Biomedical subjects

Jonathan L Feng

Publications and source records attributed to Jonathan L Feng.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Superweakly interacting massive particles.

We investigate a new class of dark matter: superweakly interacting massive particles (super-WIMPs). As with conventional WIMPs, super-WIMPs appear in well motivated particle theories with naturally the correct relic density. In contrast to WIMPs, however, super-WIMPs are impossible to detect in all conventional dark matter searches. We consider the concrete examples of gravitino and graviton cold dark matter in models with supersymmetry and universal extra dimensions, respectively, and show that super-WIMP dark matter satisfies stringent constraints from big bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background.

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PubMed2002

Kaluza-Klein dark matter.

We propose that cold dark matter is made of Kaluza-Klein particles and explore avenues for its detection. The lightest Kaluza-Klein state is an excellent dark matter candidate if standard model particles propagate in extra dimensions and Kaluza-Klein parity is conserved. We consider Kaluza-Klein gauge bosons. In sharp contrast to the case of supersymmetric dark matter, these annihilate to hard positrons, neutrinos, and photons with unsuppressed rates. Direct detection signals are also promising. These conclusions are generic to bosonic dark matter candidates.

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PubMed2002

Observability of earth-skimming ultrahigh energy neutrinos.

Neutrinos with energies above 10(8) GeV are expected from cosmic ray interactions with the microwave background and are predicted in many speculative models. Such energetic neutrinos are difficult to detect, as they are shadowed by Earth, but rarely interact in the atmosphere. Here we propose a novel detection strategy: Earth-skimming neutrinos convert to charged leptons that escape Earth, and these leptons are detected in ground level fluorescence detectors. With the existing HiRes detector, neutrinos from some proposed sources are marginally detectable, and improvements of 2 orders of magnitude are possible at the proposed Telescope Array.

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PubMed2001

Black hole production by cosmic rays.

Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays create black holes in scenarios with extra dimensions and TeV-scale gravity. In particular, cosmic neutrinos will produce black holes deep in the atmosphere, initiating quasihorizontal showers far above the standard model rate. At the Auger Observatory, hundreds of black hole events may be observed, providing evidence for extra dimensions and the first opportunity for experimental study of microscopic black holes. If no black holes are found, the fundamental Planck scale must be above 2 TeV for any number of extra dimensions.

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