- 3546 - DARK MATTER - could be hexaquarks? Hexaquarks could have condensed into dark matter in the strange conditions directly after the Big Bang. Immediately following that event, the universe was a cooling sea of subatomic particles, "a big pot of soup with quarks".
--------------------- 3546 - DARK MATTER - could be hexaquarks?
- A newly identified subatomic particle may have formed the universe's “dark matter” right after the Big Bang, approximately 13.8 billion years ago.
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- While scientists have determined that up to 27% of the “matter’ in the universe could be Dark Matter, our understanding of what the mysterious substance might be is still lacking, as no one has ever directly observed it. 75% is Dark Energy and only 5% is Ordinary Matter.
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- Matter can be broken down into molecules, which can be broken down further into atoms and even further into the subatomic particles protons and neutrons. Then, when you break those down, you get quarks. So, everything we've ever seen, touched or tasted has ultimately been made up of quarks. That is Ordinary Matter.
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- While neutrons and protons are each made up of three quarks, hexaquarks are made up of six quarks. Their existence was predicted for decades, and in 2014, researchers were able to confirm the real existence of “hex quarks“.
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- Though these exotic particles are made up of more quarks than protons are, hexaquarks are actually much smaller than the more familiar particles. Hexaquarks also decay much faster than other subatomic particles. Hexaquarks are also a type of “boson” particle, meaning that multiple d-star hexaquarks can combine in ways different from how protons and neutrons combine.
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- Hexaquarks could have condensed into dark matter in the strange conditions directly after the Big Bang. Immediately following that event, the universe was a cooling sea of subatomic particles, "a big pot of soup with quarks". During this super early period of the universe, d-star hexaquarks could have cooled and expanded into what is known as a “Bose-Einstein condensate” (BEC).
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- A BEC is an exotic, fifth state of matter that forms when a cloud of atoms or subatomic particles cools to temperatures approaching absolute zero, or “0 Kelvin” (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius). At these extreme temperatures, the particles clump together into a single entity that can be described by a wave function. In other words, the particles coalesce and behave like a single particle., or a single wave.
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- While hexaquarks decay quickly in a lab, they are much more stable and long-lasting within a neutron star and, possibly also in a BEC. Shortly after the universe began with the Big Bang, hexaquarks could have condensed into a BEC.
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- Condensates of d-stars are a feasible new candidate for dark matter, and this new possibility seems worthy of further, more detailed investigation.
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- The result doesn't require any concepts that are new to physics. The researchers going forward will perform experiments to study the properties of hexaquarks, like their size and how they interact with both other hexaquarks and normal, or nuclear matter (protons and neutrons inside a nucleus).
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- Much more to learn. Stay tuned.
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April 18, 2022 - DARK MATTER - could be hexaquarks? 3546
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