Scientific Reports (Aug 2017)

Detection of magnetized quark-nuggets, a candidate for dark matter

  • J. Pace VanDevender,
  • Aaron P. VanDevender,
  • T. Sloan,
  • Criss Swaim,
  • Peter Wilson,
  • Robert. G. Schmitt,
  • Rinat Zakirov,
  • Josh Blum,
  • James L. Cross,
  • Niall McGinley

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09087-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Abstract Quark nuggets are theoretical objects composed of approximately equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks and are also called strangelets and nuclearites. They have been proposed as a candidate for dark matter, which constitutes ~85% of the universe’s mass and which has been a mystery for decades. Previous efforts to detect quark nuggets assumed that the nuclear-density core interacts directly with the surrounding matter so the stopping power is minimal. Tatsumi found that quark nuggets could well exist as a ferromagnetic liquid with a ~1012-T magnetic field. We find that the magnetic field produces a magnetopause with surrounding plasma, as the earth’s magnetic field produces a magnetopause with the solar wind, and substantially increases their energy deposition rate in matter. We use the magnetopause model to compute the energy deposition as a function of quark-nugget mass and to analyze testing the quark-nugget hypothesis for dark matter by observations in air, water, and land. We conclude the water option is most promising.