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.