Topological Dark Matter

Abstract

Kibble mechanism drastically underestimates the production of topological defects, as confirmed recently in atomic and condensed matter systems. If non-thermally produced, they can be cosmological dark matter of mass 1-10 PeV. If thermalized, skyrmion of mass 1-10 TeV is also a viable dark matter candidate, whose decay may explain $e^\pm$ spectra in cosmic rays recently measured by PAMELA, FERMI, and HESS. Models that produce magnetic monopoles below the inflation scale, such as Pati-Salam unification, are excluded.