Cryptons are metastable bound states of fractionally-charged particles that arise generically in the hidden sectors of models derived from heterotic string. We study their properties and decay modes in a specific flipped SU(5) model with long-lived four-particle spin-zero bound states called tetrons. We show that the neutral tetrons are metastable, and exhibit the tenth order nonrenormalizable superpotential operators responsible for their dominant decays. By analogy with QCD, we expect charged tetrons to be somewhat heavier, and to decay relatively rapidly via lower-order interactions that we also exhibit. The expected masses and lifetimes of the neutral tetrons make them good candidates for cold dark matter, and a potential source of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays which have been observed, whereas the charged tetrons would have decayed in the early Universe.

• Received 31 March 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.70.075015