can provide evidence for axino/gravitino dark matter at future colliders. We show that these NLSP decays will allow us to estimate the value of the Peccei-Quinn scale and the axino mass if the axino is the LSP. In the case of the gravitino LSP, we i…
Simple SUSY GUT models based on the gauge group SO(10) require t-b-τYukawa coupling unification, in addition to gauge coupling and matter unification. The Yukawa coupling unification places strong constraints on the expected superparticle mass spectrum, with scalar masses \sim 10 TeV while gaugino masses are quite light. A problem generic to all supergravity models comes from overproduction of gravitinos in the early universe: if gravitinos are unstable, then their late decays may destroy the predictions of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. We present a Yukawa-unified SO(10) SUSY GUT scenario which av…
The gravitational field of matter and that of antimatter could differ. This might be one signature of quantum gravity. We show that primordial Big Bang Nucleosynthesis restricts such a possibility.
For gravitino dark matter with conserved R-parity and mass in the GeV range, very strong constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis exclude the popular NLSP candidates like neutralino and charged sleptons. In this letter we therefore draw attention to the case of a sneutrino NLSP, that is naturally realised in the context of gaugino mediation. We find interesting collider signatures, characterised by soft jets or leptons due to the small sneutrino--stau mass splitting. Moreover, the lightest neutralino can have visible decays into staus, and in some part of the parameter space also into selectr…
The axino and the gravitino are well-motivated candidates for the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and also for cold dark matter in the Universe. Assuming that a charged slepton is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), we show how the NLSP decays can be used to probe the axino LSP scenario in hadronic axion models as well as the gravitino LSP scenario at the Large Hadron Collider and the International Linear Collider. We show how one can identify experimentally the scenario realized in nature. In the case of the axino LSP, the NLSP decays will allow one to estimate the val…
Observational signatures of existence of antimatter objects in the Galaxy are discussed. We focus on point-like sources of gamma radiation, diffuse galactic gamma ray background and anti-nuclei in cosmic rays.
While the PAMELA collaboration has recently confirmed the cosmic ray positron excess, it is interesting to review the effects of dark matter (DM) subhalos on the predicted antimatter signals. We recall that, according to general subhalo properties as inferred from theoretical cosmology, and for DM with constant annihilation cross section, the enhancement cannot be $\gtrsim$ 20 for the antimatter yield. This bound is obviously different from that found for gamma-rays. We also recall some predictions for supersymmetric benchmark models observable at the LHC and derived in the cosmological N-body…
We ask whether the universe can be a patchwork consisting of distinct regions of matter and antimatter. We demonstrate that, after recombination, it is impossible to avoid annihilation near regional boundaries. We study the dynamics of this process to estimate two of its signatures: a contribution to the cosmic diffuse gamma-ray background and a distortion of the cosmic microwave background. The former signal exceeds observational limits unless the matter domain we inhabit is virtually the entire visible universe. On general grounds, we conclude that a matter-antimatter symmetric universe is e…
The existence of macroscopic regions with antibaryon excess in the baryon asymmetric Universe with general baryon excess is the possible consequence of practically all models of baryosynthesis. Diffusion of matter and antimatter to the border of antimatter domains defines the minimal scale of the antimatter domains surviving to the present time. A model of diffused antiworld is considered, in which the density within the surviving antimatter domains is too low to form gravitationally bound objects. The possibility to test this model by measurements of cosmic gamma ray fluxes is discussed. The …
A brief review of the indirect detection signatures of dark matter is given. In particular, detection methods of dark matter particle annihilation to antimatter and gamma-rays are reviewed. With the GLAST satellite soon to be launched, a crucial window in the energy range of a few GeV up to 300 GeV will open. The good angular and energy resolution of the instrument means that structures predicted by cold dark matter models can be searched for. Large, currently planned ground-based imaging Cherenkov telescope arrays, may further improve the limits, or discover a signal, if the current understan…
We propose low-energy antideuterons in cosmic rays as a new possible signature for indirect detection of supersymmetric dark matter. Since the energy spectrum of the antiproton secondary component is still spoilt by considerable theoretical uncertainties, looking for low-energy antideuterons seems a plausible alternative. We apply our calculation to the AMS experiment, when mounted on the International Spatial Station. If a few low-energy antideuterons will be discovered by AMS, this should be seriously taken as a clue for the existence of relic, massive neutralinos in the dark halo of our Gal…
We study gravitino dark matter and slow gravitino decays within the framework of R-violating supersymmetry, with particular emphasis on the flavour dependence of the branching ratios and the allowed R-violating couplings. The dominant decay modes and final state products turn out to be very sensitive to the R-violating hierarchies. Mixing effects can be crucial in correctly deriving the relative magnitude of the various contributions, particularly for heavy flavours with phase space suppression. The study of the strength of different decay rates for the gravitino is also correlated to collider…
Considering scenarios in which the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle and a charged slepton the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), we discuss cosmological constraints on the masses of the gravitino and the NLSP slepton. The presented mass bounds are crucial for gravitino dark matter studies and potential gravitino signatures at future colliders.
Gravitino dark matter, together with thermal leptogenesis, implies an upper bound on the masses of superparticles. In the case of broken R-parity the constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis are naturally satisfied and decaying gravitinos lead to characteristic signatures in high energy cosmic rays. We analyse the implications for supergravity models with universal boundary conditions at the grand unification scale. Together with low-energy observables one obtains a window of superparticle masses, which will soon be probed at the LHC, and a range of allowed reheating temperatures.
I argue that the existence of cold antimatter in bulk is not permitted by the Standard Model, so that if a gamma-ray signature from antiproton annihilation were to be detected, it must represent either new physics or the action of intelligence. Time variability of the signal would strongly support the second alternative. The entire sky was scanned at the relevant energies (30- 928 MeV) by the EGRET experiment on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory during 1991-1995. A search of this database for the antiproton annihilation signature yielded only upper limits on the flux (an intriguing spect…
We show that in the case of small R-parity and lepton number breaking couplings, primordial nucleosynthesis, thermal leptogenesis and gravitino dark matter are naturally consistent for gravitino masses m_{3/2} \gsim 5 GeV. We present a model where R-parity breaking is tied to B-L breaking, which predicts the needed small couplings. The metastable next-to-lightest superparticle has a decay length that is typically larger than a few centimeters, with characteristic signatures at the LHC. The photon flux produced by relic gravitino decays may be part of the apparent excess in the extragalactic di…
We analyze scenarios in which some flavour of sneutrino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), assuming that the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and provides the cold dark matter. Such scenarios do not arise in the constrained supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM) with universal gaugino and scalar masses input at the GUT scale. However, models with non-universal Higgs masses (NUHM) do allow scenarios with a sneutrino NLSP, which are quite generic. We illustrate how such scenarios may arise, analyze the possible metastable sneutrino life…
The gravitational properties of antimatter are still a secret of nature. One outstanding possibility is that there is a gravitational repulsion between matter and antimatter (in short we call it antigravity). We argue that in the case of antigravity the collapse of a black hole doesn't end with singularity and that deep inside the horizon, the gravitational field may be sufficiently strong to create (from the vacuum) neutrino-antineutrino pairs of all flavours. The created antineutrinos (neutrinos) should be violently ejected outside the horizon of a black hole composed from matter (antimatter…
Cosmic rays at the Earth include a secondary component originating in collisions of primary particles with the diffuse interstellar gas. The secondary cosmic rays are relatively rare but carry important information on the Galactic propagation of the primary particles. The secondary component includes a small fraction of antimatter particles, positrons and antiprotons. In addition, positrons and antiprotons may also come from unusual sources and possibly provide insight into new physics. For instance, the annihilation of heavy supersymmetric dark matter particles within the Galactic halo could …
In supergravity theories, a natural possibility is that neutralinos or sleptons freeze out at their thermal relic density, but then decay to gravitinos after about a year. The resulting gravitinos are then superWIMPs -- superweakly-interacting massive particles that naturally inherit the desired relic density from late decays of conventional WIMPs. SuperWIMP dark matter escapes all conventional searches. However, the late decays that produce superWIMPs provide new and promising early universe signatures for cold dark matter.
We consider heavy stable neutral particles in the context of supergravity and show that a gravitationally suppressed inflaton decay can produce such particles in cosmologically interesting abundances within a wide mass range $10^3 {\rm GeV} \leq m_X \leq 10^{11} {\rm GeV}$. In gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking models, a heavy particle can decay into its superpartner and a photon-photino pair or a gravitino. Such decays only change the identity of a possible dark matter candidate. However, for $10^3 {\rm GeV} \leq m_X \leq 10^7 {\rm GeV}$, astrophysical bounds from gamma-ray background an…
If the Universe consists of domains of matter and antimatter, annihilations at domain interfaces leave a distinctive imprint on the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) sky. The signature is anisotropies in the form of long, thin ribbons of width $θ_W\sim 0.1^\circ$, separated by angle $θ_L\simeq 1^\circ(L/100h^{-1}{Mpc})$ where L is the characteristic domain size, and y-distortion parameter $y \approx 10^{-6}$. Such a pattern could potentially be detected by the high-resolution CBR anisotropy experiments planned for the next decade, and such experiments may finally settle the question of whether…
Gravitational collapse of dark matter, merger of dark matter haloes and tidal disruption of satellites are among processes which lead to the formation of fine and dense dark matter shells, also known as dark matter caustics. The putative weakly interacting species which may form the dark matter are expected to strongly annihilate in these dense regions of the Milky Way halo and generate in particular antiprotons and positrons. We derive the flux of these rare antimatter particles at the Earth and show that it depends significantly on the cut-off radius of the dark matter distribution at the ga…
Dark Matter annihilation (DMA) may yield an excess of gamma rays and antimatter particles, like antiprotons and positrons, above the background from cosmic ray interactions. Several signatures, ranging from the positron excess, as observed by HEAT, AMS-01 and PAMELA, the gamma ray excess, as observed by the EGRET spectrometer, the WMAP-haze, and constraints from antiprotons, as observed by CAPRICE, BESS and PAMELA, have been discussed in the literature. Unfortunately, the different signatures all lead to different WIMP masses, indicating that at least some of these interpretations are likely t…
Cold dark matter may be made of superweakly-interacting massive particles, superWIMPs, that naturally inherit the desired relic density from late decays of metastable WIMPs. Well-motivated examples are weak-scale gravitinos in supergravity and Kaluza-Klein gravitons from extra dimensions. These particles are impossible to detect in all dark matter experiments. We find, however, that superWIMP dark matter may be discovered through cosmological signatures from the early universe. In particular, superWIMP dark matter has observable consequences for Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwav…
We study supersymmetric scenarios where the dark matter is the gaugino of an unbroken hidden U(1) which interacts with the visible world only via a small kinetic mixing with the hypercharge. Strong constraints on the parameter space can be derived from avoiding overclosure of the Universe and from requiring successful Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and structure formation. We find that for typical values of the mixing parameter, scenarios with neutralino NLSP are excluded, while scenarios with slepton NLSP are allowed when the mixing parameter lies in the range chi~O(10^(-13) - 10^(-10)). We also sh…
The leaky box model is now ruled out by measurements of a cosmic ray gradient throughout the galactic disk. It needs to be replaced by a more refined treatment which takes into account the diffusion of cosmic rays in the magnetic fields of the Galaxy. We have estimated the flux of antiprotons on the Earth in the framework of a two-zone diffusion model. Those species are created by the spallation reactions of high-energy nuclei with the interstellar gas. Another potential source of antiprotons is the annihilation of supersymmetric particles in the dark halo that surrounds our Galaxy. In this le…
