Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-8-2024
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
Dark matter particles could be superheavy, provided their lifetime is much longer than the age of the Universe. Using the sensitivity of the Pierre Auger Observatory to ultrahigh energy neutrinos and photons, we constrain a specific extension of the Standard Model of particle physics that meets the lifetime requirement for a superheavy particle by coupling it to a sector of ultralight sterile neutrinos. Our results show that, for a typical dark coupling constant of 0.1, the mixing angle θm between active and sterile neutrinos must satisfy, roughly, θm≲1.5×10-6(MX/109 GeV)-2 for a mass MX of the dark-matter particle between 108 GeV and 1011 GeV.
Publication Title
Physical Review D
Recommended Citation
Abdul Halim, A.,
Abreu, P.,
Aglietta, M.,
Allekotte, I.,
Almeida Cheminant, K.,
Almela, A.,
Fick, B.,
Nguyen, K.,
Nitz, D.,
&
et al.
(2024).
Constraints on metastable superheavy dark matter coupled to sterile neutrinos with the Pierre Auger Observatory.
Physical Review D,
109(8).
http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L081101
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/679
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2024. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.