Related papers: SuperWIMPs in Supergravity
Standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis at baryonic density as inferred by WMAP implies a primordial Li7 abundance factor of two to three larger than that inferred by observations of low--metallicity halo stars. Recent observations of Li6 in halo…
As experimental sensitivity increases, one is approaching the range of WIMP-nucleon interaction strengths characteristic of neutralinos. But this continuing progress also unearths new experimental challenges and uncertainties.
An ever-increasing body of evidence suggests that weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) constitute the bulk of the matter in the Universe. We illustrate how experimental data, dimensional analysis and Standard Model particle physics…
Sub-GeV dark matter is an appealing thermal target because it can still be produced via the standard freeze-out mechanism; at such low masses, achieving freeze-out naturally points to the presence of a light mediator, which shifts the most…
In Scalar-Tensor theories of gravity, the expansion rate of the universe in the past may differ considerably from the standard one. After imposing the constraints coming from nucleosynthesis, CMB, type Ia supernovae, and solar system tests…
This article gives an overview on the status of experimental searches for dark matter at the end of 2014. The main focus is on direct searches for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using underground-based low-background…
We study the consequences of the gravitino decay into dark matter. We suppose that the lightest neutralino is the main component of dark matter. In our framework gravitino is heavy enough to decay before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis starts. We…
We study general freeze-out scenarios where an arbitrary number of initial and final dark matter particles participate in the number-changing freeze-out interaction. We consider a simple sector with two particle species undergoing such a…
One of the most interesting mysteries of astrophysics is the puzzle of dark matter. Although numerous techniques have been explored and developed to detect this elusive substance, its nature remains unknown. One such method uses large…
We propose a new alternative to the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) paradigm for dark matter. Rather than being determined by thermal freeze-out, the dark matter abundance in this scenario is set by dark matter decay, which is…
Two new observations have strengthened the case for the supersymmetric nature of the Cold Dark Matter component in our universe: First, it was shown that new data on the nuclear abundance, B/C - and 10Be/9Be ratios constrain the diffusion…
In spite of rapid experimental progress, windows for light superparticles remain. One possibility is a ~100 GeV tau slepton whose t-channel exchange can give the correct thermal relic abundance for a relatively light neutralino. We…
We propose to observe QSO-galaxy strong lens systems to give a new constraint on the damping scale of the initial fluctuations. We find that the future observation of submilliarc scale astrometric shifts of the multiple lensed images of…
Observational evidence for dark matter can be explained by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). These dark matter particle candidates could indirectly be detected through the observation of signals produced as part of WIMP…
We discuss to which extent the present experiments of direct search for WIMPs, when interpreted in terms of relic neutralinos, probe interesting regions of the supersymmetric parameter space, which are also being progressively explored at…
It is shown that gravitinos with mass m_{3/2} ~ 0.1-1 MeV may provide suitable cold dark matter candidates in scenarios of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) under SO(10) grand unification coupled to supergravity, which…
We have recently shown that, if the inflaton has a nonzero vacuum expectation value, it generically couples to any matter fields that appear in the superpotential at the tree level, and to any gauge sectors through anomalies in the…
We know that dark matter constitutes 85% of all the matter in the Universe, but we do not know of what it is made. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates proposed, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place, as…
The instability of dark matter may produce visible signals in the spectrum of cosmic gamma-rays. We consider this possibility in frameworks with additional spatial dimensions and supersymmetry. Examples of particles include…
While the paradigm of a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) has guided our search strategies for dark matter in the past decades, their null-results have stimulated growing interest in alternative explanations pointing towards…