Oscillations of hypothetical strange stars as an efficient source ultra-high-energy particles

TL;DR

This paper explores how radial oscillations in hypothetical strange quark matter stars can efficiently convert mechanical energy into electromagnetic energy, potentially explaining high-energy astrophysical phenomena and affecting binary system evolution.

Contribution

It demonstrates that small radial oscillations in strange quark matter stars can produce significant electromagnetic emissions and influence their stability and evolution.

Findings

Small oscillations induce high excitation energies near the surface.

Rapid conversion of excitation energy into electromagnetic radiation occurs within ~1 ms.

Higher amplitude oscillations can lead to star fragmentation or dissolution.

Abstract

We investigate the dynamical behavior of strange quark matter (SQM) objects, such as stars and planets, when subjected to radial oscillations induced by tidal interactions in stellar systems. Our study demonstrates that SQM objects can efficiently convert mechanical energy into hadronic energy due to the critical mass density at their surfaces of 4.7*10^{14} g/cm^3, below which SQM becomes unstable and decays into photons, hadrons, and leptons. We show that even small-amplitude radial oscillations, with a radius change of as little as 0.1%, can result in significant excitation energies near the surface of SQM stars. This excitation energy is rapidly converted into electromagnetic energy over short timescales approximately 1 ms, potentially leading to observable astrophysical phenomena. Higher amplitude oscillations may cause fragmentation or dissolution of SQM stars, which has important implications for the evolution of binary systems containing SQM objects and the emission of gravitational waves.