1999/04/30 by T. Asaka, Masahiro Kawasaki, M. Kawasaki +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.60.103518
published as Phys.Rev. D60 (1999) 103518 · 13 pages (RevTex file) including 8 figures, revised version to be published in Physical Review D
arxiv created 1999/09/13 · openalex publication_date 1999/10/27 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Thermal inflation is the most plausible mechanism that solves the cosmological moduli problem naturally. We discuss the relic abundance of a superheavy particle X in the presence of thermal inflation, assuming that its lifetime is longer than the age of the universe, and show that the long-lived particle X of mass 1012--1014 GeV may form a part of the dark matter in the present universe in a wide region of parameter space of the thermal inflation model. The superheavy dark matter of mass \ensuremath∼1013 GeV may be interesting in particular, since its decay may account for the observed ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays if the lifetime of the X particle is sufficiently long.