Baryon isocurvature fluctuations at small scales and baryonic dark matter

Abstract

A model of baryogenesis is described which gives rise to fluctuations in baryon number that are large on small scales but of low amplitude on large scales. This provides a mechanism for primordial blackhole formation, and allows the possibility of a critical density of dark matter in baryonic (and antibaryonic) form. Since high-density regions naturally possess both signs of baryonic excess, our model also predicts a small fraction of the mass density of the Universe to be in the form of compact antibaryonic regions. These objects may be observable via a redshifted annihilation feature in the diffuse extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background, as both steady sources of $\gamma$-ray radiation and annihilation-powered $\gamma$-ray bursters at cosmological distances, by a distortion of the spectrum of the 3K background radiation, or by the presence of antihelium nuclei as a rare component of high-energy cosmic rays.