On the cosmology and terrestrial signals of sexaquark dark matter

Marianne Moore
MIT

Abstract:

The sexaquark, a hypothetical stable and neutral six-quark state, has been recently proposed as a dark matter candidate. Here, I argue it is very unlikely sexaquarks could consistently compose more than a billionth of the dark matter abundance for a wide range of scattering cross sections and annihilation rates. To draw these conclusions, I will connect several topics, including the sexaquark freeze-out abundance, dark matter direct detection constraints, neutrino experiments, and accumulation mechanisms for sexaquarks in the Earth. I will show how the sexaquark cosmology enforces that a large contribution to dark matter is only possible with a similarly large antisexaquark population. This population, however, would leave a stark annihilation signal in a detector such as Super-Kamiokande. I will summarize with how sexaquarks as a large component of the dark matter is incompatible with current observational data.

McDonald Institute seminars bring together experimental and theoretical astroparticle physicists and astronomers. They are held approximately fortnightly, September to November and January to March, and on an ad hoc basis outside of term. They currently take place on Mondays at 2:30 PM in STI 501 and/or on Zoom. Contact Aaron Vincent if you would like to attend through zoom.