Dark Nuclei II: Nuclear Spectroscopy in Two-Colour QCD

Abstract

We consider two-colour QCD with two flavours 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 $J=1$ multi-baryon 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 $\sigma$-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.