English

Quark nuggets search using 2350 Kg gravitational waves aluminum bar detectors

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2013-06-24 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

The gravitational wave resonant detectors can be used as detectors of quark nuggets, like nuclearites (nuclear matter with a strange quark). This search has been carried out using data from two 2350 Kg, 2 K cooled, aluminum bar detectors: NAUTILUS, located in Frascati (Italy), and EXPLORER, that was located in CERN Geneva (CH). Both antennas are equipped with cosmic ray shower detectors: signals in the bar due to showers are continuously detected and used to characterize the antenna performances. The bar excitation mechanism is based on the so called thermo-acoustic effect, studied on dedicated experiments that use particle beams. This mechanism predicts that vibrations of bars are induced by the heat deposited in the bar from the particle. The geometrical acceptance of the bar detectors is 19.5 m2\rm m^2 sr, that is smaller than that of other detectors used for similar searches. However, the detection mechanism is completely different and is more straightforward than in other detectors. We will show the results of ten years of data from NAUTILUS (2003-2012) and 7 years from EXPLORER (2003-2009). The experimental limits we obtain are of interest because, for nuclearites of mass less than 10410^{-4} grams, we find a flux smaller than that one predicted considering nuclearites as dark matter candidates.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1306.5164,
  title  = {Quark nuggets search using 2350 Kg gravitational waves aluminum bar detectors},
  author = {P. Astone and M. Bassan and E. Coccia and S. D'Antonio and V. Fafone and G. Giordano and A. Marini and Y. Minenkov and I. Modena and A. Moleti and G. V. Pallottino and G. Pizzella and A. Rocchi and F. Ronga and M. Visco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.5164},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

presented to the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference Rio de Janeiro 2013