Have We Seen a Heavy Antinucleus?

Abstract

The event of Price et al. might be explained as 0 a heavy anti-nucleus. The crucial experimental question is the nuclear emulsion track. Simple compu-ison of nuclear emulsion tracks should reveal a great difference between heavy nuclei and their charge conjugates. These electrodynamic differences could allow greatly increased anti-matter searches. AJ:J:y disagreement of the present analysis of the event of P.rice et al. with null results in previous anti-matter searches is speculative. The cosmic ray event of P.rice et a1. 1 has received much 2 "' '

Theoretical and experimental aspects of the energy loss of relativistic heavily ionizing particles

“…The use of free parameters to describe grain sensitivity also serves to shroud the accuracy of the above expressions. Hagstrom (1977) . and Paretzke (1977) have emphasized the importance of the distant collisions in determining track structure for biological and non-1 iving organic systems respectively.…”

“…Track structure for arbitrary charged particles should then be calculable within the framework of a Monte Carlo program of the type -127-promised by Hagstrom (1977). U~fortunately, the understanding of the track formation process in dielectrics is not on so firm a footing as for its emulsion counterpart.…”

“…-4-Finally, we should mention that successful searches for exotic, heavily ionizing particles 4 depend on a thorough knowledge of detector re?ponse and energy loss rates of the exotic particles. Price et al (1978) summarize the status of the peculiar cosmic ray event which has variously been interpreted as being a magnetic monopole (Price et al, 1975) and a heavy anti-nucleus (Hagstrom, 1977). They point out the difficulties involved with the experiment and essentially conclude that the event was unlike anything yet observed, although they do not know what caused it.…”