Recycling strange stars to millisecond periods

¹ N. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warszawa, Poland
² Département d'Astrophysique Relativiste et de Cosmologie – UMR 8629 du CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France e-mail: haensel@camk.edu.pl; Eric.Gourgoulhon@obspm.fr

Corresponding author: J. L. Zdunik, jlz@camk.edu.pl

Received: 28 August 2001
Accepted: 24 October 2001

Abstract

Recycling strange stars to millisecond periods is studied within the framework of general relativity. We employ equations of state of strange quark matter based on the MIT Bag Model, with massive strange quarks and lowest order QCD interactions. The presence of the crust of normal matter is taken into account, with a bottom density assumed to be equal to the neutron-drip one. The calculations are performed by solving the exact 2-D equations for rigidly rotating stationary configurations in general relativity. Evolutionary tracks of accreting strange stars are computed, and their dependence on the initial strange star mass and on the fraction of the angular momentum transferred to the star from the infalling matter, is studied. The differences between recycling strange stars and neutron stars are pointed out.