Mirror matter in the solar system: new evidence for mirror matter from Eros

Mirror matter is an entirely new form of matter predicted to exist if mirror symmetry is a fundamental symmetry of nature. Mirror matter has the right broad properties to explain the inferred dark matter of the Universe and might also be responsible for a variety of other puzzles in particle physics, astrophysics, meteoritics and planetary science. It is known that mirror matter can interact with ordinary matter non-gravitationally via photon-mirror photon kinetic mixing. The strength of this possibly fundamental interaction depends on the (theoretically) free parameter e. We consider various proposed manifestations of mirror matter in our solar system examining in particular how the physics changes for different possible values of e. We find new evidence for mirror matter in the solar system coming from the observed sharp reduction in crater rates (for craters less than about 100 m in diameter) on the asteroid 433 Eros. We also re-examine various existing ideas including the mirror matter explanation for the anomalous meteorite events, anomalous slow-down of Pioneer spacecraft etc. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.