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Cosmic-ray strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere

Benjamin Monreal

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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 atmosphere, and trace the strangelets' behavior in atmospheric chemistry and circulation. We show that several strangelet species may have large abundances in the atmosphere; that they should respond favorably to laboratory-scale preconcentration techniques; and that they present promising targets for mass spectroscopy experiments.

Keywords

Gamma and Cosmic Rays

 

E-print Number: nucl-ex/0506012

Cited: by |

Refers: to

PACS

21.65.-f Nuclear matter

07.75.+h Mass spectrometers

92.60.Bh General circulation

92.60.Jq Water in the atmosphere (humidity, clouds, evaporation, precipitation)

92.60.H- Atmospheric composition, structure, and properties

96.50.sf Interactions with terrestrial matter

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Nuclear physics

Environmental and Earth science

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 02 (February 2007)

Received 3 November 2006, accepted for publication 20 December 2006

Published 23 February 2007



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