Related papers: Superbursts from Strange Stars
The possible existence of compact stars made of absolutely stable strange quark matter--referred to as strange stars--was pointed out by E. Witten almost a quarter of a century ago. One of the most amazing features of such objects concerns…
Superbursts from accreting neutron stars probe nuclear reactions at extreme densities ($\rho \approx 10^{9}~g\,cm^{-3}$) and temperatures ($T>10^9~K$). These bursts ($\sim$1000 times more energetic than type I X-ray bursts) are most likely…
Accreting neutron stars exhibit Type I X-ray bursts from both frequent hydrogen/helium flashes as well as rare carbon flashes. The latter (superbursts) ignite in the ashes of the former. Hydrogen/helium bursts, however, are thought to…
It has been predicted that quark and hybrid stars, containing strange quark matter in their core, have a significantly smaller radius than ordinary neutron stars. Preliminary X-ray observations of isolated neutron stars indicated a…
Models for superbursts from neutron stars involving carbon shell flashes predict that the mass accretion rate should be anywhere in excess of one tenth of the Eddington limit. Yet, superbursts have so far only been detected in systems for…
A model for Gamma ray bursts inner engine based on quark stars (speculated to exist in nature) is presented. We describe how and why these objects might constitute new candidates for GRB inner engines. At the heart of the model is the onset…
The cooling of a young bare strange star is studied numerically by solving the equations of energy conservation and heat transport for both normal and superconducting strange quark matter inside the star. We show that the thermal luminosity…
In this short paper, we argue the issue on dark matter capture in neutron stars. After summarizing the whole scenario and the introduction of previous studies along this line, we propose some potentially important effects due to the…
We study the cooling behaviour of an isolated strange quark star, using an equation of state derived from perturbative QCD up to second order in strong coupling constant, and we compare it with that of a neutron star. After an initial rapid…
It is generally agreed on that the tremendous densities reached in the centers of neutron stars provide a high-pressure environment in which numerous novel particles processes are likely to compete with each other. These processes range…
Witten's conjecture about strange quark matter (`Strange Matter') being the ground state of QCD at finite baryon number is presented and stars made of strange matter (`Strange Stars') are compared to neutron stars. The only observable way…
We perform a self-consistent calculation of the thermal structure in the crust of a superbursting neutron star. In particular, we follow the nucleosynthetic evolution of an accreted fluid element from its deposition into the atmosphere down…
The existence of strange quark stars has been proposed many years ago. More recently, the possible co-existence of a first family composed of "normal" neutron stars with a second family of strange quark stars has been proposed as a solution…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their outstanding macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
We report the analysis of the first superburst from a transiently accreting neutron star system with the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. The superburst occurred 55 days after the onset of an accretion outburst in…
We show that within a recently developed nonlocal chiral quark model the critical density for a phase transition to color superconducting quark matter under neutron star conditions can be low enough for these phases to occur in compact star…
We calculate the equation of state of strange quark matter and the interior structure of strange quark stars in a Dyson-Schwinger quark model within rainbow or Ball-Chiu vertex approximation. We emphasize constraints on the parameter space…
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…
Superbursts are long duration, rare, and extremely energetic thermonuclear explosions of neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (NS LMXBs), which are proposed to be due to unstable carbon ignition. We report the superburst properties and…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their amazing macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…