Magnetised quark nuggets in the atmosphere.

A search for magnetised quark nuggets (MQN) is reported using acoustic signals from hydrophones placed in the Great Salt Lake (GSL) in the USA. No events satisfying the expected signature were seen. This observation allows limits to be set on the flux of MQNs penetrating the Earth's atmosphere and depositing energy in the GSL. The expected signature of the events was ​derived from pressure pulses caused by high-explosive cords between the lake surface and bottom at various locations in the GSL. The limits obtained from this search are compared with those obtained from previous searches and are compared to models for the formation of MQNs.

Detection of magnetized quark-nuggets, a candidate for dark matter.

Quark nuggets are theoretical objects composed of approximately equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks and are also called strangelets and nuclearites. They have been proposed as a candidate for dark matter, which constitutes ~85% of the universe's mass and which has been a mystery for decades. Previous efforts to detect quark nuggets assumed that the nuclear-density core interacts directly with the surrounding matter so the stopping power is minimal. Tatsumi found that quark nuggets could well exist as a ferromagnetic liquid with a ~1012-T magnetic field. We find that the magnetic field produces a magnetopause with surrounding plasma, as the earth's magnetic field produces a magnetopause with the solar wind, and substantially increases their energy deposition rate in matter. We use the magnetopause model to compute the energy deposition as a function of quark-nugget mass and to analyze testing the quark-nugget hypothesis for dark matter by observations in air, water, and land. We conclude the water option is most promising.