Trapping of strangelets in the geomagnetic field

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for strangelets from space to be trapped in Earth's magnetic field, estimating their stable population and discussing how trapping could significantly increase their detectable flux.

Contribution

It demonstrates the conditions under which strangelets can be stably trapped in the geomagnetic field and estimates their potential stationary population.

Findings

Stable trapping of strangelets is possible within a narrow magnetic rigidity window.

The trapped strangelet population could be up to two orders of magnitude higher than the interstellar flux.

Loss mechanisms and conditions for trapping stability are analyzed.

Abstract

Strangelets coming from the interstellar medium (ISM) are an interesting target to experiments searching for evidence of this hypothetic state of hadronic matter. We entertain the possibility of a {\it trapped} strangelet population, quite analogous to ordinary nuclei and electron belts. For a population of strangelets to be trapped by the geomagnetic field, these incoming particles would have to fulfill certain conditions, namely having magnetic rigidities above the geomagnetic cutoff and below a certain threshold for adiabatic motion to hold. We show in this work that, for fully ionized strangelets, there is a narrow window for stable trapping. An estimate of the stationary population is presented and the dominant loss mechanisms discussed. It is shown that the population would be substantially enhanced with respect to the ISM flux (up to two orders of magnitude) due to quasi-stable trapping.