Strange stars and their cooling with positron electrical neutralization of quark matter

Abstract

Questions of the equilibrium, stability, and observational manifestations of strange stars are considered, in which electrical neutralization of the quark matter is provided by positrons, as occurs for some sets of bag parameters resulting in a stiffer equation of state. Such models consist entirely of self-contained, strange quark matter and their maximum mass reaches 2.4–2.5 M_⊙ with a radius of 13–14 km. The cooling of such strange quark stars both in the absence and in the presence of mass accretion is investigated. It is shown that in the absence of mass accretion onto the strange star, the dependence of temperature (T, K) on age (t, yr) depends very little on the mass of the configuration and has the form T ≈ 2.3·10⁸r^−1/5. If the star’s initial temperature is sufficiently high (T₀≥2·10¹⁰K), then the total number of electron-positron pairs emitted does not depend on it and is determined only by the total mass of the configuration. In the case of accretion, the annihilation of electrons of the infalling fatter with positrons of the strange quark matter results in the emission of γ-rays with an energy of∼0.5 MeV, by observing which one can distinguish candidates for strange stars. The maximum temperature of strange stars with mass accretion is calculated.