The search for primordial quark nuggets among near Earth asteroids


Autoria(s): HORVATH, J. E.
Contribuinte(s)

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

Data(s)

19/10/2012

19/10/2012

2008

Resumo

Primordial Quark Nuggets, remnants of the quark-hadron phase transition, may be hiding most of the baryon number in superdense chunks have been discussed for years always from the theoretical point of view. While they seemed originally fragile at intermediate cosmological temperatures, it became increasingly clear that they may survive due to a variety of effects affecting their evaporation (surface and volume) rates. A search of these objects have never been attempted to elucidate their existence. We discuss in this note how to search directly for cosmological fossil nuggets among the small asteroids approaching Earth. `Asteroids` with a high visible-to-infrared flux ratio, constant lightcurves and devoid of spectral features are signals of an actual possible nugget nature. A viable search of very definite primordial quark nugget features can be conducted as a spinoff of the ongoing/forthcoming NEAs observation programmes.

Identificador

ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCE, v.315, n.1/Abr, p.361-364, 2008

0004-640X

http://producao.usp.br/handle/BDPI/27032

10.1007/s10509-008-9783-x

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10509-008-9783-x

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

SPRINGER

Relação

Astrophysics and Space Science

Direitos

restrictedAccess

Copyright SPRINGER

Palavras-Chave #quark nuggets #dark matter #near earth asteroids #MATTER #PHASES #STARS #Astronomy & Astrophysics
Tipo

article

original article

publishedVersion