Impact of Strange Quark Matter Nuggets on Pycnonuclear Reaction Rates in the Crusts of Neutron Stars
arXiv:0906.2427 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.80.015804
Abstract
This paper presents an investigation into the pycnonuclear reaction rates in dense crustal matter of neutron stars contaminated with strange quark matter nuggets. The presence of such nuggets in the crustal matter of neutron stars would be a natural consequence if Witten's strange quark matter hypothesis is correct. The methodology presented in this paper is a recreation of a recent representation of nuclear force interactions embedded within pycnonuclear reaction processes. The study then extends the methodology to incorporate distinctive theoretical characteristics of strange quark matter nuggets, like their low charge-per-baryon ratio, and then assesses their effects on the pycnonuclear reaction rates. Particular emphasis is put on the impact of color superconductivity on the reaction rates. Depending on whether or not quark nuggets are in this novel state of matter, their electric charge properties vary drastically which turns out to have a dramatic effect on the pycnonuclear reaction rates. Future nuclear fusion network calculations may thus have the potential to shed light on the existence of strange quark matter nuggets and on whether or not they are in a color superconducting state, as suggested by QCD.
arXiv comment12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in The Physical Review C
References in corpus (27)
- Neutron Star Structure and the Equation of State
- Color superconductivity in dense quark matter
- QCD at Finite Baryon Density: Nucleon Droplets and Color Superconductivity
- Diquark Bose Condensates in High Density Matter and Instantons
- Strange Quark Matter and Compact Stars
- Toward a global description of the nucleus-nucleus interaction
- Color superconducting quark matter
- Constraints on the high-density nuclear equation of state from the phenomenology of compact stars and heavy-ion collisions
- Enforced Electrical Neutrality of the Color-Flavor Locked Phase
- Quark matter in compact stars?
- Kaons in dense matter, kaon production in heavy-ion collisions, and kaon condensation in neutron stars
- Physics and Astrophysics of Strange Quark Matter
- Dense Matter in Compact Stars: Theoretical Developments and Observational Constraints
- High Density QCD and Instantons
- Signature of Shallow Potentials in Deep Sub-barrier Fusion Reactions
- Kaon production in heavy-ion collisions and maximum mass of neutron stars
- Pulsars as Astrophysical Laboratories for Nuclear and Particle Physics
- Nuclear fusion in dense matter: Reaction rate and carbon burning
- Very Small Strangelets
- Fusion reactions in multicomponent dense matter
- Color-flavor locked strangelets
- The physics of dense hadronic matter and compact stars
- Detectability of Strange Matter in Heavy Ion Experiments
- Stability of strangelet at finite temperature
- Color-flavor locked strangelets and their detection
- Surface effects in color superconducting strange-quark matter
- Pycnonuclear reactions in dense stellar matter
Cited by in corpus (7)
- Electrically Charged Strange Quark Stars
- EMMI Rapid Reaction Task Force Meeting on 'Quark Matter in Compact Star'
- Properties of High-Density Matter in Neutron Stars
- Electric charge is a magnetic dipole when placed in a background magnetic field
- Mass limits of the extremely fast-spinning white dwarf CTCV J2056-3014
- Prospects for the Observation of Continuous Gravitational Waves from Deformed Fast-spinning White Dwarfs
- Effects of Pycnonuclear Reactions on White Dwarf Stellar Evolution