论文标题
直闪电作为宏观暗物质的签名
Straight Lightning as a Signature of Macroscopic Dark Matter
论文作者
论文摘要
宏观暗物质（宏）是粒子暗物质的一系列替代候选者。这些候选者将主要通过弹性散射转移能量。足够大的宏通过大气会产生电离等离子体的直流通道。如果宏的横截面为$σ_x\ gtrapprox 6 \ times 10^{ - 9} cm^2 $，则在有利于雷电的大气条件下（例如，雷暴），等离子体通道就足以使闪电击中单个领导者。这完全与普通的螺栓闪电不同，其中长达数百或数千个几米长的领导者被串在一起。这种宏引起的闪电将非常直接，因此高度独特。风剪或磁性水力动力学不稳定性都不会显着破坏其直率。直闪电螺栓的唯一照片记录的情况可能不足以直接引起宏观引起。 我们估计了宏参数空间的区域，可以通过搜索地球上发生的雷暴数量来探索直闪电的搜索。我们还估计了可以通过仔细监视木星（例如使用哈勃太空望远镜。 所有代码和数据均可在https://github.com/cwru-pat/macro_lightning获得。
Macroscopic dark matter (macros) is a broad class of alternative candidates to particle dark matter. These candidates would transfer energy to matter primarily through elastic scattering. A sufficiently large macro passing through the atmosphere would produce a straight channel of ionized plasma. If the cross-section of the macro is $σ_x \gtrapprox 6 \times 10^{-9} cm^2$, then under atmospheric conditions conducive to lightning (eg. a thunderstorm) the plasma channel would be sufficient to seed a lightning strike with a single leader. This is entirely unlike ordinary bolt lightning in which a long sequence of hundreds or thousands of few-meter-long leaders are strung together. This macro-induced lightning would be extremely straight, and thus highly distinctive. Neither wind shear nor magnetohydrodynamic instabilities would markedly spoil its straightness. The only photographically documented case of a straight lightning bolt is probably not straight enough to have been macro-induced. We estimate the region of macro parameter space that could be probed by a search for straight lightning from the number of thunderstorms happening on Earth at any time. We also estimate the parameter space that can be probed by carefully monitoring Jupiter, e.g. using the Hubble Space Telescope. All code and data is available at https://github.com/cwru-pat/macro_lightning.
