An introduction to strange stars

Abstract

The description of the heaviest neutron stars observed in Nature depends on the understanding of the physical concepts present in General Relativity and Quantum Chromodynamics. In this work, we review the basic concepts need to describe strange stars, constituted by up, down and strange quarks, which is one of the possible alternatives to describe the general properties of the most dense neutron stars. We will review the Bodmer-Witten-Terazawa hypothesis, which states that strange matter is absolutely stable in relation to ordinary nuclear matter, and discuss the basic properties that characterize strange stars. Our goal is to present the necessary concepts to understand this important theme of Astroparticles.