UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

Guest
2025-08-20 22:52
 HOME     CONFERENCES     SEARCH            LOGIN     NEW USER     IMAGES   


Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2025 Meeting


Section: Nuclear and Elementary Particles Physics


Title:
A novel idea for direct detection of Axion (anti)Quark Nuggets (AQNs)


Authors:
Zizhou HUANG (1), Mihaela PARVU (2) , Dmitry BUDKER (3,4,5) and Konstantin ZIOUTAS (6)


Affiliation:
1) Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China;

2) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, POBox MG-11 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania;

3) Helmholtz-Institut Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany;

4) Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany

5) Department of Physics, University of California, 94720-7300, Berkeley, USA

6) Physics Department, University of Patras, GR 26504 Patras-Rio, Greece;


E-mail
mihaela.parvu@unibuc.ro


Keywords:
rare events, dark matter, axion quark nuggets


Abstract:
A significant portion of the Universe's matter is represented by Dark Matter (DM) which still remained unobserved and one of the largest mysteries of all science. Its presence is inferred from cosmic gravitational observations, yet its fundamental nature remains unknown. Numerous theoretical candidates have been proposed, spanning a wide range of mass and interaction properties, from macroscopic objects like primordial black holes to particle-based models. In particular, the exotic DM Axion antiQuark Nuggets (AQNs) have been explored since the pioneering proposal by A. Zhitnitsky [1]. Theoretically, these highly composite objects (with a baryon number up to ~10^{26+/-2}) offer a natural mechanism for also restoring the matter–antimatter symmetry in the Universe, thus solving the two cosmic mysteries. This communication presents a novel idea for directly detecting DM AQNs using parasitically the LHC cryo-system, starting with the stored data since its start around 2012 [2].


References:

[1] Zhitnitsky, A.R. ’Nonbaryonic’ dark matter as baryonic color superconductor. JCAP 2003, 10, 010, [hep-ph/0202161]. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-.

[2] Zioutas, K. et al., Search for anti-quark nuggets via their interaction with the LHC beam, arXiv:2403.05608

Acknowledgement:
The work of M.P. is supported by the contract CERN-RO/CDI/2024_001.