The Search for Strange Matter; January 1994; Scientific American
Magazine; by Crawford, Greiner; 6 Page(s) For some years,
physicists have enjoyed toying with a particularly intriguing
puzzle. Protons and neutrons readily form either tiny clumps of
matter (the various atomic nuclei) or very large clumps of
matter (neutron stars). Yet between the invisible nucleus and
the ultradense neutron star (really a vast nucleus that is some
11 kilometers or more in circumference), no form of nuclear
matter has been detected. What is going on here? Do the laws of
physics as we know them forbid nuclear particles from assembling
themselves into objects that could fill this "middle" range? Or
is this nuclear desert actually filled with new forms of matter,
different in structure from ordinary nuclear matter, that
investigators have failed to find? In fact, the theory that
embodies our current understanding of physics, the Standard
Model, seems to be consistent with the existence of new forms of
nuclear matter that might pop