CHARGED DARK MATTER

We propose that dark matter is made of CHAMP's, charged massive particles that survive annihilation in the early Universe. We constrain champs to be matter-antimatter symmetric, to provide critical mass density, and to constitute the non-baryonic halo of galaxies such as ours. We show that the window of allowed champ mass extends from 20 to 1000 TeV. Champs of charge + 1 should now appear as super-heavy isotopes of hydrogen. While some of their antiparticles could bind to 4He nuclei somewhat after primordial nucleosynthesis (also to appear today in the disguise of super-heavy hydrogen), we argue that negative champs overwhelmingly bind to protons to pose as super-heavy stable neutrons. En route to detectors, these bound champs suffer nuclear reactions that change their ultimate appearance. By the time they come to rest, negative champs have recombined with larger nuclei to form various super-heavy isotopes. We discuss how and where to search for relic champs. © 1990.