Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 121102 (2003) [4 pages]Strangelets as Cosmic Rays beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin CutoffReceived 27 November 2002; published 25 March 2003 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 strangelet acceleration to energies orders of magnitude higher than for protons. In addition, strangelets are much less susceptible to the interactions with the cosmic microwave background that suppress the flux of cosmic ray protons and nuclei above energies of 1019–1020 eV (the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff). This makes strangelets an interesting possibility for explaining ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.121102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.121102
PACS:
98.70.Sa, 12.38.Mh, 12.39.Ba, 24.85.+p
See AlsoReply: Shmuel Balberg, Comment on “Strangelets as Cosmic Rays beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin Cutoff”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 119001 (2004). Reply: Jes Madsen, Madsen Replies:, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 119002 (2004). |
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