Exotic decays of strangelets

The stability of strange matter depends on the implicit assumption that baryon number is conserved. We examine the relevant effective operators which allow strangelets to decay by violating the conservation of baryon number. From the experimental lower limit of 10²⁵ years on the stability of nuclei, we find a lower limit of the order 10⁶ years on the stability of strangelets against such exotic decays.