Question

How can a negative strangelet convert matter in strange matter?

Answer 1

These collapsing starscompress their interiors forcefully. "At the core, you have densities and pressures large enough to form strange matter. If strange matter formed in the core, it would eat its way out and consume the star," says Farhi. Underneath its crust, the star would become a lump of strange matter, or a strange star. If two strange stars collided, they could send strange matter careening toward Earth, says Farhi.

How could strange matter be dangerous? Under special circumstances, it "eats" other matter. In order for this to happen, the strange matter has to be more stable than the matter it meets and not repel it. If those conditions are met, the other matter will "want" to convert to strange matter, and contact between the two will get things going. The result would be an ever-growing ball of strange matter, burning through matter like a fireball.

For such a disaster scenario to occur on Earth, strange matter would have to remain for more than a fraction of a second at earthly pressures, and we don't know if it can do that. It would also have to be negatively charged.

In fact, potential strange matter would probably be positively charged, says Farhi. And since the matter on our planet (including us) has positively charged atomic nuclei, it would repel strange matter. "If you had a little lump on the table, it would just sit there," says Farhi.

The scenario would change if strange matter were negatively charged, and a ball of it was madly rolling around on Earth. "You would probably know it because it would be growing and consuming everything at its border," says Farhi. Attracted to your atomic nuclei, the ball of strange matter would suck you in, and you'd be finished. Kind of like a modern-day incarnation of the Blob.

Answer 2

Explanation:

Strangelet Last updated March 31, 2020. A strangelet is a hypothetical particle consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks