Oscillations of hypothetical strange stars as an efficient source ultra-high-energy particles

Abstract

We investigate the dynamical behavior of strange quark matter (SQM) objects, such as stars and planets, when subjected to radial oscillations induced by tidal interactions in stellar systems. Our study demonstrates that SQM objects can efficiently convert mechanical energy into hadronic energy due to the critical mass density at their surfaces of 4.7*10^{14} g/cm^3, below which SQM becomes unstable and decays into photons, hadrons, and leptons. We show that even small-amplitude radial oscillations, with a radius change of as little as 0.1%, can result in significant excitation energies near the surface of SQM stars. This excitation energy is rapidly converted into electromagnetic energy over short timescales approximately 1 ms, potentially leading to observable astrophysical phenomena. Higher amplitude oscillations may cause fragmentation or dissolution of SQM stars, which has important implications for the evolution of binary systems containing SQM objects and the emission of gravitational waves.