Strange quark matter and strangelets in the improved quasiparticle model

In this work, the properties of strange quark matter and strangelets are investigated within the framework of the improved quasiparticle model. The energy per baryon and particle chemical potentials as a function of the quark matter density are given. In particular, within the multiple reflection expansion method, the finite-size effects of strangelets are discussed in detail. The stable radius of a strangelet in the present model is smaller than, but comparable with that of the corresponding nucleus with the same baryon number. With the baryon number increment of stable strangelets, it is found that the surface tension decreases to 33 MeV fm−2 for strangelets with the baryon number greater than 104.