Radiation from hot, bare, strange stars

Abstract

We present the results of numerical simulations of stationary, spherically outflowing, e± pair winds, with total luminosities of L = 1035-1042 erg s-1. These results have direct relevance to the emission from hot, bare, strange stars, which are thought to be powerful sources of pairs created by the Coulomb barrier at the quark surface. The spectra of emergent photons and pairs are calculated. For L > 2 x 1035 erg s-1, photons dominate the emerging emission. As L increases from ∼1035 to 1042 erg s-1, the mean photon energy decreases from ∼400-500 keV to 40 keV, whereas the spectrum changes in shape from a wide annihilation line to being nearly blackbody with a high energy (> 100 keV) tail. Such a correlation of the photon spectrum with the luminosity, together with the fact that super-Eddington luminosities can be achieved, might be a good observational signature of hot, bare, strange stars.