Journal article

Dark and visible matter in a baryon-symmetric universe via the Affleck-Dine mechanism

NF Bell, K Petraki, IM Shoemaker, RR Volkas

Physical Review D Particles Fields Gravitation and Cosmology | Published : 2011

Abstract

The similarity of the visible and dark matter abundances indicates that they may originate via the same mechanism. If both the dark and visible matter are charged under a generalized baryon number, then the asymmetry of the visible sector may be compensated by an asymmetry in the dark sector. We show how the separation of the baryonic and the -antibaryonic charge can originate in the vacuum, via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, due to the breaking of a symmetry orthogonal to the baryon number. Symmetry restoration in the current epoch guarantees the individual stability of the two sectors. © 2011 American Physical Society.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank Alex Kusenko for reading the manuscript and for useful comments. We also thank Robert Foot, Michael Graesser, Archil Kobakhidze, Nick Setzer, and Luca Vecchi for helpful discussions. This work was supported, in part, by the Australian Research Council.