Temperature profiles of accretion discs around rapidly rotating strange stars in general relativity: A comparison with neutron stars

Bhattacharyya, S and Bombaci, I and Thampan, AV (2001) Temperature profiles of accretion discs around rapidly rotating strange stars in general relativity: A comparison with neutron stars. In: Astronomy and astrophysics, 372 (3). pp. 925-934.

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Abstract

We compute the temperature profiles of accretion discs around rapidly rotating strange stars, using constant gravitational mass equilibrium sequences of these objects, considering the full effect of general relativity. Beyond a certain critical value of stellar angular momentum (J), we observe the radius ( $r_{\rm orb}$) of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) to increase with J (a property seen neither in rotating black holes nor in rotating neutron stars). The reason for this is traced to the crucial dependence of ${\rm d}r_{\rm orb}/{\rm d}J$ on the rate of change of the radial gradient of the Keplerian angular velocity at $r_{\rm orb}$ with respect to J. The structure parameters and temperature profiles obtained are compared with those of neutron stars, as an attempt to provide signatures for distinguishing between the two. We show that when the full gamut of strange star equation of state models, with varying degrees of stiffness are considered, there exists a substantial overlap in properties of both neutron stars and strange stars. However, applying accretion disc model constraints to rule out stiff strange star equation of state models, we notice that neutron stars and strange stars exclusively occupy certain parameter spaces. This result implies the possibility of distinguishing these objects from each other by sensitive observations through future X-ray detectors.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Astronomy and astrophysics
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to EDP Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Joint Astronomy Programme
Date Deposited:	02 Aug 2011 06:17
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2011 06:17
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/39637

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