Abstract
THE interpretation of 1,968.629-Hz optical pulsations1 from supernova 1987A as a rapidly rotating neutron star poses a chal-lenge to models of nuclear matter. The simultaneous requirement that a star with angular velocity ω SN = 1.237 x 104 s-1 be stable against non-axisymmetric perturbations and that the maximum mass of a non-rotating neutron star exceed 1.44 Ṁ (the mass of the binary pulsar) seems to rule out all standard equations of state2,3. Three-flavour (up, down, and strange) quark matter, or 'strange matter', may be absolutely stable4,5, that is, it may com-prise the ground state of the hadrons. Neutron stars may become strange stars6–8, which have a different equation of state and mass-radius relation from conventional neutron-star models. For a range of hadron parameters, the maximum rotation rate of secularly stable strange stars may exceed that of the half-millisecond pulsar and the non-rotating maximum mass Mmax is greater than 1.52 Ṁ. The low-mass companion(s) to SN1987A, inferred from the periodic modulations of the optical signal, can be accounted for by stable strange-matter lump(s) ejected from the young strange star.
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Frieman, J., Olinto, A. Is the sub-millisecond pulsar strange?. Nature 341, 633–635 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/341633a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/341633a0
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