Millimeter-Wave Signature of Strange Matter Stars

Abstract

One of the most important questions in the study of compact objects is the nature of pulsars, including whether they consist of neutron star matter or strange quark matter (SQM). However, few mechanisms for distinguishing between these two possibilities have been proposed. The purpose of this Letter is to show that a strange star (one made of SQM) will have a vibratory mode with an oscillation frequency of approximately 250 GHz (millimeter wave). This mode corresponds to motion of the center of the expected crust of normal matter relative to the center of the strange quark core, without distortion of either. Radiation from currents generated in the crust at the mode frequency would be an SQM signature. We also consider effects of stellar rotation, estimate power emission and signal-to-noise ratio, and discuss briefly the particularly important, but unsolved, question of possible mechanisms for exciting the mode.