Related papers: Can cosmic strangelets reach the earth?
We reexamine the surface composition of strange stars. Strange quark stars are hypothetical compact stars which could exist if strange quark matter was absolutely stable. It is widely accepted that they are characterized by an enormous…
Studying the atmospheres of exoplanets is one of the most promising ways to learn about distant worlds beyond our solar system. The composition of an exoplanet's atmosphere can provide critical insights into its geology and potential…
Research in cosmic rays is now nearly a century old, but most of the fundamental questions in this field remain unanswered, on the other hand the perspectives of future studies in the next decade are very bright. New detectors will provide…
The study of secondary particles produced by the cosmic-ray interaction in the Earth's atmosphere is very crucial as these particles mainly constitute the background counts produced in the high-energy detectors at balloon and satellite…
Cosmic rays at the Earth include a secondary component originating in collisions of primary particles with the diffuse interstellar gas. The secondary cosmic rays are relatively rare but carry important information on the Galactic…
The propagation of extremely energetic nu_tau's through the Earth is studied by means of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation. All major mechanisms of nu_tau interactions and tau energy loss as well as all its relevant decay modes are properly…
Transiting exoplanets provide detailed access to their atmospheres, as the planet's signal can be effectively separated from that of its host star. For transiting exoplanets three fundamental atmospheric measurements are possible:…
Propagation of ultra-high energy photons in the galactic and intergalactic space gives rise to cascades comprising thousands of photons. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the development of such cascades in the solar…
The gap caused by a strong electric field between the quark surface and nuclear crust of a strange star is studied in an improved model including gravity and pressure as well as electrostatic forces. The transition from gap to crust is…
We consider the possibility that dark energy and baryons might scatter off each other. The type of interaction we consider leads to a pure momentum exchange, and does not affect the background evolution of the expansion history. We…
Most of the baryons in the present-day universe are thought to reside in intergalactic space at temperatures of 10^5-10^7 K. X-ray emission from these baryons contributes a modest (~10%) fraction of the ~ 1 keV background whose prominence…
Studying the propagation of gamma rays on cosmological distances encompasses a variety of scientific fields, focusing on diffuse radiation fields such as the extragalactic background light, on the probe of the magnetism of the Universe on…
The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) means that we will soon have the capability to characterize the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets. However, it is still unknown whether such planets orbiting close to M dwarf stars…
Below the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum, balloon and spacecraft experiments offer the capability of direct composition and energy measurements on the primary particles. A major difficulty is obtaining enough exposure to extend the range…
We study the magnetized strangelets in the baryon density-dependent quark mass model, including the effects of both confinement and lead-order perturbation interactions. The properties of magnetized strangelets are investigated under the…
A generic prediction of models where supersymmetry is broken at scales within a few orders of magnitude of the weak scale and is fed down to the observable sector by gauge interactions is the existence of superconducting cosmic strings…
In this lecture I give an overview of shock acceleration, interactions of high energy cosmic rays with, and propagation through, the background radiation, and the resulting electron-photon cascade. I argue that while the origin of the…
Recent years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the cosmos, which in turn points to even deeper questions to be further addressed. Concurrently the laser technology has undergone dramatic revolutions, providing exciting…
Witten's conjecture about strange quark matter (`Strange Matter') being the ground state of QCD at finite baryon number is presented and stars made of strange matter (`Strange Stars') are compared to neutron stars. The only observable way…
The electric charge of strange quark matter is of vital importance to experiments. A recent investigation shows that strangelets are most likely highly negatively charged, rather than slightly positively charged as previously believed. Our…