Leptogenesis, Gravitino Dark Matter and Entropy Production

Abstract

Many extensions of the Standard Model predict super-weakly interacting particles, which typically have to decay before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). The entropy produced in the decays may help to reconcile thermal leptogenesis and BBN in scenarios with gravitino dark matter, which is usually difficult due to late decays of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) spoiling the predictions of BBN. We study this possibility for a general neutralino NLSP. We elaborate general properties of the scenario and strong constraints on the entropy-producing particle. As an example, we consider the saxion from the axion multiplet and show that, while enabling a solution of the strong CP problem, it can also produce a suitable amount of entropy.