Solar Corona Heating by the Axion Quark Nugget Dark Matter
  In this work we advocate for the idea that two seemingly unrelated
80-year-old mysteries - the nature of dark matter and the high temperature of
the million degree solar corona - may have resolutions that lie within the same
physical framework. The current paradigm is that the corona is heated by
nanoflares, which were originally proposed as miniature versions of the
observed solar flares. It was recently suggested that the nanoflares could be
identified as annihilation events of the nuggets from the Axion Quark Nugget
(AQN) dark matter model. This model was invented as an explanation of the
observed ratio $\Omega_{\rm dark} \sim \Omega_{\rm visible}$, based only on
cosmological and particle physics considerations. In this new paradigm, the AQN
particles moving through the coronal plasma and annihilating with normal matter
can lead to the drastic change of temperatures seen in the Sun's Transition
Region (TR), and significantly contribute to the extreme ultraviolet (EUV)
excess of $10^{27}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}}$. To test this proposal, we perform
numerical simulations with a realistically modeled AQN particle distribution
and explore how the nuggets interact with the coronal plasma. Remarkably, our
simulations predict the correct energy budget for the solar corona, and show
that the energy injection mostly occurs at an altitude of around 2000 km, which
is where the TR lies. Therefore, we propose that these long unresolved
mysteries could be two sides of the same coin. We make several predictions
based on this proposal, some of which could be tested by the recently launched
NASA mission, the Parker Solar Probe.
