Supersymmetric Dark Matter Candidates

TL;DR

This paper reviews supersymmetric dark matter candidates, focusing on neutralinos and gravitinos, and discusses their theoretical motivations, parameter space constraints, and cosmological implications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of supersymmetric dark matter candidates within various models, including CMSSM and mSUGRA, with updated constraints and predictions.

Findings

Neutralinos and gravitinos are viable dark matter candidates.

Constraints from astrophysics and cosmology limit supersymmetric parameter space.

Predictions for relic densities and particle properties are provided.

Abstract

After reviewing the theoretical, phenomenological and experimental motivations for supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, we recall that supersymmetric relics from the Big Bang are expected in models that conserve R parity. We then discuss possible supersymmetric dark matter candidates, focusing on the lightest neutralino and the gravitino. In the latter case, the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle is expected to be long-lived, and possible candidates include spartners of the tau lepton, top quark and neutrino. We then discuss the roles of the renormalization-group equations and electroweak symmetry breaking in delimiting the supersymmetric parameter space. We discuss in particular the constrained minimal extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM), in which the supersymmetry-breaking parameters are assumed to be universal at the grand unification scale, presenting predictions from a frequentist analysis of its parameter space. We also discuss astrophysical and cosmological constraints on gravitino dark matter models, as well as the parameter space of minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) models in which there are extra relations between the trilinear and bilinear supersymmetry-breaking parameters, and between the gravitino and scalar masses. Finally, we discuss models with non-universal supersymmetry-breaking contributions to Higgs masses, and models in which the supersymmetry-breaking parameters are universal at some scale below that of grand unification. http://cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521763684