Properties of Bare Strange Stars Associated with Surface Electric Fields

TL;DR

This paper explores the surface electric fields of bare strange quark stars, their associated mass-energy effects, and how rotating electron layers can generate magnetic fields similar to those observed in certain compact objects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the electric surface properties of strange stars and proposes a mechanism for magnetic field generation via rotating electron layers.

Findings

Electric surface fields can reach up to 10^{19} V/cm.

Mass increase due to electric fields is significant only with net charge.

Rotating electron layers can produce magnetic fields matching those of some CCOs.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the electrodynamic surface properties of bare strange quark stars. The surfaces of such objects are characterized by the formation of ultra-high electric surface fields which might be as high as $\sim 10^{19}$ V/cm. These fields result from the formation of electric dipole layers at the stellar surfaces. We calculate the increase in gravitational mass associated with the energy stored in the electric dipole field, which turns out to be only significant if the star possesses a sufficiently strong {\em net} electric charge distribution. In part two of the paper, we explore the intriguing possibility of what happens when the electron layer (sphere) rotates with respect to the stellar strange matter body. We find that in this event magnetic fields can be generated which, for moderate effective rotational frequencies between the electron layer and the stellar body, agree with the magnetic fields inferred for several Central Compact Objects (CCOs). These objects could thus be comfortably interpreted as strange stars whose electron atmospheres rotate at frequencies that are moderately different ($\sim 10$ Hz) from the rotational frequencies of the strange star itself.