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UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS Guest
2024-11-23 17:59 |
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2022 Meeting
Section: Nuclear and Elementary Particles Physics
Title:
Search for nuclearites with neutrino telescopes
Authors:
Alice PĂUN (1,2), Gabriela PĂVĂLAȘ (2), Vlad POPA (2)
*
Affiliation:
1) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, POBox MG-11, Magurele, Romania
2) Institute of Space Science, Atomistilor 409, Magurele, Romania
E-mail
alice.paun@spacescience.ro
Keywords:
neutrino telescopes, nuclearites, strange quark matter, Monte Carlo simulation
Abstract:
Over the past decades, theories have predicted the existence of heavy compact objects containing an extremely dense form of exotic matter named Strange Quark Matter (SQM). This type of hypothetical matter is composed of nearly equal quantities of up, down and strange quarks and is supposed to be the ground state of Quantum Chromodynamics. Nuclearites are the massive component of SQM particles. Some studies show that nuclearites heavier than 1013 GeV with velocities of approximately 250 km/s could reach the Earth and could be observed by neutrino telescopes. KM3NeT is a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes located in the Mediterranean Sea, dedicated to the search for high-energy cosmic neutrinos and the study of neutrino properties. The KM3NeT detector is currently under construction and is already taking data with the first installed lines. Nuclearites can be detected by the instrumented area through the visible blackbody radiation generated along their path. In this work, nuclearites were simulated using a dedicated Monte Carlo program, then they were processed using the existent KM3NeT triggers. Simulated atmospheric muons were also added in this study, as downgoing muons represent the main contributor to the background. A preliminary comparison between simulated nuclearites and atmospheric muons will be presented, as well as an evaluation of the KM3NeT detector response to the signal of nuclearites.
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