Strangeness in astrophysics: Theoretical developments

TL;DR

This paper reviews key theoretical advances in understanding how strangeness influences astrophysical phenomena like supernovae, neutron stars, and quark matter deconfinement, emphasizing its importance in high-energy astrophysics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent theoretical developments concerning strangeness production and its effects in dense astrophysical environments.

Findings

Strangeness impacts supernova explosion mechanisms.

Presence of strangeness affects neutron star properties.

Strangeness influences the transition to quark matter in dense stars.

Abstract

In this conference proceeding, we review important theoretical developments related to the production of strangeness in astrophysics. This includes its effects in supernova explosions, neutron stars, and compact-star mergers. We also discuss in detail how the presence of net strangeness affects the deconfinement to quark matter, expected to take place at large densities and/or temperatures. We conclude that a complete description of dense matter containing hyperons and strange quarks is fundamental for the understanding of modern high-energy astrophysics.