Quark matter (strangelets) from astrophysical sources and its detection by terrestrial experiments. / Matéria de quarks (strangelets) de origem astrofísica e sua detecção por experimentos terrestres

AUTOR(ES)

Laura Paulucci Machado

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

The strange quark matter hypothesis, which states that a plasma composed of quarks up, down and strange in roughly equal amounts is absolutely stable at zero pressure, has been studied for more than twenty years, both theoretically and during searches for its detection in specific experiments. If strange quark matter is indeed stable, then there could be important implications for the field of Astrophysics. Among the most stimulating ones is the possibility of conversion of ordinary nuclear matter in strange quark matter in the interior of neutron stars due to the extremely high densities reached in the core of these compact objects. Processes such as the merger in neutron star binaries systems and supernovae themselves, responsible for the birth of these stars, may eject lumps of strange quark matter, termed strangelets, in the interstellar medium. In this way, strangelets may be present among the cosmic ray flux and be subjected to elementary processes much in the same way as ordinary nuclei. In this Thesis, strangelets are studied from their likely astrophysical production sites, passing through the interstellar medium until they reach the Earth neighborhood. Estimates of the low energy flux of strangelets that could be trapped in the terrestrial magnetosphere are given. Also, the interaction of these particles with components in the Earth atmosphere are studied with the aim of providing better understanding of the resulting observational signatures. It allows the determination of the relevant characteristics for the identification of these exotics by experiments testing the cosmic ray flux, helping to better understand the properties of nuclear matter at high densities and low temperatures.

ASSUNTO(S)

detecção de partículas física de alta energia partículas (física nuclear) parrticles (nuclear physics) cosmic rays astrofísica ráios cósmicos astrophysics high energy physics particle detection

Documentos Relacionados

• Estudo fenomenológico dos neutrinos em experimentos que utilizam fontes terrestres
• Estimation of microbial densities from dilution count experiments.
• Background of gravitational waves generated by astrophysical sources
• Uso da tecnologia GPS na monitoração de deformação: sistemas, etapas e experimentos.
• Laboratório remoto baseado em software livre para realização de experimentos didáticos.