Astrophysical Probes of Unification

TL;DR

This paper discusses how astrophysical experiments can test supersymmetric unification theories by detecting decays of dark matter particles and superparticles, providing insights into physics at the GUT scale and the early universe.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of current astrophysical experiments to probe supersymmetric unification theories through observable particle decays and their implications for cosmology and collider physics.

Findings

Decays of dark matter particles with ~10^26 sec lifetime are being investigated by experiments like Fermi.

Superparticle decays with ~100 sec lifetime could explain lithium abundance discrepancies.

Theories predict specific signatures at the LHC and in astrophysical observations.

Abstract

Traditional ideas for testing unification involve searching for the decay of the proton and its branching modes. We point out that several astrophysical experiments are now reaching sensitivities that allow them to explore supersymmetric unified theories. In these theories the electroweak-mass DM particle can decay, just like the proton, through dimension six operators with lifetime ~ 10^26 sec. Interestingly, this timescale is now being investigated in several experiments including ATIC, PAMELA, HESS, and Fermi. Positive evidence for such decays may be opening our first direct window to physics at the supersymmetric unification scale of M_GUT ~ 10^16 GeV, as well as the TeV scale. Moreover, in the same supersymmetric unified theories, dimension five operators can lead a weak-scale superparticle to decay with a lifetime of ~ 100 sec. Such decays are recorded by a change in the primordial light element abundances and may well explain the present discord between the measured Li abundances and standard big bang nucleosynthesis, opening another window to unification. These theories make concrete predictions for the spectrum and signatures at the LHC as well as Fermi.