Can Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays be Evidence for New Particle Physics?

Abstract

Candidate astrophysical acceleration sites capable of producing the highest energy cosmic rays (E > 10^{19.5} eV) appear to be at far greater distances than is compatible with their being known particles. The properties of a new particle which can account for observations are discussed and found to be tightly constrained. In order to travel 100's or 1000's of Mpc through the cosmic microwave background radiation without severe energy loss and yet produce a shower in Earth's atmosphere which is consistent with observations, it must be a hadron with mass of order a few GeV and lifetime greater than about 1 week. A particle with the required properties was identified years ago in the context of supersymmetric theories with a very light gluino. Laboratory experiments do not exclude it, as is discussed briefly.

Invited talk at the Workshop on "Observing the Highest Energy Particles (> 10^{20} eV) from Space", College Park, MD, Nov. 13-15 1997. 13 pages including 2 figures