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Macro Dark Matter
Dark matter is a vital component of the current best model of our universe, $\Lambda$CDM. There are leading candidates for what the dark matter could be (e.g. weakly-interacting massive particles, or axions), but no compelling observational or experimental evidence exists to support these particular...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Lenguaje: | eng |
Publicado: |
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv774 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1953857 |
Sumario: | Dark matter is a vital component of the current best model of our universe, $\Lambda$CDM. There are leading candidates for what the dark matter could be (e.g. weakly-interacting massive particles, or axions), but no compelling observational or experimental evidence exists to support these particular candidates, nor any beyond-the-Standard-Model physics that might produce such candidates. This suggests that other dark matter candidates, including ones that might arise in the Standard Model, should receive increased attention. Here we consider a general class of dark matter candidates with characteristic masses and interaction cross-sections characterized in units of grams and cm$^2$, respectively -- we therefore dub these macroscopic objects as Macros. Such dark matter candidates could potentially be assembled out of Standard Model particles (quarks and leptons) in the early universe. A combination of earth-based, astrophysical, and cosmological observations constrain a portion of the Macro parameter space; however a large region remains, most notably for nuclear-dense objects with masses in the range between about $50 - 10^{17}$g and $10^{20} - 10^{24}$g. |
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