A new dark matter candidate in low-tension brane-worlds

Abstract

Brane world theories contain additional degrees of freedom related to the geometry of the extra dimension space which can be understood as brane oscillations (branons). In the case where the fundamental gravitational scale is much larger than the brane tension scale, these branons are the only extra degrees of freedom at low energies coming from the extra dimensions. Branons are generically stable, weakly interacting and massive. They could be produced in the next generation colliders and at the same time they are natural WIMP like candidates for dark matter.