Primordial lithium puzzle and the axion quark nugget dark matter model

Abstract

Astrophysics today faces a number of mysteries which define their resolutions in spite of drastic improvements in instrumental design, better techniques being developed, and gradual improvements in theoretical and computation methods over last decades. The primordial lithium puzzle is known to stay with us for at least two decades, and it is very likely that its final resolution will require some fundamentally new ideas, novel frameworks and nonconventional paradigms. We propose that the primordial lithium puzzle finds its natural resolution within the so-called axion quark nugget (AQN) dark matter model. This model was invented long ago as a natural explanation of the observed ratio Ωdark∼Ωvisible without any references to big bang nucleosyntheis physics. In this new paradigm, in contrast with the conventional WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) framework the dark matter takes the form of the macroscopically large quark nuggets without requiring any new fields beyond the standard model physics, except for the axion. The time evolution of these AQNs in primordial soup at T∼20 KeV suggests a strong suppression of the abundances of nuclei with high charges Z≥3. This suppression mechanism represents the resolution of the primordial lithium abundance within AQN dark matter scenario.