Gravitino Dark Matter and the Flavour Structure of R-violating Operators

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the flavor structure of R-violating operators influences gravitino dark matter decay modes, branching ratios, and related collider signatures within supersymmetry.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of flavor-dependent decay modes and the impact of mixing effects on gravitino decay rates in R-violating supersymmetry.

Findings

Decay modes are highly sensitive to R-violating hierarchies.

Mixing effects significantly alter decay rate predictions.

Results connect gravitino decays to collider signatures of NLSP and superparticle production.

Abstract

We study gravitino dark matter and slow gravitino decays within the framework of R-violating supersymmetry, with particular emphasis on the flavour dependence of the branching ratios and the allowed R-violating couplings. The dominant decay modes and final state products turn out to be very sensitive to the R-violating hierarchies. Mixing effects can be crucial in correctly deriving the relative magnitude of the various contributions, particularly for heavy flavours with phase space suppression. The study of the strength of different decay rates for the gravitino is also correlated to collider signatures expected from decays of the Next-to-Lightest Supersymmetric Particle (NLSP) and to single superparticle production.