Possible new class of dense white dwarfs

If the strange quark matter hypothesis is true, then a new class of white dwarfs can exist whose nuclear material in their deep interiors can have a density as high as the neutron drip density, a few hundred times the density in maximum-mass white dwarfs and 4x104 the density in dwarfs of mass, M∼0.6 Mcircle-dot. Their masses fall in the approximate range 10-4 to 1 Mcircle-dot. They are stable against acoustical modes of vibration. A strange quark core stabilizes these stars, which otherwise would have central densities that would place them in the unstable region of the sequence between white dwarfs and neutron stars. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics