Lennard-Jones quark matter and massive quark stars

ABSTRACT

Quark clustering could occur in cold quark matter because of the strong coupling between quarks at realistic baryon densities of compact stars. Although one may still not be able to calculate this conjectured matter from the first principles, the intercluster interaction might be analogized to the interaction between inert molecules. Cold quark matter would then crystallize in a solid state if the intercluster potential is deep enough to trap the clusters in the wells. We apply the Lennard-Jones potential to describe the intercluster potential and derive the equations of state, which are stiffer than those derived in conventional models (e.g. MIT bag model). If quark stars are composed of the Lennard-Jones matter, they could have high maximum masses (>2 M_⊙) as well as very low masses (<10⁻³ M_⊙). These features could be tested by observations.