Let’s pivot a little bit from quantum. When I was in fifth grade, I distinctly remember watching a BRIGHT SIDE video on the hypothetical existence of strange matter. Of course, I neglected the bit emphasizing the “hypothetical” nature of strange matter and immediately accepted the fact that we were all going to die.

But what exactly is strange matter? As mentioned above, strange matter is hypothetical matter partially consisting of strange quarks – a second generation quark (generations are determined by mass, with the first generation being the lightest and the third the heaviest) that has a spin number of 1/2 and a charge -1/3 that of the elementary charge (where $e = 1.6*10^{-19}$ Coulombs). These strange quarks, in combination with up and down quarks, when subjected to the extreme pressure of the core of a neutron star, can form “strangelets” – a small piece of strange matter.

Strangelets are hypothesized to be the most stable form of quark matter – so stable, in fact, that they turn everything they touch into strange matter as well. Luckily, the existence of strange matter is hypothetical, so hopefully we won’t be turned into quark soup anytime soon. Even if strange matter does exist, in order to escape the core of a neutron star, the neutron star would have to undergo a high energy event – for example, a neutron star merger.

That concludes today’s post. Next time, I’m thinking… Hawking Radiation!