a

Fermi National Accelerator

Laboratory
FERMILAB-CONF-89/15-T
January,

Dark

Matter

1989

and Supersymmetry*

G. F. Giudice

Fermi National Accelerator Labomtoq

P.O. Boz 500, Batavia, l7linois 60510

Abstract
I review the possible candidates for cold dark matter suggested by supersymmetric theories and discuss the prospects for their experimental
Tdk

Operated

presented

at the Beyond

by Unlversities

Research

the Standard

Association

Model

Confercncc

in Amen, Iowa, Nor.

Inc. under contract

search.
18-x1,

with the United States

1988

Department

of Energy

consensus 1 that

There is an emerging
made up of non-luminous
dark matter

remain

effects.

with

where the luminous

matter

the dark matter

of galaxies

Another
that

galactic

disk.

an order of magnitude.

density

in units

In the standard

should interact

and not

inflationary

models predict

of the critical

density,

requires that the baryonic

matter

models with strongly

1, within

R must be exactly

However,

of light

elements

to n should not exceed about 0.1. The

partidea

equal to

today.

accounts for the missing mass density.

interacting

about

10 - 11 increases with

about the abundance

contribution

prejudice

should be equal to

that n = 1 holds exactly

of nucleosynthesis

is solved if dark matter

cosmology,

fine tuning,

the successful predictions

is

only weakly.+

comes from the theoretical

Friedmann

1. Moreover,

alternative

from the

halo is spheroidal

we know that today 0 is approximately

if we do not accept an initial

tHorever,

over a much

This means that, if some elementary

this particle

t. Therefore,

problem

the mass density

disks. Thus, we are lead to assume that dark matter

hint for the presence of dark matter

1. From direct observations,

a distance

There are several indications

the dark matter

of dark matter,

S2, the cosmological

within

r, or, equivalently,

or else the halo would collapse.

is the constituent

contained

referred to as

forms a halo which is distributed

that suggest that

flat, like the observed galactic

particle

with

even in regions

This fact, generally

that the matter

increases linearly

Therefore,

dissipationless

this

comes from the

r from the center of the galaxy,

falls off exponentially.

larger volume than the visible

dynamics

Although

is

z)(r) of stars and gas clouds in spiral galaxies

curves, implies

= v(r)r/G,

a r -.

velocities

the distance

the flatness of rotation

&9

the nature of which is still unknown.

Some of the best evidence for dark matter

that the orbital

constant

r, M(r)

90% of the mass of the universe

does not radiate any visible light, its existence can be revealed through

its gravitational
observation

matter,

about

have been ruggcsted2).

If the dark matter

hypotheses

is non-baryonic,

what is its nature?

One of the best motivated

for the nature of cold dark matter is suggested by supergravity

If baryon and lepton number conservation

from supergravity
the lightest

is assumed, the low energy models derived

have an exact symmetry

supersymmetric

particle

(generally

called R-parity),

weakly interacting

in the primordial

particles.

universe only through

it easily gives rise to a sizable contribution

to the present

LSP is a promising

of the dark matter.

candidate

which makes

(LSP) st abl e. Some of the most plausible

didates for the LSP are found to be neutral,

LSP is stable and annihilates

theories3).

as constituent

a.

will describe three possible choices for the LSP: the neutralino,

can-

Since the

weak processes,

In other words, the

In the following,

the sneutrino

and the

gravitino.
In most supergravity
state mixture
gsinos,...).

models, the LSP turns out to be a neutralino,

of the neutral

spin l/2

Since the neutralino

particle-antiparticle

asymmetry,

supersymmetric

is a Majorana

particle,

and its present

relic density

mined in terms of its mass and its annihilation

the early universe
exchange

into fermion-antifermion

(via its higgsino

gaugino component)
neutralino

particles

component)

- 6)$. Although

rate.

(photino,

it cannot

or squark/slepton

is completely

matter

exchange

these processes are of typical

relic density can be considerably

statistics.

Since chirality

t1 neglect for the moment

neutralinos

This can be understood

annihilation

through
(mainly

annihilation

in
Z-

via its
the
with
van-

by noting that,

should be in a spin 0 state because of Fermi

is conserved in the interaction,

neutralino

deter-

annihilate

larger than the density of neutrinos

ishes in s-wave, for massless final fermions).

hig-

weak strength,

the same mass. This is true for several reasons. (i) The neutralino

in s-wave, the two identical

Z-ino,

have a cosmic

The neutralinos

pairs of ordinary

a mass eigen-

the final massless fermions

into gauge or Higgs bosons.

have total spin 1 and thus the annihilation

neutralino

interacts

is necessarily

with the 2 only through

it does not have a full weak coupling.

p-wave suppressed.

the higgsino

(iii) The scalar partner

component

(ii) The

and therefore

exchange is suppressed

when squarks and sleptons are heavy.

In the minimal
current

eigenstates

symmetric

supergravity

models,

are determined

the neutralino

mass and its composition

in terms of three free parameters:

of

the two super-

masses M and p and the ratio va/vr of the two Higgs vacuum expectation

values (see ref. 3 for reviews on supergravity

models).

300

-I

250

150

100

so

1
-60

0
cr WV)

50

100

150

Fig. 1

Fig.
neutralino
t Varying

1 (from
density
vp/vl

within

ref.

7), shows the region in M - /I space that can give rise to a

relevant
II plsusible

for a dark matter

solution,

range does not sensibly alter the result.

in the case Q/u~ = 25. The

shaded region is the part of parameter

Rhl (h is the Hubbl e constant
can be obtained
experimental
within

in units of 100 Km set-Mpc-)

with a choice of the squark/slepton

limits.

The dashed line delimits

a good dark matter

candidate

to two physical

even with squark/slepton

close to mz0/2,

through

no matter

the neutralino

halo, the prospects

present laboratory
germanium
periments

limits

detectors,

with

n = 1,

that the neutralinos

can be

The excluded
is lighter
limits,

and the contribution

cosmic neutralino

detection

particles

an incident

particle

has mass m and an average velocity

transfer

in a collision

dark matter candidates

neutrinos),

clei, in the non-relativistic

is about

halo particle.

nucleus is about

Although

The

These ex-

the detection

of

If the dark matter

(1 + y)-.

energy
150 keV.

are able to constrain

is expected to be lowered

with only axial vector couplings

neutralinos
4

of the

the maximum

3 keV, the Ge detectors

since they have a spin dependent

limit.

through

of 300 km/set,

do not apply to particles

In all

come from very low background

with m X 12 GeV8). This threshold

soon. However, these limits

(like Majorana

a germanium

channel

are less promising.

designed to search for double p decay).

with

mass is

as a constituent

aim to discover the existence of cold dark matter

Since the present threshold

the annihilation

density.

for its experimental

on dark matter

with

than few GeV,

to R is very small.

candidate

nuclear recoil due to the collision

regions

mass is, the annihilation

is such an appealing

originally

with present

to n too large. (ii) When the neutralino

other cases, we can expect a significant

galactic

consistent

(i) If the neutralino

what the squark/slepton

Z becomes very efficient

Although

the region

masses at their lower experimental

rate is too small and the contribution

to

in the range 0.025 - 1

in a vast range of parameters.

situations.

contribution

masses compatible

on h (0.4 < h < 1). It is apparent

the uncertainty

correspond

space for which a neutralino

interaction

are Majorana

with the nuparticles,

they

can have spin-independent

interactions

actions is a process mediated

the left- handed
popular

models predict

likely to be negligible.
contains

both higgsino

couples only to left-handed

and gaugino

interaction,
quarks,

of the neutralino

action, in the non-relativistic

and gaugino components,

the higgsino

with

nuclei.

already set limits

limit.

this interaction

component

neutralino

is in general present.

scattering

contribution

of the neutralino
couples only to
provide8
inter-

Unfortunately,

in ei-

cross section off nuclei is suppressed

the Higgs coupling

if it is the major component

on the supersymmetric

= 2. Larger

values of Q/Q

How-

As shown in

provides a coherent

If the Higgs boson is not too heavy, the Ge detector

on the neutralino,

has both higgsino

comes from Higgs boson exchanger).

2 (from ref. 7) shows the constraints

more stringent

This stems from the

of the two couplings

Since any realistic

for a Higgs boson mass of 10 GeV (shaded region)

nz/vr

when the

to nuclei, which leads to a spin-independent

ref. 10, due to the effect of the trace anomaly,

Fig.

interaction

power of the squark mass and can be too small to be observable.

ever, a more promising

interaction

should be small, this effect is

components).

The interference

of

Since most of the

the gaugino component

while

ther of these scenarios, the neutralino

by the fourth

are mixeds).

that such mixing

quarks and viceversa.

scalar interaction

(4~) quarks

Squarks also mediate a spin-independent

fact that in the neutralino-q-i&

right-handed

A first source of such inter-

by squarks in the case in which the scalar partners

(6~) and right-handed

supergravity

neutralino

with the nuclei.

results

of the galactic

mass parameters

and 20 GeV (dashed line),

enhance the Higgs-neutralino

halo.

for

coupling

and give

for cold dark matter

has also

constraints.

A more indirect

way of searching

experimentally

been pursued 11). The basic idea is that particles

energy after a collision

with

from the halo can lose their kinetic

a nucleus of the sun or the earth and then be trapped

5

gravitationally.

After equilibrium

is equal to the number

of particles

their escape. The annihilations

energetic

neutrinos.

flux of energetic

has been reached, the number

if no evaporation

of the dark matter

Underground

neutrinos

that annihilate,

detectors

of captured

particles

have already

particles

process allows

can then yield a flux of

reported

limits

on such a

from the sun*).

300

250

200

150

:i:;;
::;;
.:..:, Y
..:i,p<
*.;
,;;.>+p:;
:<,,y+.:.:...:
~i~&z&;+,
..:;;.;>,:::,
: . ... 1I
..;
k
1i

100

50

t
or~l,l
-150
-100
-50

50

!50

100

P (CeV)

Fig. 2
The experimental
particles

with

dominant

nuclei.

contribution

signal again depends crucially

on the cross section of the halo

In the case of the neutralino,

to the scattering

is likely

as previously

neutralinos

and the earth and their annihilation

produce a significant

Horerer,

of hydrogen,

are efficiently

the sun is also able to trap particles

the light Higga bosom exchange strongly

enhancea the crptnrc

the

to come from Higgs exchangea.

the Higgs boson is not too heavy,

~Becanae of itn abundance

discussed,

rate.

captured

by the sun

flux of energetic neutrinos.

with

If

spin dependent

interactions.

The neutrinos

can be identified

often kinematically
shower generated

suppressed)

through

production

of electrons

inside the underground

by the vrs in their interaction

or muons (rs are

detectors or through

a muon

with the rock outside the detector.

As shown in ref. 13, these events have observable

rates, if the Higgs boson is lighter

than about 30 GeV.

I wish to stress that

the presence of light

the Fermi scale are deeply connected.

naturalness

problem

the most satisfactory

lighter

Higgs bosons and supersymmetry

The description

needs the introduction

of light

of supersymmetry

models, supersymmetry

scalars free from the

and, in the context

of

necessarily implies a light Higgs (usually

than the 2).

The observation14)
problem

that

has generated

properties

a cold dark matter

much theoretical

of the candidate

particle,

side the sun after being captured,

expected 8B neutrino

annihilation,

particle

interest.

can solve the solar neutrino

The solution

called the cosmion.

transports

relies on well-defined

The cosmion,

orbiting

in-

heat away from the core, depleting

the

flux.

In order to efficiently

transport

energy and not disappear

through

evaporation

weak cross section)

the neutralino
be provided

or

the cosmion should have a mass in the range 4-10 GeV, an effective cross

section in the sun of about 4 - 1O-38 cm2 (about two orders of magnitude
typical

at

can actually

and a strongly

satisfy these requirements

by the exchange

is at the experimental

suppressed annihilation

limit,

rate. Remarkably,

1. The large cross section can

of a Higgs boson with

mass of about

but not yet excluded.

The annihilation

Higgs boson exchange,

which

is naively

to vanish in the s-wave

and, therefore,

expected
is strongly

larger than a

l-2

GeV, which
via s-channel

to be very important,

turns

out

suppressed by the low neutralino

velocity.

In a suitable

range of parameters,

in all channels and the cosmion solution

the neutralino

annihilation

is allowed.

Let me turn now to discuss the case in which the sneutrino

supergravity

models, we find one sneutrino

They are expected

current

to be almost

renormalization

are kinematically

in mass, but,

effects, the r sneutrino

for each generation.

because of the charged

is likely to be the lightest.

one and a pair of neutrinos,

the sneutrino-antisneutrino

fermions

via

positron

pairs through

exchange of charginos,

particles.

In the limit

of massless final fermions,

The other

if no other fermions

Z-exchange,

into neutrinos

pairs annihilate

via neutralino

exchange,

or into electron-

the charged spin-l/2

all annihilation

into ordinary

supersymmetric

channels are p-wave

This can easily be understood

by noting

that, since the sneutrinos

spin zero, one can repeat the same helicity

argument

used for neutralinos.

sneutrino-sneutrino
neutralino

annihilation

in the t-channel.

It is easy to realize that the helicity

like rnbMrnjt.
sneutrino

Furthermore,

mass m, yields an annihilation

the ordinary

weak annihilation

This makes the sneutrino

of the dark matter,

This is possible if the neutralinos

than

l-10

through

Z, and sneutrino

particle

annihilation

suppressed.

TeV. Then

However,

the annihilation

flip Majorana

mass

the effect of the neutralino

rate proportional

of a dark matter

is the major constituent

about

have

fifi + uv is also possible, by exchange of a Majorana

allows the process to occur in s-wave.

Majorana

In

allowed.

In the early universe,

suppressed.

(fi) is the LSPls-171.

and its antiparticle

degenerate

two Cs will decay into the lightest

rate is smalI

to rn;,

as opposed to

with mass ??%DMwhich goes

very fast. If we insist that the

the channel 53 -+ YY has to be

that contain a 2 component

of cosmic sneutrinos

are heavier

occurs

mainly

dark matter is possible in the mass range rnc N 4-20 GeV.

However, one might regard this large mass hierarchy

between the neutralino

and the

sneutrino

as rather

is an accidental
neutralino
in turn

cancellation

states.
implies

sneutrino

unattractive.

This cancellation

that

neutralinos,

which may help in providing

is accessible, any initial
Although

sneutrino

periments
galactic

weak interaction
can exclude

halo8).

with

a sneutrino

M,p

intermediate
+

0).

and therefore,

the sneutrinos

since the

sneutrino

in the actual

can have a cosmic asymmetry

Of course, if the channel 66 + uv

cosmic asymmetry

becomes irrelevant18).
dark matter

experimental

nuclei through

seem a little

limits.

ZO-exchange,

con-

Since the fi has

the Ge detector

heavier than 12 GeV as a main component

The same interaction

This

then few GeV.

for providing

one is always interested

of iZ + vv

of the different

states are very light

a larger relic density.

the mechanisms

a coherent

for the suppression

indeed occurs in the limit

some neutralino

the Majorana

possibility

between the contributions

is the LSP, it should be lighter

Unlikely

trived,

Another

ex-

of the

can trap the Cs in the sun and the earth,

if

they are heavier than respectively

about 3 and 10 GeV, the evaporation

masses. The

consequent

leads to a distinctive

neutrino

65 --+ vv annihilation

nal, most likely

still provide

made of u,s. If the channel 176 ---, vu is strongly

energetic

neutrinos

the 6; + qq annihilations.
similar

the spin 3/2 partner

couplings,
itino

its annihilation

Therefore,

suppressed, the Vs

by the annihilation
dark matter

of neutralinos.

candidate

of the graviton.

I want to examine

Since the gravitino

is the grav-

has only gravitational

in the early universe proceeds extremely

slowly. If the grav-

it should be lighter

it seems that this is the mass range in which gravitinos

in

have a broad energy spectrum,

is stable, then in order not to overclose the universe,

about 1 keVlal.

sig-

coming from the decay of heavy quarks produced

In this case, the neutrinos

to the one generated

The last supersymmetric

itino,

monochromatic

than
are

candidates

to be the dark matter.

understand

in the context

the so-called

no-scale

of inflation,

of the ordinary

supergravity

is drastically

but then regenerated

the mass of the supersymmetric

allow the occurrence

than about 10

models, it can be predicted

in

if the reheating

has undergone
Gravitinos

temperatureTB

of the standard

mechanism

gravitinos

a period

are washed
is larger than
are relevant

mass. In order to

TR must be larger

for baryongenesis,

with mass up to 100 GeV can be proper

for dark matter.

is constrained

is the LSP, the next-to-lightest

to annihilate
-

Mim&p

efficiently

(100 GeV/mnrsp)3

NSPs decay into a gravitino

In collider experiments,
signature

scenario,

particle.

of hidden

which

can be experimentally
dark matter

halo looks hopeless.

Many supergravity

or shadow

at a time
the relic

If the density of NSPs at the

with the nuclei

nucleosynthesis.

from an ordinary

Due to the weakness of the gravitational

matter.

(NSP)

since the NSP is so nearly stable, it has the usual missing

coincide with the supersymmetric

in the galactic

Actually,

can in general interact

of the standard

and is indistinguishable

the particle

particle

- lo8 set (i.e., after nucleosynthesis)

and an ordinary

and upset the successful predictions

supersymmetric

in the early universe.

time tD is sizable, the energetic decay products

shadow

to

particles 21). In this case, the gravitinos

GeV. Therefore,

If the gravitino

energy

is difficult

changed.

gravitino

if rncTR Si 10 l4 GeVa, where rn& is the gravitino

for dark matter

candidates

such an ultralight

model8 2o). However, if the universe

the scenario for gravitinos

out by inflation,

tD -

Although

matter,

identified

LSP. Therefore,

as the LSP, does not

candidate.

force, the direct detection

A similar

in this

situation

and superstring

of gravitinos

is encountered

in the case of

models predict

the existence

which is necessary to break some extra symmetries

10

of the theory
dinary

at ultra

matter.

Although

very stimulating
unfortunately
Finally,

high energies,

and which

the idea that

and has interesting

at present has little

I want to mention

cosmological

and astrophysical

experimental

gravitino

production,

of the supergravity

can cause a cosmological

breaking,

constrains

to allow standard
A possible
decay mainly
tropy

late gravitino
dark matter.

if
-

are upset
feature

sets the scale for the

mass is the signal for supergravity

Even if inflation

of light

temperature

is assumed, this contradiction

elements by the gravitino

decay products

TR to be less than about lo8 GeVl),

too low

baryongenesis.
to this problem

into neutrinos
nucleus

is found

in scenarios

and LSPS~~), thus circumventing

dissociation

decay can provide

and microwave

the right

amount

Since the LSPs are now decoupled,

of their annihilation
can explain

of supergravity

Since the gravitino

Disassociation

solution

production,

standard

breaking.

the reheating

predictions

unless rnc X 10 TeV23). However, one attractive

one expects me 21 O(mw).

can not be solved.

difficulty,

decays no earlier than a time r N M$rnC

models is that the breaking

electroweak symmetry

consequences2),

significance.

(100 GeV/mC)3 - lo8 sec. This means that the nucleosynthesis

by late entropy

to or-

the halo is made up of a shadow world is

that the gravitino

it is not the LSP. An unstable

couples only gravitationally

rate.

For instance,

a present relic abundance

where the gravitinos

the limits

background

from en-

distortion.

The

of LSPs in order to account for

they lead to !2 N 1, independently

this mechanism

for dark matter

production

of sneutrinos

which is difficult

to achieve in the

I have shown that supersymmetry

offers interesting

explanations

scenario, as seen above.

In conclusion,

the existence and the nature of the dark matter.

11

Notably,

if the neutralino

for

is the LSP,

the dark matter

seems an almost

The present experimental

cryogenic
matter

situation

will greatly

detectors)

and, hopefully,

unavoidable

prediction

of supergravity

looks very promising

too.

increase the sensitivity

theories.

The development

of

in the search for the dark

we will be able to know what our universe is mainly

made of.

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