Search for strange quark matter with AGS E864

The E864 experiment at the AGS uses a large acceptance spectrometer in sensitive searches for strange quark matter (strangelets) produced in the collision of 11.6 A GeV/c Au beams with Pb or Pt targets. Such heavy ion collisions may provide conditions favorable to strangelet formation due to the high baryon density and strange quark content of the fireball formed in the collision. Strangelets could be formed by coalescence or formation of a quark-gluon plasma droplet that could evolve into a strangelet. The results of searches for strangelets with Z=±1 and Z=±2 using the 1994 and 1995 data sets are presented and plans are discussed for searches for positive, negative and neutral strangelets using the larger data set taken in 1996-7