Is the Compact Object Associated with HESS J1731-347 a Strange Quark Star? A Possible Astrophysical Scenario for Its Formation

Abstract

The analysis of the central compact object within the supernova (SN) remnant HESS J1731-347 suggests that it has a small radius and, even more interestingly, a mass of the order or smaller than 1 M ⊙. This raises the question of which astrophysical process could lead to such a small mass, since the analysis of various types of SN explosions indicate that is it not possible to produce a neutron star with a mass smaller than about 1.17 M ⊙. Here we show that masses of the order or smaller than 1 M ⊙ can be obtained in the case of strange quark stars and that it is possible to build a coherent model explaining not only the mass and the radius of that object, but also its slow cooling suggested in various analyses. We also show that an astrophysical path exists, which leads to the formation of such an object, and we discuss the role played in that scenario by strangelets assumed to constitute the dark matter.