An introduction to strange stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews the fundamental concepts and theories related to strange stars, a type of dense stellar object potentially composed of strange quark matter, highlighting their properties and stability hypotheses.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive introduction to strange stars, including the Bodmer-Witten-Terazawa hypothesis and their basic physical properties, aimed at advancing understanding in astroparticle physics.

Findings

Strange matter may be absolutely stable compared to nuclear matter.

Strange stars are characterized by unique properties related to quark composition.

The Bodmer-Witten-Terazawa hypothesis supports the stability of strange matter.

Abstract

The description of the heaviest neutron stars observed in Nature depends on the understanding of the physical concepts present in General Relativity and Quantum Chromodynamics. In this work, we review the basic concepts need to describe strange stars, constituted by up, down and strange quarks, which is one of the possible alternatives to describe the general properties of the most dense neutron stars. We will review the Bodmer-Witten-Terazawa hypothesis, which states that strange matter is absolutely stable in relation to ordinary nuclear matter, and discuss the basic properties that characterize strange stars. Our goal is to present the necessary concepts to understand this important theme of Astroparticles.