A search for strange quark matter in the -0.75T field setting of E864

Abstract

E864 was designed as a high sensitivity search for strange quark matter produced in heavy ion collisions at the AGS accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In this thesis, we analyze data taken at the -0.75T field setting of the experiment, which is optimal for finding negatively charged strangelet candidates, from Au + Pt collisions at 11.6 GeV/c per nucleon. A measurement of the antiproton invariant multiplicities is made and is in reasonable agreement with previous E864 antiproton measurements. No conclusive strangelet candidates are found, and upper limits are set on the production of charge -1 and charge -2 strangelets of approximately 1 x 10- 8 and 4 x 10- 9 per 10% central collision respectively. These represent world's best limits to date.