Related papers: Quark matter and the astrophysics of neutron stars
This short review aims at giving a brief overview of the various states of matter that have been suggested to exist in the ultra-dense centers of neutron stars. Particular emphasis is put on the role of quark deconfinement in neutron stars…
Recent observations of neutron star masses close to the maximum predicted by nucleonic equations of state begin to challenge our understanding of dense matter in neutron stars, and constrain the possible presence of quark matter in their…
The existence of deconfined quark matter in the superdense interior of neutron stars is a key question that has drawn considerable attention over the past few decades. Quark matter can comprise an arbitrary fraction of the star, from 0 for…
Under extreme conditions of temperature and/or density, quarks and gluons are expected to undergo a deconfinement phase transition. While this is an ephemeral phenomenon at the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collider (BNL-RHIC), quark matter…
A pedagogical overview of strange quark matter and strange stars is presented. After a historical notation of the research and an introduction to quark matter, a major part is devoted to the physics and astrophysics of strange stars, with…
Does deconfined cold quark matter occur in nature? This is currently one of the fundamental open questions in nuclear astrophysics. In these proceedings, I review the current state-of-the-art techniques to address this question in a…
The presence of quark matter in neutron star interiors may have distinctive signatures in basic observables such as (i) masses and radii [1], (ii) surface temperatures versus age [2], (iii) spin-down rates of milli-second pulsars [3], and…
The quark matter may have great implications in astrophysical studies, which could appear in the early Universe, in compact stars, and/or as cosmic rays. After a general review of astrophysical quark matter, the density-dominated quark…
Massive neutron stars may harbor deconfined quark matter in their cores. I review some recent work on the microphysics and the phenomenology of compact stars with cores made of quark matter. This includes the equilibrium and stability of…
Neutron stars have long been regarded as extra-terrestrial laboratories from which we can learn about extreme energy density matter at low temperatures. In this article, I highlight some of the recent advances made in astrophysical…
It is a pity that the real state of matter in pulsar-like stars is still not determined confidently because of the uncertainty about cold matter at supranuclear density, even 40 years after the discovery of pulsar. Nuclear matter (related…
Creation of strange quark stars through strong interaction deconfinement is studied based on modern estimates of hyperon formation in neutron stars. The hyperon abundance is shown to be large enough so that if strange quark matter (SQM) is…
In recent years, there have been several successful attempts to constrain the equation of state of neutron star matter using input from low-energy nuclear physics and observational data. We demonstrate that significant further restrictions…
Ever since the discovery of neutron stars it has been realized that they serve as probes of a physical regime that cannot be accessed in laboratories: strongly degenerate matter at several times nuclear saturation density. Existing nuclear…
Quark matter both in terrestrial experiment and in astrophysics is briefly reviewed. Astrophysical quark matter could appear in the early Universe, in compact stars, and as cosmic rays. Emphasis is put on quark star as the nature of…
Neutron stars are some of the densest manifestations of massive objects in the universe. They are ideal astrophysical laboratories for testing theories of dense matter physics and provide connections among nuclear physics, particle physics…
There are at least three sources of cosmic quarks in the universe. One, the quark nuggets which may survive beyond a certain baryon number during the phase transition from quarks to hadrons microseconds after the big bang. These quark…
For physically reasonable bulk and surface properties, quark matter has recently been found to coexist with nuclear matter inside neutron stars in a uniform background of electrons. The microstructure of this mixed phase starts out with a…
This paper gives an brief overview of the structure of hypothetical strange quarks stars (quark stars, for short), which are made of absolutely stable 3-flavor strange quark matter. Such objects can be either bare or enveloped in thin…
This paper discusses several most intruigung astrophysical implications connected with the possible absolute stability of strange quark matter.This is followed by a discussion of two astrophysical signals that may point at the existence of…