Observational constraints on quark matter in neutron stars

Nana Pan, Xiaoping Zheng

Published 2006-09-23, updated 2008-01-08Version 2

We estimate the constraints of observational mass and redshift on the properties of equations of state for quarks in the compact stars. We discuss two scenarios: strange stars and hybrid stars. We construct the equations of state utilizing MIT bag model taking medium effect into account for quark matter and relativistic mean field theory for hadron matter. We find that quark may exist in strange stars and the interior of neutron stars, and only these quark matters with stiff equations of state could be consistent with both constraints. The bag constant is main one parameter that affects the mass strongly for strange stars and only the intermediate coupling constant may be the best choice for compatibility with observational constraints in hybrid stars.