I Strange Star Physics: Existence of Baryons?

Click For Summary
The discussion revolves around the hypothetical existence of Strange stars and the behavior of strange quarks within them. It is suggested that if Strange stars exist, they would not contain baryons but rather a quark-soup state, distinct from quark-gluon plasma. The conversation also touches on the formation of Hyperons, which are baryons containing strange quarks, and their potential influence on neutron stars. Clarifications are made regarding the differences between quark-gluon plasma and quark matter, with the latter being positioned between neutron stars and quark-gluon plasma in the QCD matter phase diagram. Overall, the complexities of baryon formation and quark interactions in extreme astrophysical environments are explored.
bbbl67
Messages
216
Reaction score
21
TL;DR
Do strange stars organize themselves into baryons or as quark-gluon plasma?
I wasn't sure if I should post this in astrophysics or particle physics, so I'll try particle physics first, mods feel free to move it to a more appropriate forum. So I was wondering if hypothetical Strange stars exist, would the strange quarks arrange themselves into baryons (i.e. Lambda-0 or Sygma-0 baryons), or would they just be free-flowing quark-gluon plasma with strange quarks among the mix?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
bbbl67 said:
So I was wondering if hypothetical Strange stars exist
I do not think we need to assume the existence of these stars to answer your question within the models of such "stars"

There would not be any baryons in a strange star, it would be a quark-soup bound state (I would not call it a qg-plasma though). However, there are theories that suggests that Hyperons (baryons with s-valence quarks) can form in neutron stars which will influence the global properties of such star https://arxiv.org/abs/0811.2939
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
  • Informative
Likes Delta2, ohwilleke, vanhees71 and 1 other person
I didn't realize that QG plasma and Q soup were different things? I had assumed they were synonyms. What distinguishes them?

Aren't Hyperons just Baryons with Strange quarks in them? So wouldn't Lambda-0 and Sygma-0 particles be Hyperons too?
 
bbbl67 said:
I didn't realize that QG plasma and Q soup were different things? I had assumed they were synonyms. What distinguishes them?
A qg-plasma is so hot and low pressure that you can neglect gravitational effects.
qg-plasma is in one regime of the QCD-matter phase diagram, quark matter is in another. Quark matter in strange stars would lie bewteen neutron stars and qg-plasma. I do not exactly where it is located, and no one else either because the QCD matter diagram is not fully understood yet.

From wikipedia:
Quark–gluon plasma (QGP) is an interacting localized assembly of quarks and gluons at thermal (local kinetic) and (close to) chemical (abundance) equilibrium. The word plasma signals that free color charges are allowed.

bbbl67 said:
Aren't Hyperons just Baryons with Strange quarks in them? So wouldn't Lambda-0 and Sygma-0 particles be Hyperons too?
That is what I wrote. What about it did you not understand? (Sigma, not Sygma). You can read more about Baryons here https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/a-beginners-guide-to-baryons/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thread 'Some confusion with the Binding Energy graph of atoms'
My question is about the following graph: I keep on reading that fusing atoms up until Fe-56 doesn’t cost energy and only releases binding energy. However, I understood that fusing atoms also require energy to overcome the positive charges of the protons. Where does that energy go after fusion? Does it go into the mass of the newly fused atom, escape as heat or is the released binding energy shown in the graph actually the net energy after subtracting the required fusion energy? I...