Chemical heating in strange stars

Abstract

As a strange star spins down, its core density increases, changing the chemical equilibrium state of strange matter. The relaxation toward the new equilibrium state takes a finite time, so the matter is not quite in chemical equilibrium, and energy is released by reactions at the expense of the stored chemical energy. We study such a chemical heating process for a spin-down strange star and find that this effect is significant at later times for weak magnetic fields. We compare the cooling of a strange star with that of an ordinary neutron star and find that the surface temperature of the strange star is much lower than that of the neutron star at the age up to 10 8 yr. This favorable to an observational signature for strange stars. © 1996. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.