2000/06/26 by Shibaji Banerjee, Sanjay K. Ghosh, Amal Mazumdar +2 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #COSMIC cancer database #Charge (physics) #Cosmic ray #Cosmology #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Flux (metallurgy) #Strange matter #Strange quark #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1023/a:1026507922704
published in Astrophysics and Space Science 274(3), 655-660 (Springer Science+Business Media) · LaTex text, 2 ps figures. To appear in Astrophysics and Space Science
arxiv created 2000/06/26 · openalex publication_date 2000/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
There have been several reports of exotic nuclear fragments, with highly unusual charge to mass ratio, in cosmic ray experiments. Although there exist experimental uncertainties which make them, at best, only candidate "exotic" events, it is important to understand what they could be, if they are eventually confirmed. Among other possible explanations, some authors have interpreted them to be lumps of strange quark matter (strangelets). A major problem with such an interpretation is that to reach the earth's surface, they must possess an unusually high penetrability through the terrestrial atmosphere. We show that a recently proposed mechanism for the propagation of strangelets through the earth's atmosphere, together with a proper account of charge capture and ionisation loss, would solve this problem. We also argue that this could lead to viable strategies for definitive detection of strange quark matter in cosmic ray flux using a ground based large area array of passive detectors.