Existence of axion (anti)quark nuggets as dark matter

Establish whether axion quark nuggets and axion antiquark nuggets exist and can serve as viable dark matter candidates.

Background

The paper studies macroscopic dark matter candidates known as axion quark nuggets (AQNs) and axion anti-quark nuggets (A\bar{Q}Ns), which possess quark matter in a color-superconducting phase, an electrosphere, and are stabilized by an axion domain wall. Their large masses and small number densities could explain the non-observation of dark matter in conventional WIMP searches.

If AQNs/A\bar{Q}Ns are real and present in the Earth, their annihilation-driven domain-wall oscillations would radiate relativistic axions. The authors argue that large liquid noble detectors (e.g., LAr or Xe-doped LAr modules like those envisioned for DUNE) could detect axion-induced scintillation, providing an avenue to test whether AQNs/A\bar{Q}Ns are viable dark matter candidates.

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