2003/09/30 by David H. Oaknin, Ariel Zhitnitsky
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Asymmetry #Baryon #Baryon asymmetry #Baryon number #Charge (physics) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Electron #Hadron #Lepton #Nuclear physics #Omega #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quark #Universe #astro-ph #cond-mat.supr-con #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.71.023519
published as Phys.Rev. D71 (2005) 023519 · New paragraph added in subsection II.D; version to appear in Physical Review D
arxiv created 2004/12/15 · openalex publication_date 2005/01/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We propose a novel scenario to explain the observed cosmological asymmetry between matter and antimatter, based on nonperturbative QCD physics. This scenario relies on a mechanism of separation of quarks and antiquarks in two coexisting phases at the end of the cosmological QCD phase transition: ordinary hadrons (and antihadrons), along with massive lumps (and antilumps) of novel color superconducting phase. The latter would serve as the cosmological cold dark matter. In certain conditions the separation of charge is C and CP asymmetric and can leave a net excess of hadrons over antihadrons in the conventional phase, even if the visible universe is globally baryon symmetric B=0. In this case an equal, but negative, overall baryon charge must be hidden in the lumps of novel phase. Because of the small volume occupied by these dense lumps/antilumps of color superconducting phase and the specific features of their interaction with normal matter in hadronic phase, this scenario does not contradict the current phenomenological constrains on presence of antimatter in the visible universe. Moreover, in this scenario the observed cosmological ratio \ensuremathΩDM\ensuremath∼\ensuremathΩB within an order of magnitude finds a natural explanation, as both contributions to \ensuremathΩ originated from the same physics during the QCD phase transition. The baryon to entropy ratio nB/n_\ensuremathγ\ensuremath∼10^\ensuremath-10 would also be a natural outcome, fixed by the temperature Tf\ensuremath\lesssimTQCD at which the separation of phases is completed.