Possible evidence that pulsars are quark stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews potential observational evidence suggesting pulsars might actually be quark stars, emphasizing the importance of astrophysical data in determining their true nature and proposing future experiments for confirmation.

Contribution

It summarizes possible observational hints that pulsars could be quark stars and discusses how future experiments might provide definitive evidence.

Findings

Possible observational evidence for quark stars

Astrophysical observations as key to identifying pulsar nature

Future experiments could confirm quark star existence

Abstract

It is a pity that the real state of matter in pulsar-like stars is still not determined confidently because of the uncertainty about cold matter at supranuclear density, even 40 years after the discovery of pulsar. Nuclear matter (related to neutron stars) is one of the speculations for the inner constitution of pulsars even from the Landau's time more than 70 years ago, but quark matter (related to quark stars) is an alternative due to the fact of asymptotic freedom of interaction between quarks as the standard model of particle physics develops since 1960s. Therefore, one has to focus on astrophysical observations in order to answer what the nature of pulsars is. In this presentation, I would like to summarize possible observational evidence/hints that pulsar-like stars could be quark stars, and to address achievable clear evidence for quark stars in the future experiments.