Getting a charge out of dark matter

Journal Article · Sun Apr 15 04:00:00 EDT 1990 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.41.2388· OSTI ID:7040676

Dimopoulos, S ^[1]; Eichler, D ^[2]; Esmailzadeh, R ^[3]; Starkman, G D ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (USA)
2. Department of Physics, Ben Gurion University, Beersheba (Israel) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (USA)
3. Center for Particle Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, CA (USA)
4. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (USA)

We consider the possibility that dark matter is in the form of charged massive particles. Several constraints are discussed: (a) the absence of heavy-hydrogen-like atoms in water; (b) the agreement between the observed cosmic abundance of the elements and standard big-bang nucleosynthesis predictions; (c) the observed properties of galaxies, stars, and planets; (d) their nonobservation in {gamma}-ray and cosmic-ray detectors, and the lack of radiation damage to space-borne electronic components. We find that integer-charged particles less massive than 10{sup 3} TeV are probably ruled out as dark matter; but note briefly that there is a slim chance they could be blown out of the halo by supernovae. Above this mass the freeze-out abundance of these particles would overclose the Universe; thus their discovery would be evidence for inflation (or other late-time entropy dumping) below {ital m}{sub ch}. We indicate where one should consider looking for charged massive dark matter.

• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 7040676
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (USA) Vol. 41:8; ISSN PRVDA; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
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