

Physicists may need new theories to explain how dark matter works


I. Dark Matter -- Does SUSY Offer an Explanation?




Dark matter





SUSY is a perfect example.




Bs decay


III. Door Opens to New Theories



Susy v. SM
SUSY v. SM 2

[Image Source: CERN]



Sources: CERN, BBC News

Comments     Threshold


By inko1nsiderate on 11/13/2012 5:23:36 PM , Rating: 2
Full stop. SUSY was not proposed to solve the Dark Matter problem. SUSY was introduced to solve the Hierarchy problem, or essentially cancel out the quadratic divergences in the Higgs mass to protect the mass of the Higgs from higher energy physics. The Dark Matter candidates in SUSY come from trying to solve the Proton decay problem SUSY brings up. SUSY, without R parity, allows the decay of the Proton to be very large (~15 minutes) and so by introducing R parity this problem was solved. By introducing R parity it also happens to allow a natural description for Dark Matter because odd R parity particles cannot decay into even R parity particles, leading to a potentially stable neutral particle. The breaking of SUSY then allows these odd R parity neutral particles to become WIMPs, and thus potentially explain cosmological Dark Matter.

Now, if we are going to say there is no theoretical understanding of Dark Matter, then we are also going to say something that is flat out wrong. It is very easy to make a model with Dark Matter. Exceedingly easy. So much so that pretty much any given model of physics beyond that Standard Model can have additional Dark Matter particles inserted. For instance, you can make Dark Matter that also leads to Neutrino mass. You can also have Dark Matter from SUSY (coming from R parity), and then add on extra Dark Matter particles (as in other species of Dark Matter or just potential Dark Matter particles with the lightest mass particle of all candidates being the cosmological Dark Matter).

