A How wise/unwise would it be to attempt to create a strangelet?

[greswd]

Some hypothetical predictions of the strange matter hypothesis are that strangelets could possibly convert ordinary matter to strange matter in a critical reaction, "grey-goo"-like scenario.

Now, the odds of strangelets being created in particle accelerators are slim to none.

However, if we could create a device that would radically increase the odds, for the express purpose of creating strangelets, would it be unwise to do so, given the hypothesis of untold catastrophe?

Or should particle physicists strive to push the boundaries?

 

[mathman]

The inference that strangelet production could lead to a catastrophe seems strange. Where did you get that idea?

 

[greswd]

The inference that strangelet production could lead to a catastrophe seems strange. Where did you get that idea?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangelet#Dangers

 

[mfb]

There is no natural process that can produce them with any relevant frequency, if at all. If we have reason to expect that any future process might increase the odds over all natural processes we might want to do that on a trajectory that leaves the Solar System.

 

[greswd]

we might want to do that on a trajectory that leaves the Solar System.

so a precaution in case we could annihilate the earth?

 

[mfb]

By the time we might have the chance to create such a thing we'll probably understand its properties better.

 

[bobob]

It can't be too unwise, since physicists have been trying to do so for at least a half century in the form of searches for an H dibaryon resonance. Obviously, that has not created a catastrophe. If strange matter exists, it most likely would have to be bound by gravity in something like a strange star, which would not be very doable here on earth.

 

[sysprog]

There is no natural process that can produce them with any relevant frequency, if at all. If we have reason to expect that any future process might increase the odds over all natural processes we might want to do that on a trajectory that leaves the Solar System.

The little green men out there might take a dim view of that.

 

[mfb]

Space is big. Something that leaves the solar system is not expected to hit anything in the next few billion years, and might never hit anything until the heat death of the universe.

 

[sysprog]

Space is big. Something that leaves the solar system is not expected to hit anything in the next few billion years, and might never hit anything until the heat death of the universe.

Fair enough, but as far as I know, the LGM^[1] would like us to keep our space pollution, especially any potentially hazardous anomaly, such as a strangelet, a micro black hole, or a magnetic monopole, as local as may be possible.

^{[1] LGM = Little Green Men}