Thermal production of sexaquarks in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper estimates the thermal production rate of a hypothetical stable six-quark state, called sexaquark, in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC, which has implications for dark matter and neutron star composition.

Contribution

First calculation of the expected thermal production rate of the sexaquark in heavy-ion collisions using a validated thermal model.

Findings

Estimated production yield of sexaquarks at LHC energies.

Implications for dark matter searches and neutron star matter.

Provides a basis for experimental searches for sexaquarks.

Abstract

We present new results on the thermal production yield of a hypothetical state made of six quarks $uuddss$ assuming its production in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN LHC. A state with this quark content and mass low enough to be stable against decay in timescales of the order of the age of the Universe, has been hypothesized by one of us (G.F.) and has been discussed as a possible dark matter candidate. In this work we address for the first time the thermal production rate that can be expected for this state in heavy-ion collisions at colliders. For this estimate we use a thermal model which has been shown to describe accurately the production of hadrons and nuclei in heavy-ion collisions at LHC energy. This estimate is of great relevance for sexaquark searches at colliders as well as for its consideration as a dark matter candidate and for the composition of neutron stars.