Search for Nuclearites using TLS Detector at Sea Level

Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplements, 2008

It is shown that a thermoluminescent sheet stack (TLS) detector, consisting of TL sheets and medical x-ray films, is an effective nuclearite detector. The TLS can be used for searching lighter nuclearites at sea level owing to the fact that the usual relativistic particles cannot make their tracks in the TLS unless they have a charge of larger than 50. We will report recent results of searching for lighter nuclearites at sea level.

Physics Letters B, 1985

A search has been made at sea level for the recently proposed nuclearites of strange quark matter with the use of high-sensitivity scintillation counters. The velocity range explored is 10-%-10-3c, and the detection threshold is 0.01 /min, where Imi n is the pulse height corresponding to the minimum-ionizing muon. A 90% CL flux upper limit of 3.2 × 10-11 cm-2 s-1 sr-1 has been obtained for nuclearites heavier than 1.5 × 10-13 g. Cosmic-ray objects as slow as 10-3 c-10-4 c have been extensively searched for in the context of superheavy GUT magnetic monopoles. Recently, another possibility of slow cosmic radiation, "strange matter" or "nuclearite", has been suggested by some authors [ 1-4]. Strange matter is quark matter containing roughly equal number of up, down, and strange quarks. Although it is not conclusive, such quark matter has the possibility of being absolutely stable for almost any value of mass number [2], and might be responsible for galactic dark matter [1-4]. De Rtijula and Glashow [3,4] studied phenomenological properties of lumps of strange matter, which they call nuclearites * 1. According to them, nuclearites have a net positive charge, and are neutralized by electron~ Thus, due to the Coulomb barrier, the

Physical review letters, 1992

A negative search using 1/12 of the eventual MACRO detector has yielded nuclearite flux limits of 1.1×10 -14 cm -2 sr -1 s -1 for 10 -10 <m<0.1 g, and 5.5×10 -15 cm -2 sr -1 s -1 for m>0.1 g. We have modified the formula of De Rújula and Glashow for the light yield of ...

2010

ANTARES is an underwater detector located in the Mediterranean Sea, near the French city of Toulon, dedicated to the search for cosmic neutrinos. ANTARES is optimized to detect the Cherenkov signal from up-going relativistic particles, but could also observe massive exotic objects, such as magnetic monopoles and nuclearites. In this article we present a search strategy for nuclearites and determine the sensitivity to nuclearites of ANTARES detector in complete configuration, using a set of data taken in 2008.

Nuclear Physics B-proceedings Supplements, 2007

In this paper we report a search for intermediate mass magnetic monopoles and nuclearites using CR39 and Makrofol Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) of the SLIM large area experiment, 440 m^2 exposed at the high altitude laboratory of Chacaltaya (Bolivia) and about 100 m^2 at Koksil, Himalaya (Pakistan). We discuss the new chemical etching and improved analysis of the SLIM CR39

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2012

The detection of special nuclear material has been studied with a mobile inspection system used both as a high sensitivity passive neutron/gamma spectroscopic tool and as an active inspection device using tagged neutrons. The detection of plutonium samples seems to be possible with passive interrogation, even for small samples, thanks to the yield of gamma ray and neutrons. Moreover the gamma ray spectrum shows clear signatures related to 239 Pu. The passive detection of uranium is much more difficult because of the low neutron yield and of the easiness of shielding the gamma ray yield of highly enriched U samples. However, we show that active interrogation with tagged neutrons is able to provide signatures for the discrimination of uranium against other heavy metals.

Journal of Instrumentation, 2021

a on behalf of the KM3NeT Collaboration

European Physical Journal C, 2000

In this paper we present the results of a search for nuclearites in the penetrating cosmic radiation using the scintillator and track-etch subdetectors of the MACRO apparatus. The analyses cover the beta =v/c range at the detector depth (3700 hg/cm^2) 10^-5 < beta < 1; for beta = 2 x 10^-3 the flux limit is 2.7 x 10^-16 cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 for an isotropic flux of nuclearites, and twice this value for a flux of downgoing nuclearites.

Proceedings of 10th Latin American Symposium on Nuclear Physics and Applications — PoS(X LASNPA), 2014

Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute, 2008

A technique for identifying the charge of cosmic ray nuclei, based on measurements of the length and average etch rate of tracks chemically etched in olivine crystals from the Marjalahti pallasite is described.