Strongly Penetrating Cascades Caused by Strangelets in the Cosmic Ray Chambers and in the Castor Calorimeter

Please note this ps file is TEXT ONLY, for the complete note please contact the ALICE Secretariat. <P> We investigate possible connection between the very penetrating component, frequently accompanying the cosmic ray exotic phenomena, and the hypothesis of the formation of strangelets in the process of strangeness distillation being the last stage of the evolution of the quark matter droplet. We find that the many-maxima long range cascades observed in the homogenous lead/emulsion chambers of the Pamir and Chacaltaya experiments can be produced in the process of a strangelet penetration through the apparatus. Our simulations show that the long-lived cascades, possibly produced by strangelets, could be detected at LHC energies by the CASTOR calorimeter proposed as the subsystem of the ALICE detector.