Bulk viscosity of strange quark matter: Urca versus nonleptonic processes

Abstract

A general formalism for calculating the bulk viscosity of strange quark matter is developed. Contrary to the common belief that the nonleptonic processes alone give the dominant contribution to the bulk viscosity, the inclusion of the Urca processes is shown to play an important role at intermediate densities when the characteristic r-mode oscillation frequencies are not too high. The interplay of nonleptonic and Urca processes is analyzed in detail.