Abstract
The purpose of this talk is to highlight the potential role of large scale cosmic ray detectors in constraining the presence of certain classes of high mass dark matter candidates. These models are not easily constrained by conventional dark matter searches due to their very small flux, and thus, alternative detection techniques must be considered. I will begin with a brief review of heavy compact composite dark matter and some motivation for considering this class of models. In particular I will describe a model in which the dark matter consists of heavy “nuggets” of quarks and antiquarks, and highlight its relation to baryogenesis. As this form of dark matter is based in known physics its properties, as established by arguments from nuclear physics and electrodynamics, are strongly constrained. Based on these properties I will give a primarily qualitative description of the nuggets' interaction with visible matter and of the consequences of the passage of a dark matter nugget through the earth's atmosphere. From the general scales and properties of these events I argue that they may be detectable using cosmic ray observatories and that the largest of these observatories are likely to impose the strongest known constraints on this class of dark matter candidates.
Highlights
The purpose of this talk is to highlight the potential role of large scale cosmic ray detectors in constraining the presence of certain classes of high mass dark matter candidates
In order to motivate the following discussion I will begin with a brief review of the process of baryogenesis and its possible connection with the apparently unrelated phenomenon of dark matter
In the early universe the temperature was sufficiently high that the baryonic content of the universe was in the form of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in which colour change is effectively screened and the individual quarks are not confined into hadrons
Summary
In order to motivate the following discussion I will begin with a brief review of the process of baryogenesis and its possible connection with the apparently unrelated phenomenon of dark matter. In the following I will consider an alternative model in which, rather producing an overabundance of matter, baryogenesis occurs through the preferentially binding of antimatter in a high density state which interacts only minimally with the visible matter and is not observable. The confinement phase transition is accompanied by a chiral phase transition as it is the vacuum structure of the theory which determines its CP properties This process may involve the formation of a network of domain walls which rapidly collapse as the QCD fields relax into their CP symmetric ground state. The interaction of these walls is strongly CP violating so they acquire a net baryonic (or antibaryonic) charge as they sweep through the QGP. The preferential formation of nuggets of antimatter would result in a baryonic plasma which contains an excess of matter having no antimatter partner with which to annihilate
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
