Tidal heating as a direct probe of strangeness inside neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper proposes that tidal heating caused by strange matter inside neutron stars could be significant and detectable, providing a new way to probe the presence of strangeness in neutron star interiors through gravitational wave observations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel tidal heating mechanism involving strange matter, offering a potential observational signature of strangeness in neutron stars.

Findings

Strange matter can cause significant tidal heating in neutron stars.

Tidal heating effects involving strangeness could be observable with current gravitational wave detectors.

This provides a new method to probe the internal composition of neutron stars.

Abstract

It has been discussed whether viscous processes in neutron star matter during a binary inspiral can damp out the tidal energy induced by the companion and heat up the star. Earlier investigations concluded that this tidal heating is negligible for normal neutron star matter. In this work, we suggest a novel effect of tidal heating involving strange matter in the neutron star interior, that can significantly heat up the star, and is potentially observable by current and future gravitational wave detectors. We propose that this could serve as a direct probe of strangeness in neutron stars.