Possible Effects of the Existence of the 4th Generation Neutrino

Abstract

The 4th generation of fermions predicted by the phenomenology of heterotic string models can possess new strictly conserved charge, which leads, in particular, to the hypothesis of the existence of the 4th generation massive stable neutrino. The compatibility of this hypothesis with the results of underground experiment DAMA searching for weakly interactive particles of dark matter and with the EGRET measurements of galactic gamma--background at energies above 1 GeV fixes the possible mass of the 4th neutrino at the value about 50 GeV. The possibility to test the hypothesis in accelerator experiments is considered. Positron signal from the annihilation of relic massive neutrinos in the galactic halo is calculated and is shown to be accessible for planned cosmic ray experiments.