{"id":6661,"date":"2019-12-10T17:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T17:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/particlebites.com\/?p=6661"},"modified":"2019-12-10T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T17:30:07","slug":"quark-nuggets-of-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.particlebites.com\/?p=6661","title":{"rendered":"Quark nuggets of wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article title: \u201c<\/strong>Dark Quark Nuggets\u201d<\/p>\n

Authors: <\/strong>Yang Baia, Andrew J. Long, and Sida Lu<\/p>\n

Reference: <\/strong>arXiv:1810.04360<\/a><\/p>\n

Information, gold and chicken. What do they all have in common? They can all come in the form of nuggets<\/em>. Naturally one would then be compelled to ask: \u201cwhat about fundamental particles? Could they come in nugget form? Could that hold the key to dark matter?\u201d Lucky for you this has become the topic of some ongoing research.<\/p>\n

A \u2018nugget\u2019 in this context refers to large macroscopic \u2018clumps\u2019 of matter formed in the early universe that could possibly survive up until the present day to serve as a dark matter candidate. Much like nuggets of the edible variety, one must be careful to combine just the right ingredients in just the right way. In fact, there are generally three requirements to forming such an exotic state of matter:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. (At least) two different vacuum states separated by a potential \u2018barrier\u2019 where a phase transition occurs (known as a first-order phase transition).<\/li>\n
  2. A charge which is conserved globally which can accumulate in a small part of space.<\/li>\n
  3. An excess of matter over antimatter on the cosmological scale, or in other words, a large non-zero macroscopic number density of global charge.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Back in the 1980s, before much work was done in the field of lattice quantum chromodynamics (lQCD), Edward Witten put forward the idea that the Standard Model QCD sector could in fact accommodate such an exotic form of matter. Quite simply this would occur at the early phase of the universe when the quarks undergo color confinement to form hadrons. In particular Witten\u2019s were realized as large macroscopic clumps of \u2018quark matter\u2019 with a very large concentration of baryon number, $latex N_B > 10^{30}$. However, with the advancement of lQCD techniques, the phase transition in which the quarks become confined looks more like a continuous \u2018crossover\u2019 (i.e. a second-order phase transition), making the idea in the Standard Model somewhat unfeasible.<\/p>\n

    Theorists, particularly those interested in dark matter, are not confined (for lack of a better term) to the strict details of the Standard Model and most often look to the formation of sometimes complicated \u2018dark sectors\u2019 invisible to us but readily able to provide the much needed dark matter candidate.<\/p>\n

    Dark QCD?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The problem of obtaining a first-order phase transition to form our quark nuggets need not be a problem if we consider a QCD-type theory that does not interact with the Standard Model particles. More specifically, we can consider a set of dark quarks, dark gluons with arbitrary characteristics like masses, couplings, numbers of flavors or numbers of colors (which of course are quite settled for the Standard Model QCD case). In fact, looking at the numbers of flavors and colors of dark QCD in Figure 1, we can see in the white unshaded region a number of models that can exist with a first-order phase transition, as required to form these dark quark nuggets.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    Figure 1: The white unshaded region corresponds to dark QCD models which may permit a first-order phase transition and thus the existence of \u2018dark quark nuggets\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    As with normal quarks, the distinction between the two phases actually refers to a process known as chiral symmetry breaking. When the temperature of the universe cools to this particular scale, color confinement of quarks occurs around the same time, such that no single-color quark can be observed on its own \u2013 only in colorless bound states.<\/p>\n

    Forming a nugget<\/strong><\/p>\n

    As we have briefly mentioned so far, the dark nuggets are formed as the universe undergoes a \u2018dark\u2019 phase transition from a phase where the dark color is unconfined to a phase where it is confined. At some critical temperature, due to the nature of first-order phase transitions, bubbles of the new confined phase (full of dark hadrons) begin to nucleate out of the dark quark-gluon plasma. The growth of these bubbles are driven by a difference in pressure, characteristic of the fact that the unconfined and confined phase vacuums states are of different energy. With this emerging bubble wall, the almost massless particles from the dark plasma scatter from the wall containing heavy dark (anti)baryons and hence a large amount of dark baryon number accumulates in this phase. Eventually, as these bubbles merge and coalesce, we would expect local regions of remaining dark quark-gluon plasma, unconfined and stable from collapse due to the Fermi degeneracy pressure (see reference below for more on this). An illustration is shown in Figure 2. Calculations with varying energy scales of confinement estimate their masses are anywhere between $latex 10^{-7}$ to $latex 10^{23}$ grams with radii from $latex 10^{-15}$ to $latex 10^8$ cm and so can truly be classed as macroscopic dark objects!<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    Figure 2: Dark Quark Nuggets are a phase of unconfined dark quark-gluon plasma kept stable by the balance between Fermi degeneracy pressure and vacuum pressure from the separation between the unconfined and confined phases.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    How do we know they could be there?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There are a number of ways to infer the existence of dark quark nuggets, but two of the main ones are: (i) as a dark matter candidate and (ii) through probes of the dark QCD model that provides them. Cosmologically, the latter can imply the existence of a dark form of radiation which ultimately can lead to effects on the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB). In a similar vein, one recent avenue of study today is the production of a steady background of gravitational waves emerging from the existence of a first-order phase transition \u2013 one of the key requirements for dark quark nugget formation. More importantly, they can be probed through astrophysical means if they share some coupling (albeit small) with the Standard Model particles. The standard technique of direct detection with Earth-based experiments could be the way to go \u2013 but furthermore, there may be the possibility of cosmic ray production from collisions of multiple dark quark nuggets. Among these are a number of other observations over the massive range of nugget sizes and masses shown in Figure 3.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    Figure 3: Range of dark quark nugget masses and sizes and their possible detection methods.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    To conclude, note that in such a generic framework, a number of well-motivated theories may predict (or in fact have unavoidable) instances of quark nuggets that may serve as interesting dark matter candidates with a lot of fun phenomenology to play with. It is only up to the theorist\u2019s imagination where to go from here!<\/p>\n

    References and further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n