Formation and identification of Centauro and Strangelets in nucleus- nucleus collisions at the LHC

We present a phenomenological model for the formation and decay of a cosmic ray Centauro fireball in the baryon-rich projectile fragmentation rapidity region in nucleus-nucleus interactions. Our model naturally incorporates the $9 possibility of strangelet formation, Strangelets being conjectured to be the "strongly penetrating component" observed in hadron-rich cosmic ray events. Based on this model we have performed Monte-Carlo simulations to study the $9 Centauro and strangelet dynamic and kinematic characteristics in central Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energies, as well as their identification by the detector system CASTOR. CASTOR is being developed for the ALICE heavy ion experiment at $9 the LHC and will probe the very forward pseudorapidity region 5.6<or= eta <or=7.2, characterized by very high baryon density. CASTOR is optimised to search for Centauro signatures and long penetrating objects. Simulations show that $9 CASTOR is well able to distinguish events with abnormal values of E/sub em//E/sub had/ or N/sub gamma //N/sub ch/. In addition simulations of the transition curves of strangelets traversing the CASTOR calorimeter show long $9 penetration and many-maxima structure such as observed in cosmic ray events. (13 refs).