Related papers: Comment on ``Strangelets as Cosmic Rays beyond the…
It is argued that strangelets are viable candidates for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays that circumvent the acceleration and energy-loss problems facing protons and nuclei, in spite of concerns raised in a comment by Balberg.
Strangelets (stable lumps of quark matter) can have masses and charges much higher than those of nuclei, but have very low charge-to-mass ratios. This is confirmed in a relativistic Thomas-Fermi model. The high charge allows astrophysical…
The conjecture that ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are actually strangelets is discussed. Besides the reason that strangelets can do as cosmic rays beyond the GZK-cutoff, another argument to support the conjecture is addressed in…
Stable lumps of quark matter may be present in cosmic rays at a flux level, which can be detected by high precision cosmic ray experiments sensitive to anomalous "nuclei" with high mass-to-charge ratio. The properties of these lumps, called…
The properties of strangelets are reviewed and two experiments searching for them in cosmic rays are described. The prospects for strangelets as ultra-high energy cosmic rays beyond the classical GZK-cutoff are discussed.
Searching for strangelets in cosmic rays may be the best way to test the possible stability of strange quark matter. I review calculations of the astrophysical strangelet flux in the GV--TV rigidity range, which will be investigated from…
It is shown that nuggets of strange quark matter may be extracted from the surface of pulsars and accelerated by strong electric fields to high energies if pulsars are strange stars with the crusts, comprised of nuggets embedded in a…
We discuss the possible imprints of Strange Quark Matter (SQM) in cosmic ray data. In particular, we investigate the propagation of SQM through the atmosphere and discuss: i) direct candidates for strangelets, ii) exotic events interpreted…
Strange quark matter (SQM) is considered a possible true ground state of QCD at high densities. This idea motivates research on exotic compact objects and certain cosmic-ray phenomena. For instance, the remnant HESS J1731-347 contains a…
Assuming that cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere contain a small admixture of nuggets of strange quark matter in form of strangelets one can explain a number of apparently "strange" effects observed in different cosmic rays…
Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) have been tried to be related to the most varied and powerful sources known in the universe. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are natural candidates. Here, we argue that cosmic rays can be accelerated by large…
We investigate the possibility that cosmic rays of energy larger than the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff are not nucleons, but a new stable, massive, hadron that appears in many extensions of the standard model. We focus primarily on the…
If strange quark matter is stable in small lumps, we expect to find such lumps, called ``strangelets'', on Earth due to a steady flux in cosmic rays. Following recent astrophysical models, we predict the strangelet flux at the top of the…
In this paper we consider the possibility that strange quark matter may be manifested in the form of strangelet crystal planets. These planet-like objects are made up of nuggets of strange quark matter (SQM), organized in a crystalline…
I review the status of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) physics.After introducing the main experimental results and summarizing possible intepretations, I discuss observational and theoretical constraints on the sources of UHECRs. I…
Ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) pose a problem either for particle physics or for astrophysics (or for both) by the unexpectedly high number of cosmic ray showers observed with energy above about 5x10^{19}eV, the…
It has been over 30 years since the first suggestion that the true ground state of cold hadronic matter might be not nuclear matter but rather strange quark matter (SQM). Ever since, searches for stable SQM have been proceeding in various…
Several experiments (e.g., Milagro and IceCube) have reported the presence in the sky of regions with significant excess in the arrival direction distributions of Galactic cosmic rays in the TeV to PeV energy range. Here we study the…
Large-scale accretion shocks around massive clusters of galaxies, generically expected in hierarchical scenarios of cosmological structure formation, are shown to be potential sources of the observed ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by…
Cosmic-rays with energies exceeding 10^{19} eV are referred to as Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). The sources of these particles and their acceleration mechanism are unknown, and for many years have been the issue of much debate.…