CASTOR: Centauro and STrange object research in nucleus-nucleus collisionsat the LHC

We present a phenomenological model which describes th;e formation of a Cen tauro fireball in the baryon-rich projectile fragmentation region in nucleu s-nucleus interactions in the upper atmosphere and at the LHC, and its deca y to non-strange baryons and Strangelets. Strangelets are assimilated to th e "strongly penetrating component" frequently observed accompanying hadron- rich cosmic ray events. We describe the CASTOR subdetector for the ALICE ex periment at the LHC. CASTOR will probe, in an event-by-event mode, the very forward, baryon-rich phase space 5.6 less than or equal to n less than or equal to 7.2 in 5.5xA TeV central Pb + Pb collisions. It will look for even ts with pronounced imbalance between hadronic and photonic content and for deeply penetrating objects. We present results of simulations for the respo nse of the CASTOR calorimeter to the passage of Strangelets.