Electroweak star

An electroweak star is a theoretical type of exotic star, whereby the gravitational collapse of the star is prevented by radiation pressure resulting from electroweak burning. That is, the energy relased by conversion of quarks to leptons through the electroweak force.

The stage of life of a star that produces an electroweak star is theorized to occur after a supernova collapse. Electroweak stars are denser than quark stars, and may form when quark denegeracy pressure is no longer able to withstand gravitational attraction, but may still be withstood by electroweak burning radiation pressure.

Sources

• ScienceDaily, "Theorists Propose a New Way to Shine -- And a New Kind of Star: 'Electroweak'", Dec. 15, 2009 (accessed 16-12-2009)
• SpaceDaily, "A New Way To Shine, A New Kind Of Star", Dec 16, 2009 (accessed 16-12-2009)
• Astronomy Magazine's Astronomy.com, "Theorists propose a new way to shine — and a new kind of star", December 15, 2009 (accessed 16-12-2009)
• Technology Review, "Astronomers Predict New Class of 'Electroweak' Star", Thursday, December 10, 2009 (accessed 16-12-2009)
• Softpedia, "New Type of Cosmic Objects: Electroweak Stars", Tudor Vieru, 15th of December 2009, 11:11 GMT (accessed 16-12-2009)

Further Reading

• arXiv, "Electroweak stars: how nature may capitalize on the standard model's ultimate fuel", De-Chang Dai, Arthur Lue, Glenn Starkman, Dejan Stojkovic, 2 Dec 2009, arXiv:0912.0520v1 [hep-ph] , Bibcode:2009arXiv0912.0520D

See also

• Electroweak force
• Quark nova
• Quark star
• Lepton
• Quark
• Degenerate matter
• Degeneracy pressure