arXiv subjects

Keith A. Olive

Publications and source records attributed to Keith A. Olive.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Hadronic Uncertainties in the Elastic Scattering of Supersymmetric Dark Matter

We review the uncertainties in the spin-independent and -dependent elastic scattering cross sections of supersymmetric dark matter particles on protons and neutrons. We propagate the uncertainties in quark masses and hadronic matrix elements that are related to the $π$-nucleon $σ$ term and the spin content of the nucleon. By far the largest single uncertainty is that in spin-independent scattering induced by our ignorance of the $ $ matrix elements linked to the $π$-nucleon $σ$ term, which affects the ratio of cross sections on proton and neutron targets as well as their absolute values. This uncertainty is already impacting the interpretations of experimental searches for cold dark matter. {\it We plead for an experimental campaign to determine better the $π$-nucleon $σ$ term.} Uncertainties in the spin content of the proton affect significantly, but less strongly, the calculation of rates used in indirect searches.

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arXiv2008

Sparticle Discovery Potentials in the CMSSM and GUT-less Supersymmetry-Breaking Scenarios

We consider the potentials of the LHC and a linear e^+e^- collider (LC) for discovering supersymmetric particles in variants of the MSSM with soft supersymmetry-breaking mass parameters constrained to be universal at the GUT scale (CMSSM) or at some lower scale M_{in} (GUT-less models), as may occur in some scenarios with mirage unification. Whereas the LHC should be able to discover squarks and/or gluinos along all the CMSSM coannihilation strip where the relic neutralino LSP density lies within the range favoured for cold dark matter, many GUT-less models could escape LHC detection. In particular, if M_{in} < 10^{11} GeV, the LHC would not detect sparticles if the relic density lies within the favoured range. For any given discovery of supersymmetry at the LHC, in such GUT-less models the lightest neutralino mass and hence the threshold for sparticle pair production at a LC increases as M_{in} decreases, and the CMSSM offers the best prospects for measuring sparticles at a LC. For example, if the LHC discovers sparticles with 1 fb^{-1} of data, within the CMSSM a centre-of-mass energy of 600 GeV would suffice for a LC to to produce pairs of neutralinos, if they provide the cold dark matter, whereas over 1 TeV might be required in a general GUT-less model. These required energies increase to 800 GeV in the CMSSM and 1.4 TeV in GUT-less models if the LHC requires 10 fb^{-1} to discover supersymmetry.

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arXiv2008

Environmental Dependence of Masses and Coupling Constants

We construct a class of scalar field models coupled to matter that lead to the dependence of masses and coupling constants on the ambient matter density. Such models predict a deviation of couplings measured on the Earth from values determined in low-density astrophysical environments, but do not necessarily require the evolution of coupling constants with the redshift in the recent cosmological past. Additional laboratory and astrophysical tests of Δαand Δ(m_p/m_e) as functions of the ambient matter density are warranted.

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arXiv2007

Colliders and Cosmology

Dark matter in variations of constrained minimal supersymmetric standard models will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to the comparison between accelerator and direct detection constraints.

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arXiv2007

Phenomenology of GUT-less Supersymmetry Breaking

We study models in which supersymmetry breaking appears at an intermediate scale, M_{in}, below the GUT scale. We assume that the soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters of the MSSM are universal at M_{in}, and analyze the morphology of the constraints from cosmology and collider experiments on the allowed regions of parameter space as M_{in} is reduced from the GUT scale. We present separate analyses of the (m_{1/2},m_0) planes for tan(beta)=10 and tan(beta)=50, as well as a discussion of non-zero trilinear couplings, A_0. Specific scenarios where the gaugino and scalar masses appear to be universal below the GUT scale have been found in mirage-mediation models, which we also address here. We demand that the lightest neutralino be the LSP, and that the relic neutralino density not conflict with measurements by WMAP and other observations. At moderate values of M_{in}, we find that the allowed regions of the (m_{1/2},m_0) plane are squeezed by the requirements of electroweak symmetry breaking and that the lightest neutralino be the LSP, whereas the constraint on the relic density is less severe. At very low M_{in}, the electroweak vacuum conditions become the dominant constraint, and a secondary source of astrophysical cold dark matter would be necessary to explain the measured relic density for nearly all values of the soft SUSY-breaking parameters and tan(beta). We calculate the neutralino-nucleon cross sections for viable scenarios and compare them with the present and projected limits from direct dark matter searches.

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arXiv2007

Coupled Variations of Fundamental Couplings and Primordial Nucleosynthesis

The effect of variations of the fundamental nuclear parameters on big-bang nucleosynthesis are modeled and discussed in detail taking into account the interrelations between the fundamental parameters arising in unified theories. Considering only \he4, strong constraints on the variation of the neutron lifetime, neutron-proton mass difference are set. These constraints are then translated into constraints on the time variation of the Yukawa couplings and the fine structure constant. Furthermore, we show that a variation of the deuterium binding energy is able to reconcile the \li7 abundance deduced from the WMAP analysis with its spectroscopically determined value while maintaining concordance with D and \he4. The analysis is strongly based on the potential model of Flambaum and Shuryak that relates the binding energy of the deuteron with the nucleon and $σ$ and $ω$ mesons masses, however, we show that an alternative approach that consists of a pion mass dependence necessarily leads to equivalent conclusions.

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arXiv2007

Cosmic Ray production of Beryllium and Boron at high redshift

Recently, new observations of Li6 in Pop II stars of the galactic halo have shown a surprisingly high abundance of this isotope, about a thousand times higher than its predicted primordial value. In previous papers, a cosmological model for the cosmic ray-induced production of this isotope in the IGM has been developed to explain the observed abundance at low metallicity. In this paper, given this constraint on the Li6, we calculate the non-thermal evolution with redshift of D, Be, and B in the IGM. In addition to cosmological cosmic ray interactions in the IGM, we include additional processes driven by SN explosions: neutrino spallation and a low energy component in the structures ejected by outflows to the IGM. We take into account CNO CRs impinging on the intergalactic gas. Although subdominant in the galactic disk, this process is shown to produce the bulk of Be and B in the IGM, due to the differential metal enrichment between structures (where CRs originate) and the IGM. We also consider the resulting extragalactic gamma-ray background which we find to be well below existing data. The computation is performed in the framework of hierarchical structure formation considering several star formation histories including Pop III stars. We find that D production is negligible and that a potentially detectable Be and B plateau is produced by these processes at the time of the formation of the Galaxy (z ~ 3).

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arXiv2007

The Decay of the Inflaton in No-scale Supergravity

We study the decay of the inflaton in no-scale supergravity and show that decay due to the gravitational interactions through supergravity effects is highly suppressed relative to the case in minimal supergravity or models with a generic Kahler potential. We also show that decay to gravitinos is suppressed. We demonstrate that decay and sufficient reheating are possible with the introduction of a non-trivial gauge kinetic term. This channel may be dominant in no-scale supergravity, yet yields a re-heating temperature which is low enough to avoid the gravitino problem while high enough for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and baryogenesis.

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arXiv2007

On the Feasibility of a Stop NLSP in Gravitino Dark Matter Scenarios

We analyze the possibility that the lighter stop {\tilde t_1} could be the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) in models where the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). We do not find any possibility for a stop NLSP in the constrained MSSM with universal input soft supersymmetry-breaking masses at the GUT scale (CMSSM), but do find small allowed regions in models with non-universal Higgs masses (NUHM). We discuss the cosmological evolution of stop hadrons. Most {\tilde t_1}qq `sbaryons' and the corresponding `antisbaryons' annihilate with conventional antibaryons and baryons into {\tilde t_1}{\bar q} `mesinos' and the corresponding `antimesinos', respectively, shortly after the quark-hadron transition in the early Universe, and most mesinos and antimesinos subsequently annihilate. As a result, insufficient metastable charged stop hadrons survive to alter Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

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arXiv2006

The Fate of SUSY Flat Directions and their Role in Reheating

We consider the role of supersymmetric flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation. One or more flat directions can develop large vevs during inflation, which can potentially affect reheating by slowing down scattering processes among inflaton decay products or by coming to dominate the energy density of the Universe. Both effects occur only if flat directions are sufficiently long-lived. The computation of their perturbative decay rate, and a simple estimate of their nonperturbative decay have led to the conclusion that this is indeed the case. In contrast, we show that flat directions can decay quickly through nonperturbative channels in realistic models. The mass matrix for MSSM excitations around flat directions has nondiagonal entries, which vary with the phase of the (complex) flat directions. The quasi-periodic motion of the flat directions results in a strong parametric resonance, leading to the rapid depletion of the flat direction within its first few rotations. This may preclude any significant role for the flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation in models in which the inflaton decays perturbatively.

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arXiv2006

Searching for Dark Matter in Unification Models: A Hint from Indirect Sensitivities towards Future Signals in Direct Detection and B-decay

A comparison is made between accelerator and direct detection constraints in constrained versions of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. Models considered are based on mSUGRA, where scalar and gaugino masses are unified at the GUT scale. In addition, the mSUGRA relation between the (unified) A and B parameters is assumed, as is the relation between $m_0$ and the gravitino mass. Also considered are models where the latter two conditions are dropped (the CMSSM), and a less constrained version where the Higgs soft masses are not unified at the GUT scale (the NUHM).

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arXiv2006

Bound-State Effects on Light-Element Abundances in Gravitino Dark Matter Scenarios

If the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle and the long-lived next-to-lightest sparticle (NSP) is the stau, the charged partner of the tau lepton, it may be metastable and form bound states with several nuclei. These bound states may affect the cosmological abundances of Li6 and Li7 by enhancing nuclear rates that would otherwise be strongly suppressed. We consider the effects of these enhanced rates on the final abundances produced in Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), including injections of both electromagnetic and hadronic energy during and after BBN. We calculate the dominant two- and three-body decays of both neutralino and stau NSPs, and model the electromagnetic and hadronic decay products using the PYTHIA event generator and a cascade equation. Generically, the introduction of bound states drives light element abundances further from their observed values; however, for small regions of parameter space bound state effects can bring lithium abundances in particular in better accord with observations. We show that in regions where the stau is the NSP with a lifetime longer than 10^3-10^4 s, the abundances of Li6 and Li7 are far in excess of those allowed by observations. For shorter lifetimes of order 1000 s, we comment on the possibility in minimal supersymmetric and supergravity models that stau decays could reduce the Li7 abundance from standard BBN values while at the same time enhancing the Li6 abundance.

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arXiv2006

What if supersymmetry breaking appears below the GUT scale?

We consider the possibility that the soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters m_{1/2} and m_0 of the MSSM are universal at some scale M_{in} below the supersymmetric grand unification scale M_{GUT}, as might occur in scenarios where either the primordial supersymmetry-breaking mechanism or its communication to the observable sector involve a dynamical scale below M_{GUT}. We analyze the (m_{1/2}, m_0) planes of such sub-GUT CMSSM models, noting the dependences of phenomenological, experimental and cosmological constraints on M_{in}. In particular, we find that the coannihilation, focus-point and rapid-annihilation funnel regions of the GUT-scale CMSSM approach and merge when M_{in} \sim 10^{12} GeV. We discuss sparticle spectra and the possible sensitivity of LHC measurements to the value of M_{in}.

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arXiv2006

Population III Generated Cosmic Rays and the Production of Li6

We calculate the evolution of Li6 generated from cosmic rays produced by an early population of massive stars. The computation is performed in the framework of hierarchical structure formation and is based on cosmic star formation histories constrained to reproduce the observed star formation rate at redshift z \la 6, the observed chemical abundances in damped Lyman alpha absorbers and in the intergalactic medium, and to allow for an early reionization of the Universe at z\sim 11 by Pop III stars as indicated by the third year results released by WMAP. We show that the pregalactic production of the Li6 isotope in the IGM via these Pop III stars can account for the Li6 plateau observed in metal poor halo stars without additional over-production of Li7. Our results depend on the efficiency of cosmic rays to propagate out of minihalos and the fraction of supernovae energy deposited in cosmic rays. We also compute the cosmic ray heating of the IGM gas. In general, we find somewhat high temperatures (of order 10^5 K) implying that the cosmic rays production of Li6 may be required to be confined to the so-called warm-hot IGM.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Gravitational Waves from the First Stars

We consider the stochastic background of gravitational waves produced by an early generation of Population III stars coupled with a normal mode of star formation at lower redshift. The computation is performed in the framework of hierarchical structure formation and is based on cosmic star formation histories constrained to reproduce the observed star formation rate at redshift $z \la 6$, the observed chemical abundances in damped Lyman alpha absorbers and in the intergalactic medium, and to allow for an early reionization of the Universe at $z\sim 10-20$ as indicated by the first year results released by WMAP. We find that the normal mode of star formation produces a gravitational wave background which peaks at 300-500 Hz and is within LIGO III sensitivity. The Population III component peaks at lower frequencies (30-100 Hz depending on the model), and could be detected by LIGO III as well as the planned BBO and DECIGO interferometers.

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arXiv2006

On B_s -> mu+ mu- and Cold Dark Matter Scattering in the MSSM with Non-Universal Higgs Masses

We show that present experimental constraints on B_s -> mu+ mu- decay and the CDMS upper limit on the cold dark matter elastic scattering cross section already have significant impact on the parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM) with non-universal supersymmetry-breaking scalar masses for the Higgs multiplets (NUHM). The relaxation of scalar universality in the MSSM allows the possibility of a relatively light mass M_A for the pseudoscalar Higgs boson. The present upper limit on B_s -> mu+ mu- already excludes much of the scope for this possibility in the NUHM, in contrast to the constrained MSSM with universal scalar masses (CMSSM), where B_s -> mu+ mu- decay does not exclude any ranges of parameters not already excluded by b -> s γdecay. Cold dark matter scattering is also enhanced for small M_A, but the impact of present upper limit on B_s -> mu+ mu- on the NUHM parameter space is in many cases greater than that of the CDMS scattering limit, particularly at large tanb.

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arXiv2006

The Relic Neutrino Backround from the First Stars

We consider the relic neutrino background produced by Population III stars coupled with a normal mode of star formation at lower redshift. The computation is performed in the framework of hierarchical structure formation and is based on cosmic star formation histories constrained to reproduce the observed star formation rate at redshift z \la 6, the observed chemical abundances in damped Lyman alpha absorbers and in the intergalactic medium, and to allow for an early reionization of the Universe at z ~ 10-20. We consider both a burst and non-burst model for Population III star formation. We find that although the high redshift burst of Population III stars does lead to an appreciable flux of neutrinos at relatively low energy (E_ν\approx 1 MeV), the observable neutrino flux is dominated by the normal mode of star formation. We also find that predicted fluxes are at the present level of the SuperK limit. As a consequence, the supernova relic neutrino background has a direct impact on models of chemical evolution and/or supernova dynamics.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Big bang nucleosynthesis constraints on scalar-tensor theories of gravity

We investigate BBN in scalar-tensor theories of gravity with arbitrary matter couplings and self-interaction potentials. We first consider the case of a massless dilaton with a quadratic coupling to matter. We perform a full numerical integration of the evolution of the scalar field and compute the resulting light element abundances. We demonstrate in detail the importance of particle mass thresholds on the evolution of the scalar field in a radiation dominated universe. We also consider the simplest extension of this model including a cosmological constant in either the Jordan or Einstein frame.

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