Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays from Crypton Decay
Mr. Eric Mayes
Texas A&M University

      Cryptons are metastable bound states of fractionally-charged particles that arise generically in the hidden sectors of models derived from heterotic string. We study their properties and decay modes in a specific flipped SU(5) model with long-lived four-particle spin-zero bound states called tetrons. We show that the neutral tetrons are metastable, and exhibit the tenth-order non-renormalizable superpotential operators responsible for their dominant decays. By analogy with QCD, we expect charged tetrons to be somewhat heavier, and to decay relatively rapidly via lower-order interactions that we also exhibit. The expected masses and lifetimes of the neutral tetrons make them good candidates for cold dark matter (CDM), and a potential source of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) which have been observed, whereas the charged tetrons would have decayed in the early Universe. In addition, We calculate the spectra of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) resulting from crypton decay. For each of the eight specific 10th-order superpotential operators that might dominate crypton decays, we calculate the spectra of both protons and photons, using a code incorporating supersymmetric evolution of the injected spectra. For all the decay operators, the total UHECR spectra are compatible with the available data. Also, the fractions of photons are compatible with all the published upper limits, but may be detectable in future experiments.