Dark nuclei. II. Nuclear spectroscopy in two-color QCD

Abstract

We consider two-color QCD with two flavors of quarks as a possible theory of composite dark matter and use lattice field theory methods to investigate nuclear spectroscopy in the spin J = 0 and J = 1 multibaryon sectors. We find compelling evidence that J = 1 systems with baryon number B = 2,3 (and their mixed meson-baryon counterparts) are bound states—the analogues of nuclei in this theory. In addition, we estimate the σ-terms of the J = 0 and J = 1 single baryon states which are important for the coupling of the theory to scalar currents that may mediate interactions with the visible sector.