A new method is proposed to compute the bulk viscosity in strange quark matter at high densities. Using the method it is straightforward to prove that the bulk viscosity is positive definite, which is not so easy to accomplish in other approaches especially for multi-component fluids like strange quark matter with light up and down quarks and massive strange quarks.
A general formalism for calculating the bulk viscosity of strange quark matter is developed. Contrary to the common belief that the non-leptonic processes alone give the dominant contribution to the bulk viscosity, the inclusion of the Urca processes is shown to play an important role at intermediate densities when the characteristic r-mode oscillation frequencies are not too high. The interplay of non-leptonic and Urca processes is analyzed in detail
We study the bulk viscosity of strange quark matter(SQM) in density dependent quark mass model(DDQM) under the background of self-consistent thermodynamics. The correct formulae, with which the viscosity can be evaluated, are derived. We also find that the viscosity in DDQM can be higher by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude than MIT bag model. We calculate the damping time scales due to viscosity coupled to r-modes. The numerical results show the time scale can't be shorter than $10^{-1}$s.
We study the bulk viscosity of strange quark matter (SQM) in a quasiparticle model at finite chemical potential by extrapolating the previous quasiparticle model of finite temperature lattice QCD. The more proper bulk viscosity coefficient can be given in this model where chemical potential $μ$ and coupling constant $\emph{g}$ are interdependent. We also apply our result to determine the critical rotation of strange stars by r-mode instability window. Our model is compatible to the millisecond pulsar data for a wide range of mass and radius of the stars.
At finite temperature (T) there is a link with general relativity and hydrodynamics that leads to a lower bound for the ratio of shear viscosity and entropy density (η/s). We find that the bound is saturated in the simple model for quark matter that we use for strange stars at T = 80 MeV, at the surface of a strange star. At this T we have the possibility of cosmic separation of phases. We find that, although strongly correlated, the quark matter at the surface of strange stars constitute the most perfect interacting fluid permitted by nature. At the centre of the star, however, the density is…
High energy density ($\eps$) and temperature (T) links general relativity and hydrodynamics leading to a lower bound for the ratio of shear viscosity ($η$) and entropy density ($s$). We get the interesting result that the bound is saturated in the simple model for quark matter that we use for strange stars at the surface for $T \sim 80 MeV$. At this $T$ we have the possibility of cosmic separation of phases. At the surface of the star where the pressure is zero - the density $\eps$ has a fixed value for all stars of various masses with correspondingly varying central energy density $\eps_c$. I…
We discuss bulk viscosity due to non-leptonic processes involving hyperons and Bose-Einstein condensate of negatively charged kaons in neutron stars. It is noted that the hyperon bulk viscosity coefficient is a few order of magnitude larger than that of the case with the condensate. Further it is found that the hyperon bulk viscosity is suppressed in a superconducting phase. The hyperon bulk viscosity efficiently damps the r-mode instability in neutron stars irrespective of whether a superconducting phase is present or not in neutron star interior.
The bulk viscosity of three-flavor color-superconducting quark matter originating from the nonleptonic process u+s <-> u+d is computed. It is assumed that up and down quarks form Cooper pairs while the strange quark remains unpaired (2SC phase). A general derivation of the rate of strangeness production is presented, involving contributions from a multitude of different subprocesses, including subprocesses that involve different numbers of gapped quarks as well as creation and annihilation of particles in the condensate. The rate is then used to compute the bulk viscosity as a function of the …
We calculate the bulk viscosity of color-superconducting quark matter in the color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase. We assume that the lightest bosons are the superfluid mode H and the kaons K0 and K+, and that there is no kaon condensate. We calculate the rate of strangeness-equilibrating processes that convert kaons into superfluid modes, and the resultant bulk viscosity. We find that for oscillations with a timescale of milliseconds, at temperatures T << 1 MeV, the CFL bulk viscosity is much less than that of unpaired quark matter, but at higher temperatures the bulk viscosity of CFL matter can b…
We study the viscosity driven (Jacobi-like) bar mode instability of rapidly rotating strange stars in general relativity. A triaxial, "bar shaped" compact star could be an efficient source of continuous wave gravitational radiation in the frequency range of the forthcoming interferometric detectors. We locate the secular instability point along several constant baryon mass sequences of uniformly rotating strange stars described by the MIT bag model. Contrary to neutron stars, strange stars with T/|W| (the ratio of the rotational kinetic energy to the absolute value of the gravitational potenti…
We utilize the bulk viscosity of interacting strange quark matter to reevaluate the damping time scale. The presence of medium effect of bulk viscosity leads to a stronger damping of r-modes, which can be over an order of magnitude for realistic parameters. We find that the r-mode instability window is narrowed due to the medium effect, and hence when a pulsar reaches the instability window it will only slow down by gravitational wave emission to a period of 1.78msec instead of 2.5msec given by early estimate. As a theoretical upper rotation limit of pulsars, the period of 1.78msec is very clo…
It is possible that a system composed of up, down and strange quarks consists the true ground state of nuclear matter at high densities and low temperatures. This exotic plasma, called strange quark matter (SQM), seems to be even more favorable energetically if quarks are in a superconducting state, the so-called color-flavor locked state. Here are presented calculations made on the basis of the MIT bag model considering the influence of finite temperature on the allowed parameters characterizing the system for stability of bulk SQM (the so-called stability windows) and also for strangelets, s…
Astrophysicists distinguish between three different types of compact stars. These are white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. The former contain matter in one of the densest forms found in the Universe which, together with the unprecedented progress in observational astronomy, make such stars superb astrophysical laboratories for a broad range of most striking physical phenomena. These range from nuclear processes on the stellar surface to processes in electron degenerate matter at subnuclear densities to boson condensates and the existence of new states of baryonic matter--like color su…
Motivated by recent suggestions that strange stars can be responsible for glitches and other observational features of pulsar, we review some possible equations of state and their implications for models of neutron, hybrid and strange stars. We consider the MIT bag model and also strange matter in the color-flavored-locked phase. The central energy densities for strange stars are higher than the central densities of ordinary neutron stars. Strange stars are bound by the strong force and so can also rotate much faster than neutron stars. These results are only weakly dependent on the model used…
We compute the bulk viscosity of a mixed quark-hadron phase. In the first scenario to be discussed, the mixed phase occurs at large densities and we assume that it is composed of a mixing of hyperonic matter and quarks in the Color Flavor Locked phase. In a second scenario, the mixed phase occurs at lower densities and it is composed of a mixing of nucleons and unpaired quark matter. We have also investigated the effect of a non-vanishing surface tension at the interface between hadronic and quark matter. In both scenarios, the bulk viscosity is large when the surface tension is absent, while …
Strange quark matter in beta equilibrium at high densities is studied in a quark confinement model. Two equations of state are dynamically generated for the {\it same} set of model parameters used to describe the nucleon: one corresponds to a chiral restored phase with almost massless quarks and the other to a chiral broken phase. The chiral symmetric phase saturates at around five times the nuclear matter density. Using the equation of state for this phase, compact bare quark stars are obtained with radii and masses in the ranges $R\sim 5 - 8$ km and $M\sim M_\odot$. The energy per baryon num…
Color-flavor locked (CFL) quark matter at high densities is a color superconductor, which spontaneously breaks baryon number and chiral symmetry. Its low-energy thermodynamic and transport properties are therefore dominated by the H (superfluid) boson, and the octet of pseudoscalar pseudo-Goldstone bosons of which the neutral kaon is the lightest. We study the CFL-K^0 phase, in which the stress induced by the strange quark mass causes the kaons to condense, and there is an additional ultra-light "K^0" Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of isospin. We compute the bulk viscosi…
Cold three-flavor quark matter at large (but not asymptotically large) densities may exist as a crystalline color superconductor. We explore this possibility by calculating the gap parameter Delta and free energy Omega(Delta) for possible crystal structures within a Ginzburg-Landau approximation, evaluating Omega(Delta) to order Delta^6. We develop a qualitative understanding of what makes a crystal structure stable, and find two structures with particularly large values of Delta and the condensation energy, within a factor of two of those for the CFL phase known to characterize QCD at asympto…
The photon emissivity from the bremsstrahlung process ee-> eeγoccuring in the electrosphere at the bare surface of a strange quark star is calculated. For surface temperatures T<10^9K, the photon flux exceeds that of e+e- pairs that are produced via the Schwinger mechanism in the presence of a strong electric field that binds electrons to the surface of the quark star. The average energy of photons emitted from the bremsstrahlung process can be 0.5 MeV or more, which is larger than that in e+e- pair annihilation. The observation of this distinctive photon spectrum would constitute an unmistaka…
With central densities way above the density of atomic nuclei, neutron stars contain matter in one of the densest forms found in the universe. Depending of the density reached in the cores of neutron stars, they may contain stable phases of exotic matter found nowhere else in space. This article gives a brief overview of the phases of ultra-dense matter predicted to exist deep inside neutron stars and discusses the equation of state associated with such matter.
We investigate the effect of hyperon matter including hyperon-hyperon interaction on bulk viscosity. Equations of state are constructed within the framework of a relativistic field theoretical model where baryon-baryon interaction is mediated by the exchange of scalar and vector mesons. Hyperon-hyperon interaction is also taken into account by the exchange of two strange mesons. This interaction results in a smaller maximum mass neutron star compared with the case without the interaction. The coefficient of bulk viscosity due to the non-leptonic weak process is determined by these equations of…
The history and recent progresses in the study of bulk viscosity in nuclear and quark matter are reviewed. The constraints from baryon number conservation and electric neutrality in quark matter on particle densities and fluid velocity divergences are discussed.
A collection of modern, field-theoretical equations of state is applied to the investigation of cooling properties of compact stars. These comprise neutron stars as well as hypothetical strange matter stars, made up of absolutely stable 3-flavor strange quark matter. Various uncertainties in the behavior of matter at supernuclear densities, e.g., hyperonic degrees of freedom, behavior of coupling strengths in matter, pion and meson condensation, superfluidity, transition to quark matter, absolute stability of strange quark matter, and last but not least the many-body technique itself are teste…
Two kinds of difficulties have challenged the physics community for many years: (1) knowing nature's building blocks (particle physics) and (2) understanding interacting many-body systems (many-body physics). Both of them exist in the research of quark matter and compact stars. This paper addresses the possibility that quark clustering, rather than a color super-conducting state, could occur in cold quark matter at realistic baryon densities of compact stars, since a weakly coupling treatment of the interaction between quarks might not be reliable. Cold quark matter is conjectured to be in a s…
Recent models of carbon ignition on accreting neutron stars predict superburst ignition depths that are an order of magnitude larger than observed. We explore a possible solution to this problem, that the compact stars in low mass X-ray binaries that have shown superbursts are in fact strange stars with a crust of normal matter. We calculate the properties of superbursts on strange stars, and the resulting constraints on the properties of strange quark matter. We show that the observed ignition conditions exclude fast neutrino emission in the quark core, for example by the direct Urca process,…
The calculation of transport properties of Fermi liquids, based on the formalism developed by Abrikosov and Khalatnikov, requires the knowledge of the probability of collisions between quasiparticles in the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We have carried out a numerical study of the shear viscosity of pure neutron matter, whose value plays a pivotal role in determining the stability of rotating neutron stars, in which these processes are described using a state-of-the-art nucleon-nucleon potential model. Within our approach medium modifications of the scattering cross section are consistently t…
In this work we present a detailed explanation of the construction of an appropriate equation of state (EoS) for nuclear astrophysics. We use a relativistic model in order to obtain an EoS for neutrally charged matter that extends from very low to high densities, from zero temperature to 100 MeV with proton fractions ranging from 0 (no protons) to 0.6 (asymmetric matter with proton excess). For the achievement of complete convergence, the Sommerfeld approximation is used at low temperatures and the Boltzman distribution for relativistic particles is used in the calculation of the electron prop…
It is generally agreed on that the tremendous densities reached in the centers of neutron stars provide a high-pressure environment in which numerous novel particles processes are likely to compete with each other. These processes range from the generation of hyperons to quark deconfinement to the formation of kaon condensates and H-matter. There are theoretical suggestions of even more exotic processes inside neutron stars, such as the formation of absolutely stable strange quark matter, a configuration of matter even more stable than the most stable atomic nucleus, iron. In the latter event,…
It is generally agreed on that the tremendous densities reached in the centers of neutron stars provide a high-pressure environment in which several intriguing particles processes may compete with each other. These range from the generation of hyperons to quark deconfinement to the formation of kaon condensates and H-matter. There are theoretical suggestions of even more exotic processes inside neutron stars, such as the formation of absolutely stable strange quark matter. In the latter event, neutron stars would be largely composed of strange quark matter possibly enveloped in a thin nuclear …