Extremely long-lived charged massive particles as a probe for reheating of the Universe

Abstract

We discuss the impact of charged massive particle big bang nucleosynthesis to explore the nature of the reheating of the Universe in the case that a new extremely long-lived charged massive particle (CHAMP) exists. If the mass of the CHAMP is within collider reach and its lifetime is longer than ${10}^{4}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}$, the comparison between the charged big bang nucleosynthesis prediction and observed $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ abundances may indicate nonstandard reheating in the early Universe without relying on details of the decay properties. Even if the CHAMP mass is outside the reach of colliders, the cosmological considerations may provide a nontrivial hint for the existence of such very heavy long-lived CHAMPs from the late Universe if the daughter particles are the dominant component of the present dark matter. We consider a low reheating temperature model as an example of the nonstandard reheating scenarios.