paper

Astrophysical constraints on dark-matter -balls in the presence of baryon-violating operators

arXiv:1609.00970 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.94.123006

Abstract

Supersymmetric extensions of the standard model predict the existence of non-topological solitons, -balls. Assuming the standard cosmological history preceded by inflation, -balls can form in the early universe and can make up the dark matter. The relatively large masses of such dark-matter particles imply a low number density, making direct detection very challenging. The strongest limits come from the existence of neutron stars because, if a baryonic -ball is captured by a neutron star, the -ball can absorb the baryon number releasing energy and eventually destroying a neutron star. However, in the presence of baryon number violating higher-dimension operators, the growth of a -ball inside a neutron star is hampered once the -ball reaches a certain size. We re-examine the limits and identify some classes of higher-dimensional operators for which supersymmetric -balls can account for dark matter. The present limits leave a wide range of parameters available for dark matter in the form of supersymmetric -balls.

12 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

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