On the survival of strong nuggets in the early Universe

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of strong strangeon nuggets as dark matter candidates, analyzing their formation, survival, and observational constraints within the early Universe's phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a phase transition model for cosmic strange matter, identifying parameter space where strangeon nuggets can serve as dark matter consistent with observations.

Findings

Strangeon nuggets can survive from early Universe phase transitions.

Parameter space aligns with dark matter abundance and astrophysical constraints.

Strangeon nuggets could explain certain properties of compact objects.

Abstract

Strong nuggets with a baryon number of $A\sim 10^{10-30}$ could be able to survive from the cosmic separation of the QCD phases, provided the transition from strange quark matter to strangeon matter is accounted for, thereby evading evaporation in the early Universe. Such strangeon nuggets may serve as a dark matter candidate within particle standard model. We formulate the corresponding phase transition of cosmic strange matter, establishing a parameter space which reasonably accommodates observational constraints on the dark-to-luminous matter ratio and the mass-radius relation, as well as tidal deformability of compact objects.