Magnetic field inhibits the conversion of neutron stars to quark stars

Abstract

Neutron stars provide a natural laboratory to test some unique implications of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)- the underlying theory of strong interactions- at extreme conditions of very high baryon density. It has been suggested that the true ground state of QCD is strange quark matter, and, consequently, neutron stars should convert to strange quark stars under suitable conditions. Substantial efforts have been, and are being, spent in studying the details of such conversion. In this letter, we show that the presence of high magnetic field, an essential feature of neutron stars, strongly inhibits the conversion of neutron stars to bare quark stars.