Is GRO J1744-28 a strange star?
The unusual hard x-ray burster GRO J1744-28 recently discovered by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory can be modeled as a strange star with a dipolar magnetic field of </=10(11) gauss. According to this model, when the accreted mass of the star exceeds some critical mass, its crust breaks, resulting in the conversion of the accreted matter into strange matter and a release of energy. Subsequently, a fireball forms and expands relativistically outward. The expanding fireball interacts with the surrounding interstellar medium, causing its kinetic energy to be radiated in shock waves and producing a burst of x-ray radiation. The burst energy, duration, interval, and spectrum derived from such a model are consistent with the observations of GRO J1744-28.
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K. S. Cheng, Department of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. Z. G. Dai, Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. D. M. Wei, Purple Mountain Observatory, Nanjing 210008, China. T. Lu, Department of As.
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