Nucleosynthesis constraints on massive, stable, strongly interacting particles

Heavy, stable, strongly interacting massive particles (X) have recently been discussed by many authors. We find constraints on them both from searches for anomalous low Z nuclei containing them that would have been formed during primordial nucleosynthesis and from anomalous high Z nuclei that would have been formed in the Earth. Based on existing data and previous investigations of primordial nucleosynthesis of anomalous nuclei, we find a limit on the abundance ratio $C_X\equiv n_X/n_B$ in the range of $3\times 10^{-8}$ to $3\times 10^{-13}$ for masses up to 10 TeV if the $X-N$ interaction is sufficiently strong to bind in low Z nuclei. If the $X-N$ interaction is small, we find a rough lower limit to it, show that this limit implies binding in nuclei with $A\geq 200$ over much of the $M_X$ range of interest, and find the relative abundance of such anomalous nuclei on Earth if the galactic halo dark matter is dominated by the strongly interacting particles. We also address the case in which the interaction is large enough for $X$ to explain the UHECR events.