In searches for daemons

Abstract

A possibility is considered of detecting Planckian particles carrying an electric charge Z≈10 and supposedly forming the dark matter of the Galactic disk, whence they are captured by combined action of the Sun and the Earth into strongly elongated Earth-crossing orbits. The flux of such dark electric matter objects, daemons, at the Earth’s orbit may reach f _⊕≈3×10⁻⁷cm⁻²s⁻¹ at a velocity about 52 km/s. Negatively charged daemons are capable of catalyzing the fusion of light (Z _n<10) nuclei. The rate of capture (and fusion) of nuclei should be particularly high in a metallic phase. A detection system is described that consists of beryllium plates 45 mm thick and 1200 cm² in area coated with a ZnS(Ag) scintillator. It is assumed that the products of the fusion reaction 2⁹Be → ¹⁸O that are ejected in amounts of up to about 10⁴ from the points of daemon entrance and exit would give rise to scintillations with a delay of about 1µs. An exposure of the system for 300 h revealed no event. The reason for the negative result can be (1) too optimistic an estimate of the flux (the inclusion of some factors could lower it by 1.5–3 orders of magnitude) and (2) the poisoning of the catalyst by capture of nuclei with Z _n≥10. The time required for the recovery of the daemon catalytic properties is estimated from the analysis of the energy release in the Sun at no less than 3×10⁻⁷ s. The analysis of the total available data suggests that the daemon flux at the Earth is about 3×10⁻⁸ cm⁻² s⁻¹. The experiments will be continued.