The discussion centers on the hypothesis of hexaquarks as a potential candidate for dark matter, as proposed in a recent article. Participants express skepticism regarding the viability of this theory, highlighting concerns about the lack of detection and discussion of implications on big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. Key points include the charged nature of quarks, which contradicts the definition of dark matter, and the necessity for hexaquarks to have formed before BBN to avoid detection issues. Overall, the consensus leans towards questioning the plausibility of hexaquarks as a dark matter candidate.
PREREQUISITESPhysicists, cosmologists, and researchers in particle physics who are exploring dark matter theories and the implications of new particle candidates on established cosmological models.
Neutron has a magnetic dipole moment but no charge. Plenty of nuclei have no dipole moment.AndyG said:I don't quite understand how this could be a dark matter candidate as it is made up of charged particles (quarks) thus should interact with light ... which, by definition, makes it matter not dark matter
I'm not defending the hypothesis, but I think the idea is that these Bose-Einstein condensates of hexaquarks condensed out before big bang nucleosynthesis. Then they would not impact the total amount of baryonic matter we see from BBN or the CMB.mfb said:We know the total amount of baryonic matter from big bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background. I don't see how such an addition could have stayed undetected. The authors don't discuss this at all, which is a bad sign.