Possibility of antiquark nuggets detection using meteor searching radars

Abstract

Within the quark nugget model, dark matter particles may be represented by compact composite objects composed of a large number of quarks or antiquarks. Due to strong interaction with visible matter, antiquark nuggets should manifest themselves in the form of rare atmospheric events on the Earth. They may produce ionized trails in the atmosphere similar to the meteor trails. There are, however, several features which should allow one to distinguish antiquark nugget trails from meteor ones. We study the properties of ionized trails from antiquark nuggets in the air and show that they may be registered by standard meteor radar detectors. Non-observation of such trails pushes up the mean baryon charge number in the quark nugget model, $|B|>4\times 10^{27}$.