Related papers: The Strange Prospects for Astrophysics
In this paper we discuss the QCD phase-transitions in the nontopological soliton model of quark confinement and explore possible astrophysical consequences. Our key idea is to look at quark stars (which are believed to exist since the quark…
Strange quark matter could be found in the core of neutron stars or forming strange quark stars. As is well known, these astrophysical objects are endowed with strong magnetic fields which affect the microscopic properties of matter and…
We discuss the possible appearance of strange exotic multi-quark states in the interior of neutron stars and signals for the existence of strange quark matter in the core of compact stars. We show how the in-medium properties of possible…
Quark-novae leave behind quark stars with a surrounding metal-rich fall-back (ring-like) material. These compact remnants have high magnetic fields and are misconstrued as magnetars; however, several observational features allow us to…
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…
In this work, we discuss the deconfinement phase transition to quark matter in hot/dense matter. We {examine} the effect that different charge fractions, isospin fractions, net strangeness, and chemical equilibrium with respect to leptons…
In the first of these two lectures I will discuss the rich constitution of neutron stars as a consequence of the Pauli principle which is engaged by the dominance of gravity over the nuclear force. Three especially interesting phenomena are…
In this contribution I briefly review the dynamics of strange mesons and baryons with dense nuclear matter, paying a special attention to their presence in the inner core of neutron stars and the consequences for the structure of these…
The cores of neutron stars harbor the highest matter densities known to occur in nature, up to several times the densities in atomic nuclei. Similarly, magnetic field strengths can exceed the strongest fields generated in terrestrial…
Neutrino fluxes from proto-neutron stars with and without quarks are studied. Observable differences become apparent after 10--20 s of evolution. Sufficiently massive stars containing negatively-charged, strongly interacting, particles…
In this lecture we discuss the properties of dense hadronic matter inside neutron stars. In particular, we pay attention to the role of strangeness in the core of neutron stars, by analysing the presence of baryons and mesons with…
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…
Using the idea of a smooth crossover from the hadronic matter with hyperons to quark matter with strangeness, we show that the maximum mass of neutron stars with quark matter core can be larger than those without quark matter core. This is…
We explore the scenario where the core of a neutron star (having experienced a transition to an up and down quark phase) shrinks into the equilibrated quark object after reaching strange quark matter saturation density (where a composition…
We study the formation and properties of dark neutron stars in a scenario where dark matter is made up of (heavy) dark baryons in a sequestered copy of the MSSM. This scenario naturally explains the coincidence of baryonic and dark matter…
The explosive transition of a massive neutron star to a quark star (the Quark-Nova, QN) releases in excess of ~ 10^52 erg in kinetic energy which can drastically impact the surrounding environment of the QN. A QN is triggered when a neutron…
In this contribution we review the dynamics of hyperons with nucleons and nuclear matter, paying a special attention to hypernuclei. We also discuss the presence of hyperons in the inner core of neutron stars and the consequences for the…
Gravity compresses the matter in the cores of neutron stars to densities which are significantly higher than the density of ordinary atomic nuclei, thus providing a high-pressure environment in which numerous particle processes - from the…
We consider the equation of state of QCD at high density and zero temperature in perturbation theory to first order in the coupling constant $\alpha_s$. We compute the thermodynamic potential including the effect of a non-vanishing mass for…
In this paper we review the most common descriptions for the first order phase transition to deconfined quark matter in the core of neutron stars. We also present a new description of these phase transitions in the core of proto-neutron…