Strangelets at finite temperature

Within the MIT bag model picture of QCD with a bag pressure constant ${\mathit{B}}^{1/4}$=145 MeV we study the stability of finite-size strangelets at finite temperature (T) with baryon number A≤100. The light quarks u and d are considered massless while the mass of the s quark is taken as 150 MeV. Using discrete eigenenergies of the noninteracting quarks in the bag, a grand canonical partition function is constructed and then the free energy is minimized with respect to the bag radius. In the T→0 limit clear shell structures are found which persist up to about T=10 MeV. In fact for A=6 the shell structure melts away only at T≳20 MeV. © 1996 The American Physical Society.