Pangenesis in a Baryon-Symmetric Universe: Dark and Visible Matter via the Affleck-Dine Mechanism

Abstract: The similarity of the visible and dark matter abundances indicates that they may originate via the same mechanism. If both the dark and the visible matter are charged under a generalized baryon number which remains always conserved, then the asymmetry of the visible sector may be compensated by an asymmetry in the dark sector. We show how the separation of baryonic and antibaryonic charge can originate in the vacuum, via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, due to the breaking of a symmetry orthogonal to the baryon number. Symmetry restoration in the current epoch guarantees the individual stability of the two sectors.