Ask Ethan: It’s Absurd To Think Dark Matter Might Be Made Of Hexaquarks, Right?
You’d have to throw out a lot of known physics for this to even be a possibility. Here’s why.
It’s an undeniable scientific fact that dark matter must exist in order to explain the full suite of observations we have about the Universe. Despite all that we know about it, however, we have yet to identify what particle(s) actually compose it. Every single direct detection experiment we’ve ever concocted has come up empty. Although a plethora of dark matter candidates have been proposed, there’s no robust evidence in support of any of them. A new idea has been making waves this month as a dark matter candidate: a specific type of particle known as a hexaquark. Is this a viable dark matter candidate? Patreon supporter BenHead wants to know, asking:
Lots of science headlines [are] telling me dark matter might be a Bose-Einstein condensate of d* hexaquarks. Only problem I see? When notionally detected d* hexaquarks lived for 10^-23 seconds. What’s your take?
It’s a clever idea that’s almost certainly wrong. Here’s why.
