Pulsar scintillation patterns and strangelets

TL;DR

This paper suggests that pulsar scintillation patterns, traditionally attributed to turbulence, may instead be caused by strangelets creating ionization trails in interstellar clouds, acting as scattering lenses.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis that strangelets can produce ionization trails in interstellar clouds, explaining scintillation phenomena.

Findings

Strangelets can penetrate dense interstellar hydrogen clouds.

Ionization trails from strangelets may form lens-like scattering screens.

This mechanism could account for observed pulsar scintillation patterns.

Abstract

We propose that interstellar extreme scattering events, usually observed as pulsar scintillations, may be caused by a coherent agent rather than the usually assumed turbulence of $\rm H_2$ clouds. We find that the penetration of a flux of ionizing, positively charged strangelets or quark nuggets into a dense interstellar hydrogen cloud may produce ionization trails. Depending on the specific nature and energy of the incoming droplets, diffusive propagation or even capture in the cloud are possible. As a result, enhanced electron densities may form and constitute a lens-like scattering screen for radio pulsars and possibly for quasars.