Baryon Destruction by Asymmetric Dark Matter

Abstract

We investigate new and unusual signals that arise in theories where dark matter is asymmetric and carries a net antibaryon number, as may occur when the dark matter abundance is linked to the baryon abundance. Antibaryonic dark matter can cause {\it induced nucleon decay} by annihilating visible baryons through inelastic scattering. These processes lead to an effective nucleon lifetime of 10^{29}-10^{32} years in terrestrial nucleon decay experiments, if baryon number transfer between visible and dark sectors arises through new physics at the weak scale. The possibility of induced nucleon decay motivates a novel approach for direct detection of cosmic dark matter in nucleon decay experiments. Monojet searches (and related signatures) at hadron colliders also provide a complementary probe of weak-scale dark-matter--induced baryon number violation. Finally, we discuss the effects of baryon-destroying dark matter on stellar systems and show that it can be consistent with existing observations.

Comments: 26 pages, 6 figures