Strangeness in Astrophysics and Cosmology

TL;DR

This paper explores the role of strange quark matter in astrophysics and cosmology, discussing its implications for compact stars, gravitational waves, cosmic rays, and early universe phase transitions.

Contribution

It presents new insights into how strange quark matter influences astrophysical phenomena and proposes a novel QCD phase transition scenario with a brief inflationary period.

Findings

Derived an upper mass limit for compact stars from causality constraints.

Analyzed the impact of strange quark matter viscosity on gravitational wave emission.

Investigated the merger of strange stars and cosmic ray flux of strange quark nuggets.

Abstract

Some recent developments concerning the role of strange quark matter for astrophysical systems and the QCD phase transition in the early universe are addressed. Causality constraints of the soft nuclear equation of state as extracted from subthreshold kaon production in heavy-ion collisions are used to derive an upper mass limit for compact stars. The interplay between the viscosity of strange quark matter and the gravitational wave emission from rotation-powered pulsars are outlined. The flux of strange quark matter nuggets in cosmic rays is put in perspective with a detailed numerical investigation of the merger of two strange stars. Finally, we discuss a novel scenario for the QCD phase transition in the early universe, which allows for a small inflationary period due to a pronounced first order phase transition at large baryochemical potential.