Lunar seismic search for strange quark matter |
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| Institution: | 1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Low Temperature Science and Quantum Sensors Group, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Mail Stop 79-24, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA;2. Department of Geology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA;3. Physics Department, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA;4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA |
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| Abstract: | It was pointed out in 1984 by Witten that strange quark matter (SQM) – matter made of up, down, and strange quarks (rather than just up and down, as are protons and neutrons) – might well be stable and the lowest energy state of matter. The reason is that it would be electrically neutral and have less Pauli-Principle repulsion. Binding would increase with numbers of quarks, and might not begin below thousands. It would have nuclear density. Neutron stars would be strange quark stars; and it might conceivably constitute dark matter.One way to detect ton-range SQM nuggets (SQNs) would be from seismic signals they would make passing through the Earth. We give a rough estimate on the relative advantage of attempting to detect SQNs on the Moon over Earth (about 50 times more detections). |
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