# Neutrino sparking and the neutron → strange stars conversion

## I Introduction

A great deal of attention has been recently devoted to the astrophysical consequences of the strange quark matter (SQM) hypothesis . Work on different aspects of the birth, structure and evolution of the compact strange stars is being done with the aim of predicting signatures which may indicate the actual existence of this class of objects (see, for example, the reviews ).

As SQM is a low-entropy configuration, the quark gas is not a lower free energy state than an nucleon gas at intermediate temperatures. Compression (i.e. baryochemical potential $`\mu 0`$) is therefore needed to compensate the $`TS`$ term in the free energy if SQM is to be preferred to NM at $`T>2MeV`$ . These are precisely the physical conditions generally believed to exist in young proto-neutron stars  inmediatly after the passage of the prompt hydrodynamical shock in type II supernovae, i.e. inside the Kelvin-Helmholtz epoch of the compact object life. Therefore SQM may play a key role in the very type II supernova events as subnuclear energy is released from the conversion of neutron to strange matter. This process should result in an explosive transient mediated by a detonation front , a phenomenon that would be important for the fate of the collapsed star. Additional work  proved that this conjecture is worth being studied in further detail.

A prompt conversion would need the presence of a ”dormant” strangelet \[10-13\] or the nucleation of one . Neither possibility is excluded, but also they are not guaranteed. For instance, it has been suggested that strong magnetic fields preclude SQM nucleation , therefore it is interesting to explore other alternative mechanisms . Generally speaking, these conversion mechanisms have been divided in primary (those in which strangelets are produced inside the star) and secondary (in which strangelets come from outside).

We shall discuss in the present work the appearance of SQM inside degenerate NM characteristic of neutron stars triggered by neutrino sparking. To the best of our knowledge this scenario has not been addressed in any detail after the proposal by Alcock et al.  In Section II we present the relevant neutrino fluxes and cross-sections to this problem. A rough calculation of the strangelet production rate is given in Section III. Finally, a brief discussion and conclusions are presented in Section IV.

## II High-energy neutrinos

The total cross-sections of neutrinos onto nucleons have been recently recomputed by Gandhi et al.  using updated parton distributions in the Altarelli-Parisi framework. They incorporate the latest data from HERA which goes deeply inside the inelastic regime up to $`x\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$. Since we are intersted in the reactions of the type $`\nu Nanything`$ we shall employ an ”all process” version of the cross sections $`\sigma `$ given in  and valid above a minimum energy $`E_0=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}GeV`$

$$10^{38}\left(\frac{E_\nu }{1GeV}\right)cm^2\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.33em}1}GeV<E_\nu <10^6GeV$$
(1)   
$$10^{36}\left(\frac{E_\nu }{1GeV}\right)^{0.4}cm^2\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.33em}10}^6GeV<E_\nu <10^{12}GeV$$
(2)   
We shall be concerned about inelastic reactions initiated by all neutrino flavors. Even though there is considerable uncertainty in the actual contribution to the fluxes from various sources, we shall see that our final results are largely insensitive to the precise value. As in Gandhi et al.  we shall adopt the (conservative) differential neutrino fluxes $`dN_\nu /dE_\nu `$

$$10^6\left(\frac{E_\nu }{1GeV}\right)^2GeV^1cm^2srs^1E_\nu <10^6GeV$$
(3)   
$$10\left(\frac{E_\nu }{1GeV}\right)^{3.5}GeV^1cm^2srs^1E_\nu >10^6GeV.$$
(4)   
Actually we shall see in the next section that only the first range is relevant for our problem and that a rougher estimate than eqs.(1-4) would have sufficed.

## III Strangelet production rate

We wish to address the number of neutrino events that produce a strangelet in the final state inside the neutron star. The interesting stellar region is that above the neutron drip point ($`\rho _D\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{11}gcm^3`$); since a strangelet could be even produced in the outer shells (nuclear lattice) without necessarily triggering the full conversion of the star. Free neutrons do not feel the strangelet Coulomb barrier ($`1020MeV`$) and guarantee the growth and eventually the full burning, justifying the focusing on the condition $`\rho _{reaction}>\rho _D`$. We may say that the outer crust acts as a shield against harmful strangelet-producing neutrino reactions. If we assume an exponential decrease of the outer crust from the drip point up to the surface as a reasonable approximation, the optical depth of the outer crust is

$$\tau (E_\nu )=\sigma (E_\nu )\overline{n}\delta r;$$
(5)   
where $`\overline{n}=n_D/4`$ and $`\delta r\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}100}m`$ is the minimal width of this region taken from model calculations.

Let us define the probability of a strangelet production in the final state (i.e. the $`anything`$ of the neutrino interaction) in the $`\rho >\rho _D`$ region as $`P_{prod}=P_{QG}\times P_s`$, where $`P_{QG}`$ is the probability of a quark-gluon plasma formation and $`P_s`$ is the probability of distillating (that is, fragmenting into a reasonable size, separating strangeness from antistrangeness and cooling to the ground state ; see also  for a through discussion of the physics of the process) a strangelet out of the pre-existing quark-gluon plasma. We have assumed the simple parametrized expressions $`P_{QG}=\mathrm{\Theta }(E_\nu E^{min})`$ and $`P_s=constant`$ in our calculation (see Ref. and below). Here $`E^{min}`$ is the minimum neutrino energy in the laboratory frame which would yield enough energy density in the center-of-mass to produce the quark-gluon plasma (which is probably not less than a few $`GeV/fm^3`$ ). The strangelet production rate in this approximation is simply

$$\xi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\pi R_{NS}^2_{E_0}^{\mathrm{}}P_{prod}(E_\nu )\frac{dN_\nu }{dE_\nu }\mathrm{exp}(\tau (E_\nu ))𝑑E_\nu $$
(6)   
An approximate integration of eq.(6) yields the result

$$\xi \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\pi \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^4P_s\mathrm{exp}(10\delta _{100}E_{GeV}^{min})\times (E_{GeV}^{min})^2\delta _{100}^1;$$
(7)   
where we have defined $`\delta _{100}(\delta r/100m)`$ and $`E_{GeV}^{min}E^{min}/GeV`$. If we want that neutron stars remain as such along their lives $`\tau `$, we shall demand the product to be $`\xi \overline{\tau }<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$; or (adopting a neutron star mean age of $`\overline{\tau }=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}Myr`$); that $`P_s`$ satisfies the bound

$$P_s<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{15}\delta _{100}\times (E_{GeV}^{min})^2\mathrm{exp}(10\delta _{100}E_{GeV}^{min})$$
(8)   
For reference, an upper bound on the strangelet production rate $`P_{prod}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}`$ has been derived from data in heavy ion collisions  at ultrarrelativistic center-of-mass energies. The main uncertainty of our estimate is the actual value $`E^{min}`$. However, for the reactions at energies substantially higher than $`1GeV`$, the strangelet production is exponentially suppressed by the opacity of the crust and the conversions can not be triggered by sparking. We note in passing that this fact justifies the approximation $`P_s=constant`$ made in eqs.(6-8). In other words, that the exact energy dependence of $`P_s`$ is irrelevant for our considerations.

## IV Discussion and conclusions

We have estimated the strangelet production rate inside neutron stars using a simple scheme for understanding that process. Given its production, the details of a quark-gluon fireball production and further evolution are quite complicated as discussed in Refs.. The additional complication of the fireball evolution being not in vacuum but in dense matter should not really change the situation too much because the thermal pressure of the fireball is expected to exceed the sum of the vacuum pressure and external pressures. However, the main result of this calculation is that neutrino sparking is not likely to be an effective mechanism for the conversions unless the minimum neutrino energy for the production of the quark-gluon plasma happens to be very low in the stellar environment. Only if that minimum is $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}GeV`$, the astrophysical bound on $`P_s`$ is better than the heavy ion one  and there is a possibility mantaining neutron stars as such without conflicting with laboratory limits. For $`E^{min}`$ as low as $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}GeV`$ an effective sparking mechanism would require $`P_s\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$, which is clearly ruled out. At even higher energies neutrinos would eventually reach the required threshold, but in this case they will be completely stopped in the outer crust (see eq.8). Since no QGP signature is seen in deeply inelastic scattering experiments at energies much greater than $`E_\nu 1GeV`$, we conclude that the process is never effective to convert neutron stars into strange stars.

It should be kept in mind that the discussed scenario is not the only one which can give rise to strangelets in neutron stars. Conversion via two-flavor quark matter formation  or the presence of strangelets in the supernova progenitor becoming active after neutronization  are likely alternatives (and there may be another ones as well, see ). We conclude that, as long as neutrino sparking goes, the case for a mixed NS-SS population seems to be weak.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to acknowledge the PROINTER Program of São Paulo University which made possible our continuing collaboration. The CONICET and CNPq Agencies are also acknowledged for partial financial support to H.V. and J.E.H. respectively.