NEXT HIDDeN WEBINAR: "Making the Universe at 20 MeV"

January 19, 2021
4:00pm to 5:00pm

On-Line

Specialist level
Speaker: 
Gilly Elor
Institution: 
University of Washington
Location&Place: 

On-Line

Abstract: 

We present a testable mechanism of low-scale baryogenesis and dark matter production in which neither baryon nor lepton number are violated. Charged D mesons are produced out-of-equilibrium at tens of MeV temperatures. The D mesons quickly undergo CP-violating decays to charged pions, which then decay into dark-sector leptons without violating lepton number. To transfer this lepton asymmetry to the baryon asymmetry, the dark leptons scatter on additional dark-sector states charged under lepton and baryon number. Amusingly, this transfer proceeds without electroweak sphalerons, which are no longer active at such low scales. We present two example models which can achieve this transfer while remaining consistent with current limits. The required amount of CP violation in charged D meson decays, while currently allowed, will be probed by colliders. Additionally, the relevant decays of charged pions to dark-sector leptons have been constrained by the PIENU experiment and will be further explored in upcoming experiments.