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Title: TORSIONAL OSCILLATIONS OF NONBARE STRANGE STARS

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Via G. Acitelli, 22, I-67100 Assergi (AQ) (Italy)

Strange stars are one of the possible compact stellar objects that can form after a supernova collapse. We consider a model of a strange star having an inner core in the color-flavor locked phase surmounted by a crystalline color superconducting (CCSC) layer. These two phases constitute the quarksphere, which we assume to be the largest and heaviest part of the strange star. The next layer consists of standard nuclear matter forming an ionic crust, hovering on the top of the quarksphere and prevented from falling by a strong dipolar electric field. The dipolar electric field arises because quark matter is confined in the quarksphere by the strong interaction, but electrons can leak outside forming an electron layer a few hundred fermi thick separating the ionic crust from the underlying quark matter. The ionic matter and the CCSC matter constitute two electromagnetically coupled crust layers. We study the torsional oscillations of these two layers. Remarkably, we find that if a fraction larger than 10{sup −4} of the energy of a Vela-like glitch is conveyed to a torsional oscillation, the ionic crust will likely break. The reason is that the very rigid and heavy CCSC crust layer will absorb only a small fraction of the glitch energy, leading to a large-amplitude torsional oscillation of the ionic crust. The maximum stress generated by the torsional oscillation is located inside the ionic crust and is very close to the star’s surface. This peculiar behavior leads to a much easier crust cracking than in standard neutron stars.

OSTI ID:
22521770
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 815, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English