Long-lived neutralino and ultra-high energy cosmic rays

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Secondary photons from decays of metastable neutralinos can contribute to the ultra-high energy cosmic ray flux. The neutralino production rate is too low in acceleration mechanisms to affect the cosmic ray spectrum without emitting enormous energy in photons and neutrinos. However, in top-down models with sources not concentrated in galactic halos, neutralino decays change the spectrum significantly. We estimate the parameters of a model in which photons from neutralino decays are responsible for cosmic ray events with energies above 10²0 eV, and figure out distinctive experimental signatures for this model.