Does Strange Matter Evaporate in the Early Universe?
19869 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.D 34 (1986) 2947-2955
Citations per year
Abstract: (APS)
Evaporation of nuggets of strange quark matter in the early Universe is investigated. A model of nugget evaporation is developed, and is shown to permit the survival of nuggets with initial baryon number A≳1046, when reabsorption of emitted hadrons is neglected. Reabsorption is shown to be potentially very important, making the survival of nuggets with a much lower initial baryon number possible. The evaporation rate of a nugget depends mainly on the effective binding energy of hadrons in a thin surface layer. This binding energy is shown to be several hundred MeV, determined by an equilibrium between emission of nucleons and kaons. A number of simplifying assumptions are explicitly discussed in order to stress the complicated physics involved. It is concluded that strange nuggets remain a possible candidate for the dark matter of the Universe.- dark matter
- QUARK: MATTER
- QUARK: STRANGENESS
- BINDING ENERGY
- BARYON NUMBER
- THERMODYNAMICS: CRITICAL PHENOMENA
- temperature dependence
- NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS
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