Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays, Superheavy Long-Living Particles, and Matter Creation after Inflation
Abstract
The highest energy cosmic rays, above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cut-off of cosmic ray spectrum, may be produced in decays of superheavy long-living X-particles. We conjecture that these particles may be produced naturally in the early Universe from vacuum fluctuations during inflation and may constitute a considerable fraction of Cold Dark Matter. We predict a new cut-off in the UHE cosmic ray spectrum Ecut-off < minflaton ≈ 1013 GeV, the exact position of the cut-off and the shape of the cosmic ray spectrum beyond the GZK cut-off being determined by the QCD quark/gluon fragmentation. The Pierre Auger Project installation might discover this phenomenon.
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