An Estimate of the Flux of Free Quarks in High Energy Cosmic Radiation

Abstract

The flux of quarks in air shower cores at sea level is estimated from four different types of experiments. All four estimates agree and yield a quark flux of 8 x 10-12 cm-2 s- 1 sr- 1 ? The calculated concentration of quarks in the Earth's crust resulting from this flux is compared with that found in niobium in the Stanford quark search.