Formation and identification of Centauro and Strangelets in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC

We present a phenomenological model for the formation and decay of a cosmic ray Centauro fireball in the baryon-rich projectile fragmentation rapidity region in nucleus-nucleus interactions. Our model naturally incorporates t he possibility of Strangelet formation, Strangelets being conjectured to be the "strongly penetrating component'' observed in hadron-rich cosmic ray e vents. Based on this model we have performed Monte-Carlo simulations to stu dy the Centauro and Strangelet dynamic and kinematic characteristics in cen tral Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energies, as well as their identification by t he detector system CASTOR. CASTOR is being developed for the ALICE heavy io n experiment at the LHC and will probe the very forward pseudorapidity regi on 5.6 less than or equal to eta less than or equal to 7.2, characterized b y very high baryon density. CASTOR is optimised to search for Centauro sign atures and long penetrating objects. Simulations show that CASTOR is well a ble to distinguish events with abnormal values of E-em/E-had or N-gamma/N-c h. In addition simulations of the transition curves of Strangelets traversi ng the CASTOR calorimeter show long penetration and many-maxima structure s uch as observed in cosmic ray events.