Related papers: Strangelets and their possible astrophysical origi…
Considering massless $u$ and $d$ quarks, and massive (150 MeV) $s$ quarks in a bag with the bag pressure constant $B^{1/4} = 145$ MeV, a colour-singlet grand canonical partition function is constructed for temperatures $T = 1-30$ MeV. Then…
The description of the heaviest neutron stars observed in Nature depends on the understanding of the physical concepts present in General Relativity and Quantum Chromodynamics. In this work, we review the basic concepts need to describe…
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 the conjecture is addressed in…
We report first results on the strange quark number susceptibility, chi_s, over a large range of temperatures, mainly in the plasma phase of QCD. Chi_s jumps across the phase transition temperature, T_c, and grows rapidly with temperature…
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…
The properties of strangelets are reviewed and two experiments searching for them in cosmic rays are described. The prospects for strangelets as ultra-high energy cosmic rays beyond the classical GZK-cutoff are discussed.
We discuss possible scenarios for the existence of strange matter in compact stars. The appearance of hyperons leads to a hyperon puzzle in ab-initio approaches based on effective baryon-baryon potentials but is not a severe problem in…
Recently we have made considerable progress in our understanding of the behavior of QCD in extreme conditions of high temperature or large baryon number density. Among the highlights are the prediction of a well-characterized true critical…
The effect of the QCD phase transition is studied for the mass-radius relation of compact stars and for hot and dense matter at a given proton fraction used as input in core-collapse supernova simulations. The phase transitions to the 2SC…
Results obtained in recent years in the strange quark sector of chiral perturbation theory are reviewed and the theoretical relevance of this sector for probing the phase structure of QCD at zero temperature with respect to the variation of…
In cold, dense quark matter, quarks of different flavor can form Cooper pairs which are anti-triplets under color and have total spin J=0. The transition to a phase where strange quarks condense with either up or down quarks is driven first…
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…
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…
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…
We study effects of two-flavor color superconductivity on the structure of strange dwarfs, which are stellar objects with similar masses and radii with ordinary white dwarfs but stabilized by the strange quark matter core. We find that…
We study the dynamics of first-order phase transition in the early Universe when it was $10-50 \mu s$ old with quarks and gluons condensing into hadrons. We look at how the Universe evolved through the phase transition in small as well as…
Strange quark matter (SQM) may be the true ground state of matter. According to this SQM hypothesis, the observed neutron stars actually should all be strange quark stars. But distinguishing between neutron stars and strange quark stars by…
Because of the mass density-dependence, an extra term should be added to the expression of pressure. However, it should not appear in that of energy according to both the general ensemble theory and basic thermodynamic principle. We give a…
We study the non-radial oscillation modes of strange quark stars with a homogeneous core and a crust made of strangelets. Using a 2-component equation of state (core+crust) for strange quark stars that can produce stars as heavy as 2 solar…
We propose that interstellar extreme scattering events, usually observed as pulsar scintillations, may be caused by a coherent agent rather than the usually assumed turbulence of $\rm H_2$ clouds. We find that the penetration of a flux of…