Quark stars as inner engines for Gamma ray bursts?

Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Corresponding author: R. ouyed, ouyed@nordita.dk

Received: 28 January 2002
Accepted: 14 March 2002

Abstract

A model for Gamma ray bursts inner engine based on quark stars (speculated to exist in nature) is presented. We describe how and why these objects might constitute new candidates for GRB inner engines. At the heart of the model is the onset of exotic phases of quark matter at the surface of such stars, in particular the 2-flavor color superconductivity. A novel feature of such a phase is the generation of particles which are unstable to photon decay providing a natural mechanism for a fireball generation; an approach which is fundamentally different from models where the fireball is generated during collapse or conversion of neutron star to quark star processes. The model is capable of reproducing crucial features of Gamma ray bursts, such as the episodic activity of the engine (multiple and random shell emission) and the two distinct categories of the bursts (two regimes are isolated in the model with ~2 s and ~81 s burst total duration).