Strange quark stars in binaries: formation rates, mergers and explosive phenomena

Abstract

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 of problems related to the maximum mass and to the minimal radius of these compact stellar objects. In this paper we study the mass distribution of compact objects formed in binary systems and the relative fractions of quark and neutron stars in different subpopulations. We incorporate the strange quark star formation model provided by the two-families scenario and we perform a large-scale population synthesis study in order to obtain the population characteristics. In our model, below a critical gravitational mass $M_{\max }^H-\Delta M$ only normal (hadron) neutron stars exist. Then in the mass range $(M_{\max }^H-\Delta M)⩽M⩽M_{\max }^H$ strange quark stars and neutron stars coexist. Finally, above $M_{\max }^H$ all compact objects are strange quark stars. We argue that $M_{\max }^H$ is in the range $\sim 1.5-1.6M_{\odot }$. According to our results, the main channel for strange quark star formation in binary systems is accretion from a secondary companion on a neutron star.This opens the possibility of having explosive GRB-like phenomena not related to supernovae and not due to the merger of two neutron stars. The enhancement in the number of compact objects in the co-existence mass range $(M_{\max }^H-\Delta M)⩽M⩽M_{\max }^H$ is not very pronounced. The number of double strange quark star's systems is rather small with only a tiny fraction which merge within a Hubble time. This drastically limits the flux of strangelets produced by the merger, which turns out to be compatible with all limits stemming from Earth and lunar experiments.

arXiv comment11 pages, 10 figures, minor typos corrected, ApJ, 846, 163

References in corpus (58)

• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• Masses, Radii, and Equation of State of Neutron Stars
• A Comprehensive Study of Binary Compact Objects as Gravitational Wave Sources: Evolutionary Channels, Rates, and Physical Properties
• The Nuclear Equation of State and Neutron Star Masses
• The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) Project
• Strange Quark Matter and Compact Stars
• Compact Object Modeling with the StarTrack Population Synthesis Code
• Catalogue of cataclysmic binaries, low-mass X-ray binaries and related objects (Seventh edition)
• The Proto-Magnetar Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Southern Massive Stars at High Angular Resolution: Observational Campaign and Companion Detection
• Improved Estimates of the Milky Way's Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate from Hierarchical Bayesian Meta-Analysis
• The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems
• No supernovae associated with two long-duration gamma ray bursts
• An enigmatic long-lasting gamma-ray burst not accompanied by a bright supernova
• The Dense Matter Equation of State from Neutron Star Radius and Mass Measurements
• The gamma-ray burst GRB060614 requires a novel explosive process
• Science with the Square Kilometer Array: Motivation, Key Science Projects, Standards and Assumptions
• The Neutron Star Mass Distribution
• Gamma-Ray Bursts and Afterglows from Rotating Strange Stars and Neutron Stars
• Do hyperons exist in the interior of neutron stars ?
• The Millisecond Magnetar Central Engine in short GRBs
• The Rates of Hypernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts: Implications for their Progenitors
• Quark deconfinement and implications for the radius and the limiting mass of compact stars
• Can very compact and very massive neutron stars both exist?
• Three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the combustion of a neutron star into a quark star
• Conversion of neutron stars to strange stars as an origin of gamma-ray bursts
• Nuclear Equation of State from Observations of Short Gamma-Ray Burst Remnants
• Conversion of neutron stars to strange stars as the central engine of gamma-ray bursts
• Constraining and applying a generic high-density equation of state
• Burning of an hadronic star into a quark or a hybrid star
• Mass Ejection by Strange Star Mergers and Observational Implications
• Rejecting proposed dense-matter equations of state with quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries
• Neutron Star Mass-Radius Constraints of the Quiescent Low-mass X-ray Binaries X7 and X5 in the Globular Cluster 47 Tuc
• Internal X-ray plateau in short GRBs: Signature of supramassive fast-rotating quark stars?
• The chemical composition of the Sun from helioseismic and solar neutrino data
• Effects of hyperons on the dynamical deconfinement transition in cold neutron star matter
• Observational Constraints on Neutron Star Masses and Radii
• Strangelet propagation and cosmic ray flux
• Combustion of a neutron star into a strange quark star: The neutrino signal
• eROSITA on SRG
• Numerical Simulation of the Hydrodynamical Combustion to Strange Quark Matter
• Nucleosynthesis in neutron-rich ejecta from quark-novae
• The scenario of two families of compact stars 1. Equations of state, mass-radius relations and binary systems
• Combustion of a hadronic star into a quark star: the turbulent and the diffusive regimes
• Population synthesis in astrophysics
• Nature of the Extreme Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• The scenario of two families of compact stars 2. Transition from hadronic to quark matter and explosive phenomena
• Color-flavor locked strangelets and their detection
• Quark deconfinement in the proto-magnetar model of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Search for stable Strange Quark Matter in lunar soil
• Search for Strange Matter by Heavy Ion Activation
• Population synthesis of neutron stars, strange (quark) stars and black holes
• Compression of matter in the center of accreting neutron stars
• Formation of massive skyrmion stars
• Low-mass X-ray Binaries with Strange Quark Stars
• Numerical Simulation of the Hydrodynamical Combustion to Strange Quark Matter in the Trapped Neutrino Regime
• A Hydrodynamical Study on the Conversion of Hadronic Matter to Quark Matter: II. Diffusion-Induced Conversion

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Was GW190814 a black hole -- strange quark star system?
• Are small radii of compact stars ruled out by GW170817/AT2017gfo?
• Neutron star equation of state: QMF modeling and applications
• Merger of two neutron stars: predictions from the two-families scenario
• Neutron star universal relations with microscopic equations of state
• Merger of compact stars in the two-families scenario
• Are nuclear matter properties correlated to neutron star observables ?
• Is the compact object associated with HESS J1731-347 a strange quark star?
• Why can hadronic stars convert into strange quark stars with larger radii
• Searching for Strange Quark Matter Objects Among White Dwarfs
• Accelerating strangelets via Penrose process in non-BPS fuzzballs
• Strange quark matter as dark matter: 40 years later, a reappraisal
• A Strange Star Scenario for the Formation of Eccentric Millisecond Pulsar PSR J1946+3417
• Fully general-relativistic simulations of isolated and binary strange quark stars
• General relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of binary strange star mergers
• Phase structures of neutral dense quark matter and application to strange stars
• Constraints from the GW170817 merger event on the nuclear matter equation of state
• Tidal Deformability of Quark Stars with Repulsive Interactions
• Three-dimensional equation of state extension of quark matter in Fermi-liquid theory
• Finding strangelets in cosmic rays from HESS J1731-347, a possible strange quark star using the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory