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Trapping of strangelets in the geomagnetic field

L. Paulucci*

J. E. Horvath

G. A. Medina-Tanco

  • Instituto de Física–Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, Travessa R, 187, 05508-090, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo SP, Brazil

  • Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas–Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, 1226, 05508-900, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo SP, Brazil

  • Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México A.P. 70-543, C.U. México D.F., México

  • *paulucci@fma.if.usp.br
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Phys. Rev. D 77, 043003 – Published 8 February, 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.043003

Abstract

Strangelets arriving from the interstellar medium are an interesting target for experiments searching for evidence of this hypothetical state of hadronic matter. We entertain the possibility of a trapped strangelet population, quite analogous to ordinary nuclei and electron belts. For a population of strangelets to be trapped by the geomagnetic field, these incoming particles would have to fulfill certain conditions, namely, having magnetic rigidities above the geomagnetic cutoff and below a certain threshold for adiabatic motion to hold. We show in this work that, for fully ionized strangelets, there is a narrow window for stable trapping. An estimate of the stationary population is presented and the dominant loss mechanisms discussed. It is shown that the population would be substantially enhanced with respect to the interstellar medium flux (up to 2 orders of magnitude) due to quasistable trapping.

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Phys. Rev. D 77, 043003– Published 8 February, 2008
  • Received 7 March 2007

© 2008 American Physical Society

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