Fermilab Theory Seminars

Electroweak Symmetric Balls

by Mrunal Korwar (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

US/Central
Curia II

Curia II

Description

Electroweak symmetric balls are macroscopic objects with electroweak symmetry restored inside. Such an object can arise in models where dark sectors contain monopole or non-topological soliton with a Higgs portal interaction to the Standard Model. It could be produced in the early universe via phase transition or preheating mechanism, accounting for all dark matter. In a scenario where the balls are allowed to evaporate, the observed baryon asymmetry in our universe could be explained by a mechanism of “catalyzed baryogenesis.” In this mechanism, the motion of a ball-like catalyst provides the necessary out-of-equilibrium condition, its outer wall has CP-violating interactions with the Standard Model particles, and its interior has baryon number violating interactions via electroweak Sphaleron. Because of electroweak symmetric cores, such objects have a large geometric cross-section off a nucleus, generating a multi-hit signature in large-volume detectors. These objects could radiatively capture a nucleus and release GeV-scale energy for each interaction. The IceCube detector can probe dark matter balls with masses up to a gram.