Matter–antimatter symmetry mechanism via axion (anti)quark nuggets

Determine whether axion quark nuggets and axion antiquark nuggets provide a natural mechanism for restoring matter–antimatter symmetry in the Universe.

Background

Within the AQN framework, the Universe forms complementary populations of matter nuggets and antimatter nuggets at the QCD epoch. This can reconcile a globally symmetric baryon–antibaryon content with the observed visible matter abundance by sequestering antibaryon number inside anti-nuggets, thereby addressing the matter–antimatter asymmetry problem.

Demonstrating that AQNs/A\bar{Q}Ns exist and behave as proposed would provide a concrete baryogenesis-related mechanism, linking dark matter phenomenology to the restoration of matter–antimatter symmetry through baryon charge separation in macroscopic nuggets.

References

If the existence of $\rm{AQNs}$ and $\rm{A\bar{Q}Ns}$ is demonstrated, two major open problems in physics could be addressed simultaneously: they would constitute viable dark matter candidates and, at the same time, provide a natural mechanism for restoring matter–antimatter symmetry in the Universe.

— A New Way to Detect Axions from $\rm{A\bar{Q}Ns}$ Captured in the Earth  (2603.29904 - Lazanu et al., 31 Mar 2026) in Abstract