Crusty Quark Stars

The old idea of quark star surfaces (above) compared to a new theory (below). In the new model, quark stars do not terminate abruptly. Rather their surfaces can feature multi-quark nuggets. Hence the density of matter falls off more gradually at the surface. Furthermore, the nuggets serve to scatter more of the photons or neutrinos that issue from inside the star, making the star appear less bright to distant observers.

Reported by: Jaikumar et al. in Physical Review Letters

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