Are there strangelets in cosmic rays?

Abstract

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 experiments. We shall demonstrate here that the mass spectrum of such strangelets filles the "nuclear desert" gap existing between the heaviest elements observed in Universe and the next "nuclear-like objects" represented by neutron and strange stars.Comment: Presented at 19th ECRS, Florence, 200