Strange Quark Matter and Strangelets in a Strong Magnetic Field

We study the stability properties of magnetized strange quark matter and strangelets under a strong magnetic field in the MIT bag model. The free energy per baryon of strange quark matter feels a great influence from the magnetic field. At the field strength about 10¹⁷G, the magnetized strange quark matter becomes more stable. Considering the finite size effect, the magnetic influence on strangelets becomes complicated. For a given magnetic field, there exists a critical baryon number, below which the magnetized strangelets have lower energy than the non-magnetized strangelets. For the field strength of 5× 10¹⁷G, the critical baryon number is A_c ～ 100. Generally, the critical baryon number increases with the decreasing external magnetic field. When the field strength is smaller than 10¹⁷G, the critical baryon number goes up to A_c～ 10⁵. The stable radius, electric charge, and quark flavor fractions of magnetized strangelets are shown.