Related papers: Are there strangelets in cosmic rays?
Some solutions of the hierarchy problem of particle physics can lead to significantly increased neutrino cross sections beyond the electroweak scale. We discuss some consequences for and constraints resulting from cosmic ray physics.
Forty years ago Witten suggested that dark matter could be composed of macroscopic clusters of strange quark matter. This idea was very popular for several years, but it dropped out of fashion once lattice QCD calculations indicated that…
Quark matter both in terrestrial experiment and in astrophysics is briefly reviewed. Astrophysical quark matter could appear in the early Universe, in compact stars, and as cosmic rays. Emphasis is put on quark star as the nature of…
In these lecture notes, the role of strangeness in relativistic astrophysics of compact stars is addressed. The appearance of strange particles, as hyperons, kaons, and strange quarks, in the core of compact stars is examined and common…
If the surface tension of quark matter is low enough, quark matter is not self bound. At sufficiently low pressure and temperature, it will take the form of a crystal of positively charged strangelets in a neutralizing background of…
We propose a method to investigate the scenario that cosmic relic neutrinos are highly clustered around stars and galaxies, or dark-matter clusters, rather than uniformly distributed in the universe. Such a scenario can be detected or…
Neutron stars have long been regarded as extra-terrestrial laboratories from which we can learn about extreme energy density matter at low temperatures. In this article, I highlight some of the recent advances made in astrophysical…
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…
Charged particles at the crust of compact stars may be ejected and accelerated by the electric field generated due to the rotation of the magnetized star. For neutron or hybrid stars, the negatively charged particles are usually electrons,…
We consider the modification of extragalactic cosmic ray spectrum caused by cosmic ray interactions with infrared background photons which are present in the extragalactic space together with relic photons. It is assumed that cosmic ray…
A number of seemingly {\it exotic} phenomena seen in the highest cosmic-ray experiments are briefly discussed. We argue that they indicate existence of non-statistical fluctuations and strong correlations in the fragmentation region of…
The cosmological constant problem represents an evident tension between our present description of gravity and particle physics. Many solutions have been proposed, but experimental tests are always difficult or impossible to perform and…
Recent observations of neutron star masses close to the maximum predicted by nucleonic equations of state begin to challenge our understanding of dense matter in neutron stars, and constrain the possible presence of quark matter in their…
Historically cosmic rays have always been at the intersection of astrophysics with particle physics. This is still and especially true in current days where experimenters routinely observe atmospheric showers from particles whose energies…
The description of the heaviest neutron stars observed in Nature depends on the understanding of the physical concepts present in General Relativity and Quantum Chromodynamics. In this work, we review the basic concepts need to describe…
Ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are expected to be accelerated in astrophysical sources and to travel through extragalactic space before hitting the Earth atmosphere. They interact both with the environment in the source and with the…
Strange quark matter with the density of ~ 5\times 10^{14} g cm^{-3} might exist up to the surface of a strange star. This differs qualitatively from the case of a neutron star and opens observational possibilities to distinguish strange…
The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic…
We assess the fragmentation of strange quark matter in astrophysical events, showing that the application of statistical multifragmentation models suggests that most of the fragments (strangelets) should belong to an unstable baryon number…
Dark matter represents currently an outstanding problem in both cosmology and particle physics. In this review we discuss the possible explanations for dark matter and the experimental observables which can eventually lead to the discovery…