Interaction of strangelets with ordinary nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates how hypothetical strangelets interact with ordinary nuclei, focusing on processes like fusion and baryon number loss, to understand their potential detection and behavior in cosmic rays and Earth's atmosphere.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of strangelet-nucleus interactions, including physical processes affecting baryon number, which was previously not thoroughly modeled.

Findings

Fusion can increase strangelet baryon number in space

Baryon number loss dominates in Earth's atmosphere

Implications for strangelet detection in cosmic rays

Abstract

Strangelets (hypothetical stable lumps of strange quarkmatter) of astrophysical origin may be ultimately detected in specific cosmic ray experiments. The initial mass distribution resulting from the possible astrophysical production sites would be subject to reprocessing in the interstellar medium and in the earth's atmosphere. In order to get a better understanding of the claims for the detection of this still hypothetic state of hadronic matter, we present a study of strangelet-nucleus interactions including several physical processes of interest (abrasion, fusion, fission, excitation and de-excitation of the strangelets), to address the fate of the baryon number along the strangelet path. It is shown that, although fusion may be important for low-energy strangelets in the interstellar medium (thus increasing the initial baryon number A), in the earth's atmosphere the loss of the baryon number should be the dominant process. The consequences of these findings are briefly addressed.