Hylogenesis: A Unified Origin for Baryonic Visible Matter and Antibaryonic Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper introduces Hylogenesis, a mechanism linking the origins of visible baryonic matter and antibaryonic dark matter through CP-violating decays of a new fermion, predicting detectable baryon-destroying dark matter interactions.

Contribution

It proposes a unified model explaining baryon asymmetry and dark matter as antibaryonic states from a hidden sector, with distinctive experimental signatures.

Findings

Dark matter consists of antibaryonic hidden states.

Baryon asymmetry results from CP-violating decays of a new fermion.

Dark matter can induce baryon destruction detectable in experiments.

Abstract

We present a novel mechanism for generating both the baryon and dark matter densities of the Universe. A new Dirac fermion X carrying a conserved baryon number charge couples to the Standard Model quarks as well as a GeV-scale hidden sector. CP-violating decays of X, produced non-thermally in low-temperature reheating, sequester antibaryon number in the hidden sector, thereby leaving a baryon excess in the visible sector. The antibaryonic hidden states are stable dark matter. A spectacular signature of this mechanism is the baryon-destroying inelastic scattering of dark matter that can annihilate baryons at appreciable rates relevant for nucleon decay searches.