Cosmic ray electron and positron excesses from a fourth generation heavy Majorana neutrino
Creators
- 1. Dip. di Fisica dell'Università di Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, I-44100 Ferrara (Italy)
- 2. Centre for Particle Physics Phenomenology, CP3 — Origins, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M (Denmark)
Description
Unexpected features in the energy spectra of cosmic rays electrons and positrons have been recently observed by PAMELA and Fermi-LAT satellite experiments, opening to the exciting possibility of an indirect manifestation of new physics. A TeV-scale fourth lepton family is a natural extension of the Standard Model leptonic sector (also linked to the hierarchy problem in Minimal Walking Technicolor models). The heavy Majorana neutrino of this setup mixes with Standard Model charged leptons through a weak charged current interaction. Here, we first study analytically the energy spectrum of the electrons and positrons originated in the heavy Majorana neutrino decay modes, also including polarization effects. We then compare the prediction of this model with the experimental data, exploiting both the standard direct method and our recently proposed Sum Rules method. We find that the decay modes involving the tau and/or the muon charged leptons as primary decay products fit well the PAMELA and Fermi-LAT lepton excesses while there is tension with respect to the antiproton to proton fraction constrained by PAMELA
Availability note (English)
Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2011/08/018Additional details
Identifiers
Publishing Information
- Journal Title
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
- Journal Volume
- 2011
- Journal Issue
- 08
- Journal Page Range
- p. 018
- ISSN
- 1475-7516
INIS
- Country of Publication
- United States
- Country of Input or Organization
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- INIS RN
- 45099064
- Subject category
- S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
- Descriptors DEI
- ANTIPROTONS; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; COSMIC ELECTRONS; COSMIC POSITRONS; ENERGY SPECTRA; MULTIPARTICLE SPECTROMETERS; MUONS; NEUTRINOS; PARTICLE DECAY; PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION; POLARIZATION; STANDARD MODEL; SUM RULES; TEV RANGE; WEAK CHARGED CURRENTS
- Descriptors DEC
- ALGEBRAIC CURRENTS; ANTIBARYONS; ANTILEPTONS; ANTIMATTER; ANTINUCLEI; ANTINUCLEONS; ANTIPARTICLES; BARYONS; CHARGED CURRENTS; COSMIC RADIATION; CURRENTS; DECAY; ELECTRONS; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; ENERGY RANGE; EQUATIONS; EVALUATION; FERMIONS; FIELD THEORIES; GRAND UNIFIED THEORY; HADRONS; IONIZING RADIATIONS; LEPTONS; MASSLESS PARTICLES; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; MATTER; MEASURING INSTRUMENTS; NUCLEI; NUCLEONS; PARTICLE MODELS; POSITRONS; PROTONS; QUANTUM FIELD THEORY; RADIATIONS; SECONDARY COSMIC RADIATION; SPECTRA; SPECTROMETERS; UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS