A note on the discovery of a 2M_⊙ pulsar  

作　　者：Xiao-Yu Lai Ren-Xin Xu 

机构地区：[1]School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

出　　处：《Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics》2011年第6期687-691,共5页天文和天体物理学研究（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10935001 and 10973002);the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, Grant No. 2009CB824800);the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation

摘　　要：It is conventionally thought that the state equation of dense matter softens and thus cannot result in high maximum mass if pulsars are quark stars and that a recently discovered 2M⊙ pulsar （PSR J1614–2230） may make pulsars unlikely to be quark stars. However, this standard point of view would be revisited and updated if quark clustering could occur in cold quark matter because of the strong coupling be- tween quarks at realistic baryon densities in compact stars. It can be argued that the state equation of clustered quark matter stiffens to support compact stars with maxi- mum mass Mmax 2M⊙. In this brief note, it is demonstrated that large parameter space ranges are allowed for Mmax 2M⊙ in a Lennard-Jones model of clustered quark matter and the newly measured highest mass of PSR J1614–2230 would be meaningful for constraining the number of quarks inside a single quark-cluster to be Nq ≤ 103.It is conventionally thought that the state equation of dense matter softens and thus cannot result in high maximum mass if pulsars are quark stars and that a recently discovered 2M⊙ pulsar （PSR J1614–2230） may make pulsars unlikely to be quark stars. However, this standard point of view would be revisited and updated if quark clustering could occur in cold quark matter because of the strong coupling be- tween quarks at realistic baryon densities in compact stars. It can be argued that the state equation of clustered quark matter stiffens to support compact stars with maxi- mum mass Mmax 2M⊙. In this brief note, it is demonstrated that large parameter space ranges are allowed for Mmax 2M⊙ in a Lennard-Jones model of clustered quark matter and the newly measured highest mass of PSR J1614–2230 would be meaningful for constraining the number of quarks inside a single quark-cluster to be Nq ≤ 103.

关 键 词：dense matter — elementary particles — pulsars： general — stars： neutron 

分 类 号：P145.6[天文地球—天体物理] TQ013.1[天文地球—天文学]