Getting a charge out of dark matter

Journal Article · Sun Apr 15 00:00:00 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), Vol. 41:8; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
CHARGED PARTICLES
MASS
COSMIC RAY DETECTION
COSMOLOGY
GALAXIES
GAMMA DETECTION
HIGGS BOSONS
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
SUPERSYMMETRY
UNIVERSE
YUKAWA POTENTIAL
DETECTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
NUCLEAR POTENTIAL
POSTULATED PARTICLES
POTENTIALS
RADIATION DETECTION
SYMMETRY
SYNTHESIS
640106* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmology
645300 - High Energy Physics- Particle Invariance Principles & Symmetries
640101 - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmic Radiation
640102 - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources