Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, superheavy long-lived particles, and matter creation after inflation

1998/02/12 by V.A. Kuzmin, V. A. Kuzmin, I. Tkachev +1 · 11 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1134/1.567858

published as JETPLett.68:271-275,1998 · LaTeX, 8 pages

arxiv created 1998/02/12 · openalex publication_date 1998/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Cosmic rays of the highest energy, above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff of the spectrum, may originate in decays of superheavy long-lived particles. We conjecture that these particles may be produced naturally in the early Universe from vacuum fluctuations during inflation and may constitute a considerable fraction of cold dark matter. We predict a new cutoff in the ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray spectrum E cutoff < m inflaton ≈10 13 GeV, the exact position of the cutoff and the shape of the cosmic ray spectrum beyond the GZK cutoff being determined by the QCD quark/gluon fragmentation. The Pierre Auger Project installation may in principle observe this phenomenon.

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