A Signature of Colour-Superconducting Dark Matter?

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel dark matter candidate composed of large quark nuggets in a colour-superconducting phase, with properties derived from QCD and condensed matter physics, leading to testable astrophysical predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a new dark matter model based on quark nuggets in a colour-superconducting phase, with detailed predictions of their interactions and observable consequences.

Findings

Potential explanation for the galactic 511 keV line

Possible source of the MeV continuum in galactic spectrum

Demonstrates plausibility of quark nuggets as dark matter

Abstract

I describe a novel dark matter candidate in which the dark matter is composed of macroscopically large "nuggets" of ordinary quarks and antiquarks in a colour-superconducting phase. The physical properties of these objects are described entirely by QCD and the principles of condensed matter physics. An understanding of these properties allows for predictions of their interactions with the ordinary visible matter of the galaxy and leads to several testable consequences of the model. The spectrum arising from these interactions is entirely fixed by quite general predictions about the structure of dense quark matter and allows for no tuning of parameters. In this talk I present the results of a detailed Thomas-Fermi calculation which demonstrates the plausibility that the annihilation of galactic matter incident on a dark matter nugget may be responsible for both the galactic 511 keV line and a broad MeV scale continuum present in the galactic spectrum measured by COMPTEL.