Search for supermassive nuclei in nature
We report on a search for supermassive nuclei in nature with masses up to 107 amu. Such exotic nuclei might consist, for example, of stable strange matter, which comprises a mixture of up, down, and strange quarks, or of relic particles from the early Universe. The experiments are based on Rutherford backscattering of heavy ions, preferably238U, from various target samples. The measured parameters of a detected particle are its time-of-flight, scattering angle, and specific ionization. From this information the mass of the target nucleus can be inferred. Upper limits for the abundance of strange supermassive nuclei with massesA−4·102 to 107 amu relative to the number of nucleons were found to be in the range 10−11 to 10−15. For the narrower mass rangeA −103 to 104 amu the limit is 2· 10−17.