Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Cosmic ray anomalies from the MSSM?

  • R. C. Cotta
  • , J. A. Conley
  • , J. S. Gainer
  • , J. L. Hewett
  • , T. G. Rizzo
  • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  • University of Bonn
  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Northwestern University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The recent positron excess in cosmic rays (CR) observed by the PAMELA satellite may be a signal for dark matter (DM) annihilation. When these measurements are combined with those from FERMI on the total (e+ + e-) flux and from PAMELA itself on the p̄/p ratio, these and other results are difficult to reconcile with traditional models of DM, including the conventional mSUGRA version of Supersymmetry even if boosts as large as 103-4 are allowed. In this paper, we combine the results of a previously obtained scan over a more general 19-parameter subspace of the MSSM with a corresponding scan over astrophysical parameters that describe the propagation of CR. We then ascertain whether or not a good fit to this CR data can be obtained with relatively small boost factors while simultaneously satisfying the additional constraints arising from gamma ray data. We find that a specific subclass of MSSM models where the LSP is mostly pure bino and annihilates almost exclusively into τ pairs comes very close to satisfying these requirements. The lightest τ̃ in this set of models is found to be relatively close in mass to the LSP and is in some cases the nLSP. These models lead to a significant improvement in the overall fit to the data by an amount Δχ2 ∼ 1/dof in comparison to the best fit without Supersymmetry while employing boosts ∼ 100. The implications of these models for future experiments are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number64
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Volume2011
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Keywords

  • Cosmology of theories beyond the SM
  • Supersymmetric standard model

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cosmic ray anomalies from the MSSM?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this