A Search for Magnetized Quark Nuggets (MQNs), a Candidate for Dark Matter, Accumulating in Iron Ore
arXiv:2402.08163 · doi:10.3390/universe10010027
Abstract
A search has been carried out for Magnetized Quark Nuggets (MQNs) accumulating in iron ore over geologic time. MQNs, which are theoretically consistent with the Standard Models of Physics and of Cosmology, have been suggested as dark-matter candidates. Indirect evidence of MQNs has been previously inferred from observations of magnetars and of non-meteorite impact craters. It is shown in this paper that MQNs can accumulate in taconite (iron ore) and be transferred into ferromagnetic rod-mill liners during processing of the ore. When the liners are recycled to make fresh steel, they are heated to higher than the Curie temperature so that their ferromagnetic properties are destroyed. The MQNs would then be released and fall into the ferromagnetic furnace bottom where they would be trapped. Three such furnace bottoms have been magnetically scanned to search for the magnetic anomalies consistent with trapped MQNs. The observed magnetic anomalies are equivalent to an accumulation rate of ~1 kg of MQNs per 1.2 x kg of taconite ore processed. The results are consistent with MQNs but there could be other, unknown explanations. We propose an experiment and calculations to definitively test the MQN hypothesis for dark matter.
arXiv comment30 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables
References in corpus (10)
- The McGill Magnetar Catalog
- The Local Dark Matter Density
- The distribution of dark matter in galaxies
- Physics and Astrophysics of Strange Quark Matter
- Macro Dark Matter
- Ferromagnetism of quark liquid
- Detection of magnetized quark-nuggets, a candidate for dark matter
- Mass distribution of magnetized quark-nugget dark matter and comparison with observations
- Results of search for magnetized quark-nugget dark matter from radial impacts on Earth
- Limits on Magnetized Quark-Nugget Dark Matter from Episodic Natural Events