Could dark matter consist of supersymmetric particles?

[jimmy p]

Is there a link between dark matter and supersymmetry? I know that dark matter makes up a lot of the known universe but no one understands what it is. I also know that with supersymmetry each particle has a sparticle which is thousands of times heavier (however i don't know why) and that no sparticles have been detected yet, which is why CERN is making their super-powerful particle accelerator (sorry Fermilab)...well CERN are making it for a number of reasons really..


Anyway i digress...SO, neither have been detected, there is a lot of unexplained mass in space, so why couldn't this dark matter be sparticles??

Also, does that mean anti-matter has anti-sparticles?

 

[mathman]

One of the principal contenders for dark matter is the neutralino, the supersymmetry partner of the neutrino. For the most recent discussion of the subject, look at arXiv:hep-ph/0312013. (if you are not familiar with arXiv, use google to get it.)

 

[Nereid]

jimmy p wrote: SO, neither have been detected, there is a lot of unexplained mass in space, so why couldn't this dark matter be sparticles?

Indeed, it could be. Many a researcher is looking for ways of testing that, and other, related, hypotheses.

One difficulty: how would test such a hypothesis? What are the footprints of sparticles? What space and time distributions of sparticles make sense?

It helps that we now think we have a pretty good idea of the EM energy density in galactic suburbs, clusters, and superclusters, and its spectrum, all the way from very high energy gammas to ULF radio. Perhaps less of a handle on the baryonic matter densities.

Got any ideas for tests?

 

[jimmy p]

Well we could wait for CERN to build their contraption cos i wouldn't know where to start. It's obvious that the answer we are looking for won't be found on Earth for a while so maybe we should look to the stars... well maybe radiation from stellar objects anyway!