Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays: Strangelets? -- Extra dimensions, TeV-scale black holes and strange matter

The conjecture that ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are actually strangelets is discussed. Besides the reason that strangelets can do as cosmic rays beyond the GZK-cutoff, another argument to support that conjecture is addressed in this letter via the study of formation of TeV-scale microscopic black holes when UHECRs bombarding bare strange stars. It is proposed that the exotic quark surface of a bare strange star could be an effective astro-laboratory in the investigations of the extra dimensions and of the detection of ultra-high energy neutrino fluxes. The flux of neutrinos (or other point-like particles) with energy $>2.3\times 10^{20}$ eV is expected to be smaller than $10^{-26}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ in case of two extra spatial dimensions.