The Stability of strange star crusts and strangelets
Apr, 2006
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Abstract:
We construct strangelets, taking into account electrostatic effects, including Debye screening, and arbitrary surface tension sigma of the interface between vacuum and quark matter. We find that there is a critical surface tension sigma_crit below which large strangelets are unstable to fragmentation and below which quark star surfaces will fragment into a crystalline crust made of charged strangelets immersed in an electron gas. We derive a model-independent relationship between sigma_crit and two parameters that characterize any quark matter equation of state. For reasonable model equations of state, we find sigma_crit typically of order a few MeV/fm^2. If sigma <= sigma_crit, the size-distribution of strangelets in cosmic rays could feature a peak corresponding to the stable strangelets that we construct.- 25.75.Nq
- 97.60.Jd
- 26.60.+c
- quark: matter
- star: strangeness
- strangelet
- stability
- effect: electromagnetic
- screening: Debye
- surface tension
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