Summary
Astrophysicists explore the existence of quark stars, a potential new class of celestial objects that may exist between neutron stars and black holes. Neutron stars, remnants of massive stars that have undergone supernova explosions, are held together by neutron degeneracy pressure. However, if these stars exceed a certain mass limit, known as the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit, they are expected to collapse into black holes. Researchers speculate that quark stars could represent a state where quarks themselves provide the degeneracy pressure, allowing these stars to exist without collapsing.
Evidence for quark stars remains elusive, with some neutron stars exhibiting masses above two solar masses but not conclusively exceeding the TOV limit. Various methods have been proposed to identify quark stars, including examining pulsar temperatures and rotation speeds. Some scientists suggest that quark stars might not be rare but rather a common phase within neutron stars, potentially leading to phenomena like quark novas, which could outshine supernovae.
The discussion also touches on the concept of strange matter, which could be produced in the cores of quark stars. Strange matter is theorized to be stable and self-replicating, raising concerns about its potential to convert ordinary matter into strange matter if it were to escape into the universe. However, current observations do not support the widespread existence of strange matter, suggesting that while quark stars may exist, the catastrophic implications of strange matter are less likely. The ongoing research highlights the complexity and mystery of stellar evolution and the fundamental forces governing the universe.
Show Notes
Check out https://NordVPN.com/coolworlds for 4 months for free when you sign up today, thanks to Nord for sponsoring us!Could there be a bizarre exotic type of star out there made of quarks? What would these things be like and how could they form? Join us as we explore quark stars, and the terrifying implications they have for forging strange matter within their cores...Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. Edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Dr Sam Gregson (www.youtube.com/@BadBoyofScience) for fact checking our script.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to D. Smith, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, S. Roulier, B. Smith, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, G. Genova, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, B. Walford, J. Boyd, N. De Haan, J. Gillmer, R. Williams, E. Garland, A. Leishman, A. Phan Le, R. Lovely, M. Spoto, A. Steele, M. Varenka, K. Yarbrough, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, B. Pearson, S. Thayer, T. Edris, A. Harrison, B. Seeley, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, P. Muzyka, E. Loomans, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams, J. Sattler, J. Smallbon, B. Reese, J. Yoder, O. Shabtay & X. Yao.REFERENCES► Drake et al 2002, Is RX J185635-375 a Quark Star?, ApJ 572, 996: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0204159► Truemper et al 2003, The Puzzles of RX J1856.5-3754: Neutron Star or Quark Star?, Nuc Phys B Proc S 132, 560: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312600► Kareet et al 2006, Evidence for 1122 Hz X-Ray Burst Oscillations from the Neutron-Star X-Ray Transient XTE J1739-285, ApJ 657, L97: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611716► Chakrabarty 2008, The Spin Distribution of Millisecond X-ray Pulsars, In "A Decade if Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars", AIP Conf Proc 1068, 67: https://arxiv.org/abs/0809.4031► Annala et al 2020, Evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron stars, Nat Phys 16, 907: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.09121► Cherman et al 2009, Bound on the speed of sound from holography, Phys Rev D 80, 066003: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.066003► Ouyed et al 2002, Quark Nova, A&A 390, 39: https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0105109► Gell-Mann 1964, A schematic model of baryons and mesons, Phys Lett 8, 214: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0031916364920013► Zweig 1964, An SU3 model for strong interaction symmetry and its breaking, Developments in the Quark Theory of Hadrons, 22: https://cds.cern.ch/record/570209► Rochester & Butler 1947, Evidence for the Existence of New Unstable Elementary Particles, Nat 160, 855: https://www.nature.com/articles/160855a0► Bodmer 1971, Collapsed Nuclei, Phys Rev D 4, 1601: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.4.1601► Witten 1984, Cosmic separation of phases, Phys Rev D 30, 272: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.30.272► Farhi & Jaffe 1984, Strange matter, Phys Rev D 30, 2379: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.30.2379► Caldwell & Friedman 1991, Evidence against a strange ground state for baryons, Phys Lett B 264, 143: https://ui.adsabs.harvard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Off the cuff (again) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices