Mapping the QCD Phase Transition with Accreting Compact Stars

Details Mapping the QCD Phase Transition with Accreting Compact Stars Mapping the QCD Phase Transition with Accreting Compact Stars

2008-09-15

arxiv.org/abs/0809.2309v1

AIP Conf.Proc.1068:191-198,2008

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proceedings of the Conference on "A Decade of Accreting Millisecond X-Ray Pulsars, Amsterdam,

Scientific paper

10.1063/1.3031192

We discuss an idea for how accreting millisecond pulsars could contribute to the understanding of the QCD phase transition in the high-density nuclear matter equation of state (EoS). It is based on two ingredients, the first one being a ``phase diagram'' of rapidly rotating compact star configurations in the plane of spin frequency and mass, determined with state-of-the-art hybrid equations of state, allowing for a transition to color superconducting quark matter. The second is the study of spin-up and accretion evolution in this phase diagram. We show that the quark matter phase transition leads to a characteristic line in the Omega-M plane, the phase border between neutron stars and hybrid stars with a quark matter core. Along this line a change in the pulsar's moment of inertia entails a waiting point phenomenon in the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP) evolution: most of these objects should therefore be found along the phase border in the Omega-M plane, which may be viewed as the AMXP analog of the main sequence in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for normal stars. In order to prove the existence of a high-density phase transition in the cores of compact stars we need population statistics for AMXP's with sufficiently accurate determination of their masses and spin frequencies.

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