Particles and Cosmology: Learning from Cosmic Rays

Abstract

The density budget of the Universe is reviewed, and then specific particle candidates for non-bayonic dark matter are introduced, with emphasis on the relevance of cosmic-ray physics. The sizes of the neutrino masses indicated by recent atmospheric and solar neutrino experiments may be too small to contribute much hot dark matter. My favoured candidate for the dominant cold dark matter is the lightest supersymmetric particle, which probably weighs between about 50 GeV and about 600 GeV. Strategies to search for it via cosmic rays due to annihilations in the halo, Sun and Earth, or via direct scattering experiments, are mentioned. Possible superheavy relic particles are also discussed, in particular metastable string- or M-theory cryptons, that may be responsible for the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Finally, it is speculated that a non-zero contribution to the cosmological vacuum energy might result from incomplete relaxation of the quantum-gravitational vacuum.