Compact stars as hideouts for color-spin-locked quark matter: Implications for powering high-energy electromagnetic emissions
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The possibility of compact stars as hideouts for color-spin-locked (CSL) quark matter (QM) is investigated in both the MIT bag model and the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. Within the framework of the NJL model, the idea of absolutely stable quark matter and the existence of the conventional pure quark star (QS) are not supported; in addition, there appears to be no stable hybrid configuration above 2 M ⊙ as the hideout for CSL QM. The stable configurations of massive strange quark stars could be reproduced in the MIT bag model with QCD corrections being taken into account; moreover, they could act as the hiding place for the CSL QM. An interesting scenario is proposed that the phase transition to the CSL phase could occur in the cooling process. The CSL quark matter is an electromagnetic (EM) superconductor of type I, and a complete Meissner effect is expected. However, the analysis for this sizable superconductor indicates that most of the magnetic field is frozen inside the quark core with a critical strength, while in some special cases a small fraction could be expelled from a thin layer near the surface in a short time. The analysis on energetics and timescale suggests that this process could act as an inducement mechanism to power typical fast radio bursts, but as a single source of energy, it is unlikely to generate other EM emissions such as gamma-ray bursts and giant flares.
Author: Xin-Ying Song
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G8028062768
OpenAlex ID: W4408189724