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 $\ensuremath{\sigma}$-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.