Fast spinning strange stars: Possible ways to constrain interacting quark matter parameters

Abstract

For a set of equation of state (EoS) models involving interacting strange quark matter, characterized by an effective bag constant (Beff) and a perturbative quantum chromodynamics corrections term (a4), we construct fully general relativistic equilibrium sequences of rapidly spinning strange stars for the first time. Computation of such sequences is important to study millisecond pulsars and other fast spinning compact stars. Our EoS models can support a gravitational mass (MG) and a spin frequency (ν) at least up to ≈3.0M and ≈1250 Hz, respectively, and hence are fully consistent with measuredMG and ν values. This paper reports the effects of Beff and a4 on measurable compact star properties, which could be useful to find possible ways to constrain these fundamental quark matter parameters, within the ambit of our EoS models. We confirm that a lower Beff allows a higher mass. Besides, for known MG and ν, measurable parameters, such as stellar radius, radius-to-mass ratio and moment of inertia, increase with the decrease of Beff. Our calculations also show that a4 significantly affects the stellar rest mass and the total stellar binding energy. As a result, a4 can have signatures in evolutions of both accreting and non-accreting compact stars, and the observed distribution of stellar mass and spin and other source parameters. Finally, we compute the parameter values of two important pulsars, PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J1748-2446ad, which may have implications to probe their evolutionary histories, and for constraining EoS models.