Limits on R-parity violation from cosmic ray antiprotons

Abstract

We constrain the hadronic R-parity violating couplings in extensions to the minimal supersymmetric standard model. These interactions violate baryon and lepton number, and allow the lightest superpartner (LSP) to decay into standard model particles. The observed flux of cosmic ray antiprotons places a strong bound on the lifetime of the LSP in models where the lifetime is longer than the age of the universe. We exclude 10^-18<lambda&#39;&#39;<10^-15 and 2x10^-18<lambda&#39;<2x10^-15 except in the case of a top quark, where we can only exclude 4x10^-19<lambda&#39;<4x10^-16.