Strange matter

The notion of strange matter has been used recently to explain a large variety of phenomena: the missing mass of the universe, the μ mesons from Cygnus X-3, and the Centauro events from cosmic ray emulsion work. Furthermore, if strange matter could be shown to exist and be stable it would most probably be in a lower energy state than ordinary matter and would provide a totally new energy source. Clearly, strange matter if pretty heady stuff. What is it? If it exists in the cosmos what are the possibilities for detecting it? What are the chances of producing and studying it in the laboratory? These are the questions the author addresses in this paper. The question of the existence of the H, stable against all but the weak interactions, must be regarded as still open. The production of strange matter with a baryon number around 1θθ appears possible using heavy ion accelerators with energies of 2θ to 3θ GeV/nucleon. It is conceivable that lighter objects, heavier than the H, exist. Like the H they could be stable against all but the weak interactions. In analogy with the shell model of the nucleus, a strange bag with a baryon number, A=8, might be a good candidate. A cursory look at the production of such an object using high energy protons incident on heavy nuclei has not been very encouraging, but the situation is complicated and deserves more attention