Cosmic Topological Defects, Highest Energy Cosmic Rays, and the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe
نویسنده
چکیده
It is pointed out that the observed extremely high energy cosmic rays (EHECR) above 10 GeV and the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU), both may have a common origin in baryon number violating decays of supermassive “X” particles released from cosmic topological defects (TDs) such as cosmic strings and monopoles. The X particles produced by TDs in the recent epochs produce the EHECR, while the BAU is created by X particles released from TDs mainly in the very early Universe. In this scenario the EHECR is predicted to contain baryons as well as antibaryons with a small asymmetry between the two.
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