Date Awarded
1998
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Physics
Advisor
Marc Sher
Abstract
This research encompasses two quite distinct searches for exotic matter. The first half concerns exotic matter on the scale of elementary particles. In this chapter, I consider the production of gluinos, the supersymmetric partner of the gluon, in models where the gluino is very light. Cross sections are calculated for electroproduction and hadroproduction of gluinos and the results indicate that existing accelerators are capable of probing the region of gluino masses between 1.0 and 2.0GeV with lifetimes between 10{dollar}\sp{lcub}-10{rcub}{dollar} and 10{dollar}\sp{lcub}-6{rcub}{dollar} seconds. Such experiments could find a light gluino if it exists, or to close this unexplored mass-lifetime window. The second half concerns the search for exotic forms of matter on the macroscopic scale, namely the search for stable strange quark matter. If stable strange matter exists, then all neutron stars may in fact be strange stars. I examine a recent proposal that strange star oscillations may result in a detectable millimeter-wave radio signal. The effects of rotation on this signal are calculated with the motivation of providing a more distinctive signature for the detection of strange matter stars.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-55wd-zc21
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Morgan, David Lee, "Searches for exotic matter" (1998). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1539623922.
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-55wd-zc21
