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TDLI RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS
夸克星是一种假想中的致密天体。与由中子和质子构成的普通中子星不同,夸克星被认为几乎完全由自由夸克组成。由此,一个关键问题随之而来:当两颗夸克星发生并合时,它们抛射出的物质究竟会是什么?是由夸克物质组成的团块,还是与中子星类似的、由核子构成的气体?人们通常认为,夸克星碰撞后产生的夸克团块会迅速蒸发成中子与质子,形成与中子星碰撞类似的抛射产物。然而,上海交通大学李政道研究所联合美国罗切斯特理工学院最新研究表明,事实可能截然不同。研究团队通过深入地理论建模与计算发现,夸克星并合的抛射物很可能主要由质量巨大的“夸克团块”组成,并仅伴随少量核子。相关成果已发表在国际权威学术期刊《物理评论快报》(Physical Review Letters)上。

图:夸克星碰撞的两种可能的产物组成。左:夸克团块加少量核子;右:核子气体。
夸克星碰撞后通常会在赤道面和极向喷射出大量物质,这些抛射物最初的基本单元是大小不一的“夸克团块”。随着时间推移,这些夸克团块会经历“蒸发”(质子或中子从团块中逃逸,类似水分子逃逸)和“吸收”(外界的质子和中子被捕获进入团块)。其中蒸发的效率主要取决于夸克物质的结合能以及温度。在夸克星并合后的高密度条件下,蒸发和吸收可能达到动态平衡,从而抑制净蒸发效率。而随着抛射物的膨胀冷却,最终蒸发和吸收的效率都降到极低,抛射物的组分逐渐冻结。基于严谨的理论计算,研究人员发现,在广泛的参数范围内(主要涉及夸克物质的结合能以及抛射物温度和密度的演化路径),这些夸克团块无法有效蒸发成自由的中子和质子,而是以团块形态长时间保存下来。这一结果在天文观测上具有重要意义:如果并合产物主要是夸克团块,那么由于缺乏足够的丰中子环境,快中子俘获(r-process)核合成将难以进行,从而无法产生驱动千新星辐射的重元素。换言之,如果宇宙中确实存在夸克星,它们的并合事件可能不会像中子星并合那样点亮千新星(kilonova)。未来千新星观测不仅有望为限制夸克物质的结合能提供关键约束,还可能成为判断夸克星是否真实存在的决定性证据。
李政道研究所博士后缪志强是本文的第一作者及通讯作者,李政道讲席教授赖东为共同通讯作者。论文的合作者还有罗切斯特理工学院的朱镇宇博士(原李政道研究所博后)。该工作得到国家自然科学基金、中国博士后科学基金的资助,在此表示感谢。
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/zklh-27mr
文稿 | 缪志强
编辑 | 孟闻卓
责任编辑 | 李姝姝
What’s the outcome of quark star mergers
TDLI RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS
Quark stars are hypothetical compact objects. Unlike ordinary neutron stars, which are composed of neutrons and protons, quark stars are thought to consist almost entirely of free quarks. This naturally raises a key question: when two quark stars merge, what is the outcome? Will the ejecta be clumps of quark matter, or will it resemble that of neutron star mergers, composed of nucleon gas? People think that quark nuggets formed in quark star collisions would quickly evaporate into neutrons and protons, thereby producing ejecta similar to that of neutron star mergers. However, a recent study by the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology in the United States, shows that the reality may be quite different. Through detailed theoretical modeling and calculations, the research team found that the ejecta from quark star mergers are likely dominated by massive “quark nuggets”, accompanied by only a small fraction of nucleons. The results have been published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

Figure:Two possible compositions of ejecta from quark star collisions—(i) a gas of quark nuggets with a small fraction of nucleons, or (ii) a gas of nucleons.
Quark star collisions typically eject large amounts of matter both along the equatorial plane and toward the poles. The basic units of this ejecta are initially “quark nuggets” of varying sizes. Over time, these nuggets undergo two competing processes: evaporation, in which protons or neutrons escape (similar to water molecules evaporating), and absorption, in which external protons and neutrons are captured by the nuggets. The efficiency of evaporation depends mainly on the binding energy of quark matter and the temperature. In the dense environment following a quark star merger, evaporation and absorption may reach equilibrium, suppressing net evaporation. As the ejecta expand and cool, both evaporation and absorption rates eventually drop to very low levels, and the composition of the ejecta effectively freezes. Rigorous calculations show that, across a wide parameter space (the binding energy of quark matter and the temperature and density evolution trajectory), these quark nuggets cannot efficiently evaporate into free neutrons and protons but instead remain bound as quark nuggets. This finding carries significant observational implications: if the merger products are dominated by quark nuggets, the environment would lack sufficient free neutrons to trigger rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis, which in turn means that heavy elements necessary to power a kilonova would not be produced. In other words, if quark stars do exist in the universe, their mergers may not light up a kilonova in the way neutron star mergers do. Future observations of kilonovae therefore hold great promise: not only could they provide critical constraints on the binding energy of quark matter, but they may also serve as decisive evidence for or against the very existence of quark stars.
Dr. Zhiqiang Miao, postdoc of TDLI is the first author and corresponding author of this paper, Prof. Dong Lai, T. D. Lee Chair Professor, is the co-corresponding author of this paper. Collaborators also include Dr. Zhenyu Zhu from the Rochester Institute of Technology (formerly a postdoctoral researcher at TDLI). This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, to whom the authors express their gratitude.
Author | Zhiqiang Miao
Editor | Wenzhuo Meng
Excecutive Editor | Shushu Li





