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Astron. Astrophys. 344, 371-375 (1999)
Cooling of a rotating strange star with a crust
Y.F. Yuan 1,2 and
J.L. Zhang 2
1 CCAST (World Laboratory), P.O. Box 8730, Beijing 100080, P.R. China
2 Center for Astrophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, P.R. China (yfyuan@mail.ustc.edu.cn; jlz@ustc.edu.cn)
Received 4 May 1998 / Accepted 3 September 1998
Abstract
As a strange star spins down, the nuclear matter in its crust
contracts continuously into the quark core. The confined nuclear
matter is dissolved into quark matter, liberating a lot of thermal
energy. This process is called deconfinement heating. It is found that
deconfinement heating dramatically changes the thermal evolution of a
strange star. For a strange star with a strong surface magnetic field
(![[FORMULA]](img1.gif)
Gauss), the star heats instead of
cooling during the first 10 years. Therefore, contrary to the previous
studies, we conclude that there is evidence for strange quark matter,
if a heating period is observed for a very young pulsar. For a strange
star with a weaker magnetic field, the surface temperature is higher
than that of a neutron star in the photon cooling era. This could also
signal the existence of strange quark matter.
Key words: dense
matter 
elementary
particles
stars:
interiors
stars: neutron
Send offprint requests to: Y.F. Yuan, Center for Astrophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P.R. China
Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Deconfinement heating
- 3. Properties of strange matter
- 4. Cooling curves of strange stars with deconfinement heating
- 5. Conclusion and discussions
- Acknowledgements
- References
© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1999
Online publication: March 10, 1999
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