Lennard-Jones quark matter and massive quark stars

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where cold quark matter forms a solid lattice via Lennard-Jones interactions, leading to predictions of massive or very low-mass quark stars, which can be tested observationally.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using Lennard-Jones potential to model inter-cluster interactions in quark matter, resulting in stiffer equations of state for quark stars.

Findings

Quark stars could have masses exceeding 2 solar masses.

The model predicts the existence of very low-mass quark stars.

The equations of state are stiffer than traditional models.

Abstract

Quark clustering could occur in cold quark matter because of the strong coupling between quarks at realistic baryon densities of compact stars. Although one may still not be able to calculate this conjectured matter from first principles, the inter-cluster interaction might be analogized to the interaction between inert molecules. Cold quark matter would then crystallize in a solid state if the inter-cluster potential is deep enough to trap the clusters in the wells. We apply the Lennard-Jones potential to describe the inter-cluster potential, and derive the equations of state, which are stiffer than that derived in conventional models (e.g., MIT bag model). If quark stars are composed of Lennard-Jones matter, they could have high maximum masses ($>2M_{\odot}$) as well as very low masses ($<10^{-3}M_{\odot}$). These features could be tested by observations.