Stability of strange star crusts and strangelets

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.73.114016· OSTI ID:20774803

Alford, Mark G ^[1]; Rajagopal, Krishna ^[2]; Reddy, Sanjay; Steiner, Andrew W ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130 (United States)
2. Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
3. Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

We construct strangelets, taking into account electrostatic effects, including Debye screening, and arbitrary surface tension {sigma} of the interface between vacuum and quark matter. We find that there is a critical surface tension {sigma}{sub crit} below which large strangelets are unstable to fragmentation and below which quark star surfaces will fragment into a crystalline crust made of charged strangelets immersed in an electron gas. We derive a model-independent relationship between {sigma}{sub crit} and two parameters that characterize any quark matter equation of state. For reasonable model equations of state, we find {sigma}{sub crit} typically of order a few MeV/fm{sup 2}. If {sigma}{<=}{sigma}{sub crit}, the size-distribution of strangelets in cosmic rays could feature a peak corresponding to the stable strangelets that we construct.

• OSTI ID: 20774803
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 73; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTRON GAS
EQUATIONS OF STATE
INTERFACES
MEV RANGE
QUARK MATTER
S QUARKS
STABILITY
SURFACE TENSION
SURFACES