Electroweak Symmetric Balls - Dark Matter and Baryogenesis

Explore a 28-minute physics lecture from the Workshop on Phase Transitions and Topological Defects in the Early Universe, where Wisconsin researcher Mrunal Korwar delves into electroweak symmetric balls - macroscopic objects with restored electroweak symmetry at their core. Learn how these objects can emerge from dark sector models containing monopoles or non-topological solitons through Higgs portal interactions with the Standard Model. Discover their potential role as dark matter candidates, formed through phase transitions or parametric resonance in the early universe. Examine how their evaporation could explain universal baryon asymmetry through "catalyzed baryogenesis," where ball-like catalysts create out-of-equilibrium conditions and facilitate CP-violating interactions. Understand their distinctive detection signatures in large volume detectors like IceCube, including their ability to interact with nuclei through large geometric cross-sections and release GeV-scale energy through radiative capture.