Publication Date:
2019-07-13
Description:
Strange quark matter made of up, down and strange quarks has been postulated by Witten [1]. Strange quark matter would be nearly charge neutral and would have density of nuclear matter (10(exp 14) gm/cu cm). Witten also suggested that nuggets of strange quark matter, or strange quark nuggets (SQNs), could have formed shortly after the Big Bang, and that they would be viable candidates for cold dark matter. As suggested by de Rujula and Glashow [2], an SQN may pass through a celestial body releasing detectable seismic energy along a straight line. The Moon, being much quieter seismically than the Earth, would be a favorable place to search for such events. We review previous searches for SQNs to illustrate the parameter space explored by using the Moon as a low-noise detector of SQNs. We also discuss possible detection schemes using a single seismometer, and using an International Lunar Seismic Network.
Keywords:
Astrophysics
Type:
3rd International Conference on Particle and Fundamental Physics in Space, Beijing, China, April 19-21, 2006; Apr 19, 2006 - Apr 21, 2006; Beijing; China
Format:
text
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