Life expectancy is not the same for all quarks. The "strange" quark, for example, is very unstable compared to the "up" and "down" quarks although in the exotic high-density environment inside a neutron star, strange quarks are expected to fare better.Now a study conducted by Krishna Rajagopal and Frank Wilczek at MIT shows how much better.
Previously, it was thought that the quark-matter collective (what you get by compressing matter to extraordinary densities, as with the RHIC accelerator, but keeping it cool) consisting of up quarks (each with an electrical charge of +2/3), down quarks (charge -1/3) and a smaller number of strange quarks (charge -1/3) would have an overall positive electrical charge.
This, in turn, was expected to attract electrons, making the quark glob metallic and opaque.
The MIT calculations show, however, that the strange quark population is on a par with the ups and downs. This means that the quark-matter part of a neutron star would be electrically neutral; it would, in fact, be a transparent insulator free of electrons.
"Thus it seems likely," says Wilczek, "that inside each neutron star is a 'Diamond as big as the Ritz,' actually much bigger, and a million billion times as dense."
The core would not be a solid or crystal in the usual sense, and would not have facets, but it would reflect some light at its boundaries and would otherwise look like a diamond, the research implies.
(Reference: Physical Review Letters, 16 April 2001; text at this URL.)
(Editor's Note: This article is a slightly edited version of the American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 533, April 4, 2001, by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein and James Riordon.)
[Contact: Frank Wilczek]
17-Apr-2001
