A
strangelet is a hypothetical particle consisting of a
bound state of roughly equal numbers of
up,
down, and
strange quarks. Its size would be a minimum of a few
femtometers across (with the mass of a light nucleus). Once the size becomes macroscopic (on the order of metres across), such an object is usually called a
quark star or "strange star" rather than a strangelet. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of
strange matter. The term "strangelet" originates with E. Farhi and
R. Jaffe. Strangelets have been suggested as a
dark matter candidate.