Quark matter induced extensive air showers

Journal Article · Sun May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.103520· OSTI ID:21502563

Lawson, Kyle ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1 (Canada)

If the dark matter of our Galaxy is composed of nuggets of quarks or antiquarks in a color superconducting phase there will be a small but nonzero flux of these objects through the Earth's atmosphere. A nugget of quark matter will deposit only a small fraction of its kinetic energy in the atmosphere and is likely to be undetectable. If however the impacting object is composed of antiquarks, the energy deposited can be quite large. In this case nuclear annihilations within the nugget will trigger an extensive air shower the particle content of which is similar to that produced by an ultrahigh energy cosmic ray. This paper gives a qualitative description of the basic properties of such a shower. Several distinctions from an air shower initiated by a single ultrahigh energy nucleus will be described, allowing these events to be distinguished from the cosmic ray background. The subtlety of these features may mean that some fraction of the high energy cosmic ray spectrum may in fact be due to this type of dark matter interaction. The estimated flux of dark matter nuggets and the energy deposited in the atmosphere are such that the Pierre Auger Observatory may prove an ideal facility to place constraints on the flux of heavy quark matter objects. This paper attempts to highlight the best techniques to search for a quark matter signature through an extensive air shower signal.

• OSTI ID: 21502563
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.103520; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANNIHILATION
ANTIQUARKS
ATMOSPHERES
B QUARKS
C QUARKS
COLOR MODEL
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EXTENSIVE AIR SHOWERS
GALAXIES
KINETIC ENERGY
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
NUCLEI
QUARK MATTER
SPECTRA
T QUARKS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BEAUTY PARTICLES
CHARM PARTICLES
COMPOSITE MODELS
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC SHOWERS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY
FERMIONS
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATTER
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUARK MODEL
QUARKS
RADIATIONS
SECONDARY COSMIC RADIATION
SHOWERS
TOP PARTICLES