Muon Bundles as a Sign of Strangelets from the Universe

Recently, the CERN ALICE experiment observed muon bundles of very high multiplicities in its dedicated cosmic ray (CR) run, thereby confirming similar findings from the LEP era at CERN (in the CosmoLEP project). Originally, it was argued that they apparently stem from the primary CRs with a heavy ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2017-04, Vol.839 (1), p.31
Main Authors: Kankiewicz, P., Rybczy ski, M., W odarczyk, Z., Wilk, G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ALICE
ALICE DETECTOR
ANISOTROPY
astroparticle physics
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Bundles
Bundling
CERN
COSMIC RADIATION
Cosmic rays
LEP STORAGE RINGS
MASS
MULTIPLICITY
Muons
QUARK MATTER
Quarks
reference systems
S QUARKS
UNIVERSE
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Summary:Recently, the CERN ALICE experiment observed muon bundles of very high multiplicities in its dedicated cosmic ray (CR) run, thereby confirming similar findings from the LEP era at CERN (in the CosmoLEP project). Originally, it was argued that they apparently stem from the primary CRs with a heavy masses. We propose an alternative possibility arguing that muonic bundles of highest multiplicity are produced by strangelets, hypothetical stable lumps of strange quark matter infiltrating our universe. We also address the possibility of additionally deducing their directionality which could be of astrophysical interest. Significant evidence for anisotropy of arrival directions of the observed high-multiplicity muonic bundles is found. Estimated directionality suggests their possible extragalactic provenance.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/aa67ee