2020/01/06 by M. Bashkanov, D. P. Watts · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1361-6471/ab67e8
openalex publication_date 2020/01/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract Despite many decades of study the physical origin of ‘dark matter’ (DM) in the Universe remains elusive. In this letter we calculate the properties of a completely new DM candidate—Bose–Einstein condensates formed from a recently discovered bosonic particle in the light-quark sector, the <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="italic">d</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>*</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn mathvariant="normal">2380</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> hexaquark. In this first study, we show stable <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>∗</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2380</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:math> Bose–Einstein condensates could form in the primordial early universe, with a production rate sufficiently large that they are a plausible new candidate for DM. Some possible astronomical signatures of such DM are also presented.