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Star Wreck

Alexander Kusenko, Mikhail Shaposhnikov, P. G. Tinyakov, Igor I. Tkachev

hep-pharXiv:hep-ph/9801212

Abstract

Electroweak models with low-energy supersymmetry breaking predict the existence of stable non-topological solitons, Q-balls, that can be produced in the early universe. The relic Q-balls can accumulate inside a neutron star and gradually absorb the baryons into the scalar condensate. This causes a slow reduction in the mass of the star. When the mass reaches a critical value, the neutron star becomes unstable and explodes. The cataclysmic destruction of the distant neutron stars may be the origin of the gamma-ray bursts.

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