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A polytropic quark star model is suggested in order to establish a general framework in which theoretical quark star models could be tested by observations. The key difference between polytropic quark stars and the polytropic model studied previously for normal (i.e., non-quarkian) stars is related to two issues: (i) a constant term representing the contribution of vacuum energy may be added in the energy density and the pressure for a quark star, but not for a normal star; (ii) the quark star models with non-vanishing density at the stellar surface are not avoidable due to the strong interaction between quarks. The first one implies that the vacuum inside a quark star is different from that outside, while the second one is relevant to the effect of color confinement. The polytropic equations of state are stiffer than that derived in conventional realistic models (e.g., the bag model) for quark matter, and pulsar-like stars calculated with a polytropic equation of state could then have high maximum masses (> 2 M_sun). Quark stars can also be very low massive, and be still gravitationally stable even if the polytropic index, n, is greater than 3. All these would result in different mass-radius relations, which could be tested by observations. In addition, substantial strain energy would develop in a solid quark star during its accretion/spindown phase, and could be high enough to take a star-quake. The energy released during star-quakes could be as high as ~ 10^{47} ergs if the tangential pressure is ~ 10^{-6} higher than the radial one., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, last version accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

Pulsars have been recognized as normal neutron stars or quark stars. Sub-millisecond pulsars, if detected, would play an essential and important role in distinguishing quark stars from neutron stars. A key question is how sub-millisecond pulsars could form. Both sub-Keplerian (for neutron and quark stars) and super-Keplerian cases (only for quark stars, which are bound additionally by strong interaction) have been discussed in this paper in order to investigate possible ways of forming sub-millisecond pulsars. In the sub-Keplerian case, the equilibrium periods of both neutron and quark stars could be as low as ~0.4 ms when they are spun up through accretion in binary systems. In the super-Keplerian case, pulsars could very likely have an initial period of ~0.1 ms if quark stars with different mass could be formed from accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of white dwarfs. The timescale for a sub-millisecond pulsar to keep its period <1 ms is restricted due to gravitational wave radiation. We found that the timescales of neutron stars within sub-millisecond periods are approximately ~10 yr, but the timescales estimated (>10 Myr) for low-mass quark stars could be long enough for us to detect., Comment: 12pages, 1 figure, 3 table, this paper has been withdrawn

Many models for the pulsar radio and $\gamma$-ray emissions have been developed. The tests for these models using observational data are very important. Tests for the pulsar radio emission models using frequency-altitude relation are presented in this paper. In the radio band, the mean pulse profiles evolve with observing frequencies. There are various styles of pulsar profile - frequency evolutions (which we call as "beam evolution" figure), e.g. some pulsars show that mean pulse profiles are wider and core emission is higher at higher frequencies than that at lower frequencies, but some other pulsars show completely the contrary results. We show that all these "beam evolution" figures can be understood by the Inverse Compton Scattering(ICS) model (see Qiao at al.2001 also). An important observing test is that, for a certain observing frequency different emission components are radiated from the different heights. For the $\gamma$-ray pulsars, the geometrical method (Wang et al. 2006) can be used to diagnose the radiation location for the $\gamma$-ray radiation. As an example, Wang et al. (2006) constrain the $\gamma$-ray radiation location of PSR B1055-52 to be the place near the null charge surface. Here we show that Wang's result matches the proposed radiation locations by the annular gap model as well as the outer gap models., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of "Astrophysics of Compact Objects", 1th-7th, July, 2007

A series of five unusual slow glitches of the radio pulsar B1822-09 (PSR J1825-0935) were observed over the 1995-2005 interval. This phenomenon is understood in a solid quark star model, where the reasonable parameters for slow glitches are presented in the paper. It is proposed that, because of increasing shear stress as a pulsar spins down, a slow glitch may occur, beginning with a collapse of a superficial layer of the quark star. This layer of material turns equivalently to viscous fluid at first, the viscosity of which helps deplete the energy released from both the accumulated elastic energy and the gravitation potential. This performs then a process of slow glitch. Numerical calculations show that the observed slow glitches could be reproduced if the effective coefficient of viscosity is ~10^2 cm^{2}/s and the initial velocity of the superficial layer is order of 10^{-10} cm/s in the coordinate rotating frame of the star., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS (Main Journal)

If the binding energy of the pulsar's surface is not so high (the case of a neutron star), both the negative and positive charges will flow out freely from the surface of the star. The annular free flow model for $\gamma$-ray emission of pulsars is suggested in this paper. It is emphasized that: (1). Two kinds of acceleration regions (annular and core) need to be taken into account. The annular acceleration region is defined by the magnetic field lines that cross the null charge surface within the light cylinder. (2). If the potential drop in the annular region of a pulsar is high enough (normally the cases of young pulsars), charges in both the annular and the core regions could be accelerated and produce primary gamma-rays. Secondary pairs are generated in both regions and stream outwards to power the broadband radiations. (3). The potential drop in the annular region grows more rapidly than that in the core region. The annular acceleration process is a key point to produce wide emission beams as observed. (4). The advantages of both the polar cap and outer gap models are retained in this model. The geometric properties of the $\gamma$-ray emission from the annular flow is analogous to that presented in a previous work by Qiao et al., which match the observations well. (5). Since charges with different signs leave the pulsar through the annular and the core regions, respectively, the current closure problem can be partially solved., Comment: 11 pages 2 figures, accepted by Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The consistence of the distributions of pulsar's kick velocities from the model of GRB and from the pulsar observations is tested based on the supernova-GRB ($\gamma$-ray burst) association and under the assumption that the GRB asymmetric explosions produce pulsars. The deduced distribution of kick velocity from the model of GRB and the observed kick distribution of radio pulsars are checked by K-S test. These two distributions are found to come from a same parent population. This result may indicate that GRBs could be really related to supernova, and that the asymmetry of GRB associated with supernova would cause the kick of pulsars., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepeted by A&A

The main idea and procedure are presented for a new synthetical method on constraining 3-D structure of emission regions of pulsars. With this method the emission regions can be synthetically constrained by fitting multi-wavelength observations features, e.g. pulse widths, phase offsets between radio pulse profiles and high energy light curves, and radio polarization properties. The main technique is based on numerically calculating the emission directions along any open field line via including aberration and retardation effects under a certain magnetic field configuration, e.g. vacuum dipole field. It can be easily extended by involving some further effects or magnetic field line configuration. The role of observed linear polarization properties in the method is discussed. The future application to known X/gamma-ray and radio pulsars will be helpful to test and improve current theoretical models on pulsar emission., Comment: Proceedings of the 363. WE-Heraeus Seminar on: Neutron Stars and Pulsars (Posters and contributed talks) Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany, May.14-19, 2006, eds. W.Becker, H.H.Huang, MPE Report 291, pp.134-136

The pulsar PSR B1828-11 has long-term, highly periodic and correlated variations in both pulse shape and the rate of slow-down. This phenomenon may provide evidence for precession of the pulsar as suggested previously within the framework of free precession as well as forced one. On a presumption of forced precession, we propose a quark planet model to this precession henomenon instead, in which the pulsar is torqued by a quark planet. We construct this model by constraining mass of the pulsar ($M_{\rm psr}$), mass of the planet ($M_{\rm pl}$) and orbital radius of the planet ($r_{\rm pl}$). Five aspects are considered: derived relation between $M_{\rm psr}$ and $r_{\rm pl}$, movement of the pulsar around the center of mass, ratio of $M_{\rm psr}$ and $M_{\rm pl}$, gravitational wave radiation timescale of the planetary system, and death-line criterion. We also calculate the range of precession period derivative and gravitational wave strength (at earth) permitted by the model. Under reasonable parameters, the observed phenomenon can be understood by a pulsar ($10^{-4}\sim10^{-1}M_{\odot}$) with a quark planet ($10^{-8}\sim10^{-3}M_{\odot}$) orbiting it. According to the calculations presented, the pulsar would be a quark star because of its low mass, which might eject a lump of quark matter (to become a planet around) during its birth., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRAS (Letters)

We propose to determine the mass and the radius of a neutron star (NS) using three measurable mass-radius relationships, namely the ``apparent'' radius inferred from neutron star thermal emission, the gravitational redshift inferred from the absorption lines, as well as the averaged stellar mass density inferred from the orbital Keplerian frequency derived from the kilohertz quasi periodic oscillation (kHz QPO) data. We apply the method to constrain the NS mass and the radius of the X-ray sources, 1E 1207.4-5209, Aql X-1 and EXO 0748-676., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MNRAS

The nature of AXPs/SGRs (anomalous X-ray pulsars/soft $\gamma$-ray repeaters) and high field radio pulsars is still unclear even in the magnetar and/or accretion models. The detection of radio emission from AXP XTE J1810$-$197 and the discovery of a debris disk around AXP 4U 0142+61 might shed light on the problem. We propose that AXPs/SGRs could be pulsars that have magnetic field $B\lesssim 10^{13} \mathrm{G}$ as normal pulsars, but in accretion environments. We investigate these issues under the accretion model and find that two of the AXPs/SGRs might be low mass quark stars if all AXPs and SGRs are likely grouped together., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figures, submitted to "Advances in Space Research" (Proceedings of COSPAR 2006)

The pulse profile of pulsar gives geometric information about pulsar's radiation model. After investigating the pulse profiles of PSR B1642-03 and PSR B0950+08, we calculate the ratios of beam width and the emission height between different frequencies. We find that the ratios are almost constants as inclination angle $\alpha$ changes from $0^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$. The ratios can be used to test pulsar's radiation model. In particular it can well constrain the parameter space of the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) model. These constrained parameters indicate some physical implication for the ICS model., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to "Advances in Space Research" (Proceedings of COSPAR 2006)

As a result of observational difficulties, braking indices of only six rotation-powered pulsars are obtained with certainty, all of which are remarkably smaller than the value ($n=3$) expected for pure magnetodipole radiation model. This is still a real fundamental question not being well answered after nearly forty years of the discovery of pulsar. The main problem is that we are shamefully not sure about the dominant mechanisms that result in pulsars' spin-down. Based on the previous works, the braking index is re-examined, with a conclusion of suggesting a constant gap potential drop for pulsars with magnetospheric activities. New constrains on model parameters from observed braking indices are presented., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to "Advances in Space Research" (Proceedings of COSPAR 2006)

Three times of supergiant flares from soft $\gamma$-ray repeatres are observed, with typical released energy of $\sim 10^{44-47}$ erg. A conventional model (i.e., the magnetar model) for such events is catastrophic magnetism-powered instability through magnetohydrodynamic process, in which a significant part of short-hard $\gamma$-ray bursts could also be the results of magnetars. Based on various observational features (e.g., precession, glitch, thermal photon emission) and the underlying theory of strong interaction (quantum chromodynamics, QCD), it could not be ruled out yet that pulsar-like stars might be actually solid quark stars. Strain energy develops during a solid star's life, and starquakes could occur when stellar stresses reach a critical value, with huge energy released. An alternative model for supergiant flares of soft $\gamma$-ray repeatres is presented, in which energy release during a star quake of solid quark stars is calculated. Numerical results for spherically asymmetric solid stars show that the released gravitational energy during a giant quake could be as high as $10^{48}$ erg if the tangential pressure is slightly higher than the radial one. Difficulties in magnetar models may be overcome if AXPs/SGRs are accreting solid quark stars with mass $\sim (1-2)M_\odot$., Comment: Extensive discussions are presented, with a new figure added to show the change of mass and radius of accreting quark stars

A recent X-ray observation has shown that the radio pulsar PSR B0943+10, with clear drifting subpulses, has a much smaller polar cap area than that of conventional pulsars with mass of $\sim\msun$ and radius of $\sim10$ km. Zhang et al. (2005) addressed then that this new result conflicts with the standard vacuum gap model. Nonetheless, the discrepancy could be explained if PSR B0943+10 is actually a low-mass quark star. It is found that the potential drop in the open-field-line region of oblique pulsars (i.e., inclination angle $\alpha\neq 0$) might be $\sim 10^2$ times that of aligned pulsars, and that PSR B0943+10 with $\alpha = 12.4^{\rm o}$ could be well above the deathline. We thus conclude that the Ruderman-Sutherland-type vacuum gap model still works well for this pulsar if it is a bare quark star with a mass of $\sim 0.02M_\odot$ and a radius of $\sim 2.6$ km., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

The gravitational radiation from compact pulsar-like stars depends on the state of dense matter at supranuclear densities, i.e., the nature of pulsar (e.g., either normal neutron stars or quark stars). The solid quark star model is focused for the nature of pulsar-like compact objects. Possible gravitational emission of quark stars (either fluid or solid) during the birth and later lifetime is discussed. Several observational features to distinguish various models for pulsar-like stars are proposed. It is suggested that the gravitational wave behaviors should be mass-dependent. Based on the data from the second LIGO science run, the upper limits of R.theta^{1/5} and thus M.theta^{3/5} (M: mass, R: radius, and theta: wobble angle) are provided for those targets of millisecond pulsars., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, and 1 table, revised, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

The enigma source, RX J1856.5-3754, is one of the so-called dim thermal neutron stars. Two puzzles of RXJ1856.5-3754 exist: (1) the observational X-ray spectrum is completely featureless; (2) the UV-optical intensity is about seven times larger than that given by the continuation of the blackbody model yielded by the X-ray data. Both the puzzles would not exist anymore if RX J1856.5-3754 is a low mass bare strange quark star, which is in a propeller phase with a low accretion rate. A boundary layer of RX J1856.5-3754 is suggested and modelled, from which the UV-optical emission is radiated. Free-free absorption dominates the opacity of the boundary layer, which results in the opacity to be high in UV-optical but low in X-ray bands. The star's magnetic field, spin period, as well as the accretion rate are constrained by observations., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, or at: http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

A unique transient bursting radio source, GCRT J1745-3009, has been discovered (Hyman et al. 2005a) near the direction of the Galactic center. It is still an open question to explain this phenomenon, although some efforts to understand its nature have been made. This paper shows that most of the observed features can be reproduced by our proposed precessing pulsar model. It is found that the precession angle of the pulsar should be larger ($\ga 15^{\rm o}$) than that of previously known precessing pulsars, which have a precession angle $\la 10^{\rm o}$, if the beam width of the pulsar is larger than 10 degree. The pulsar could be a nulling (or even extremely) radio pulsars to account for the transient nature of the source. This model can be confirmed if a pulsar is detected at the position of the source. The pulsar could hardly be a normal neutron star (but probably a solid quark star) if the spin period of the pulsar is detected to be $\ga 10$ ms in the future., Comment: 6 page and 3 figures. Accepted for publication in MN LETTERS

Efforts are made to understand the timing behaviors (e.g., the jumps of the projected pulsar semimajor axis in the periastron passages) observed via 13-year timing for PSR B1259-63. In the first, planet-like objects are suggested to orbit around the Be star, which may gravitationally perturb the (probably low mass) pulsar when it passes through periastron. Second, an accretion disk should exist outside the pulsar's light cylinder, which creates a spindown torque on the pulsar due to the propeller effect. The observed negative braking index and the discrepant timing residuals close to periastron could be relevant to the existence of the disk with varying accretion rates. Third, a speculation is presented that the accretion rate may increase on a long timescale in order to explain the negative braking index., Comment: Revised version submitted to ChJAA

A quake model of bare strange stars for normal pulsar glitches is summarized. Three mechanisms being responsible for developing elastic stress energy are presented. It is suggested that other kinds of glitches (e.g, the frequency glitch in KS 1947+300 and in AXP/SGRs) could represent the bulk-strain-induced quakes. The apparent field increase of normal pulsars into ``magnetars'' could be the result of stellar catastrophic shrinking when the elastic force raises to a critical point., Comment: COSPAR-2004, 6 papges

Strange stars with low masses are suggested to exist in reality, the origin of which could be via accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of white dwarfs. Such a strange star is likely bare, and would thus spin very fast, even to a period of < 0.1 ms. Strange stars with low masses may differ from those with solar-masses in various astrophysical appearances. Observations to test this ``low-mass'' idea are proposed., Comment: COSPAR-2004, E1.4, 6 pages

A new drifting pulsar, PSR J0815+09, was discovered in the Arecibo drift-scan searches. An intriguing feature of this source is that within the four pulse components in the integrated pulse profile, the sub-pulse drifting direction in the two leading components is opposite from that in the two trailing components. In view that the leading theoretical model for pulsar sub-pulse drifting can only interpret one-direction sub-pulse drifting, the observed "bi-drifting" phenomenon from PSR J0815+09 poses a great challenge to the pulsar theory. The inner annular gap (IAG), a new type of inner particle accelerator, was recently proposed to explain both $\gamma$-ray and radio emission from pulsars. Here we show that the coexistence of the IAG and the conventional inner core gap (ICG) offers a natural interpretation to the bi-drifting phenomenon. In particular, the peculiar drifting behavior in PSR J0815+09 can be reproduced within the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) model for pulsar radio emission., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, ApJL, accepted

The quark matter may have great implications in astrophysical studies, which could appear in the early Universe, in compact stars, and/or as cosmic rays. After a general review of astrophysical quark matter, the density-dominated quark matter is focused., Comment: Talk presented in the 5th micro-QSO Workshop in June 11, 2004. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, 6 pages, 2 eps-figs

A starquake mechanism for pulsar glitches is developed in the solid quark star model. It is found that the general glitch natures (i.e., the glitch amplitudes and the time intervals) could be reproduced if solid quark matter, with high baryon density but low temperature, has properties of shear modulus \mu = 10^{30~34} erg/cm^3 and critical stress \sigma_c = 10^{18~24} erg/cm^3. The post-glitch behavior may represent a kind of damped oscillations., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures (but Fig.3 is lost), a complete version can be obtained by http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm, a new version to be published on Astroparticle Physics

The inner annular gap (IAG), a new type of inner gap whose magnetic field lines intersect the null charge surface (NCS), is proposed to explain $\gamma$-ray and radio emission from pulsars. The IAG can be an important source for high-energy particles. The particles can radiate between the NCS and the IAG. Some observational characteristics in both $\gamma$-ray and radio bands, such as the $\gamma$-ray emission beams of Crab-like, Vela-like and Geminga-like, can be reproduced by numerical method. It is predicted that the view angle $\zeta$ should be larger than the inclination angle ($\zeta>\alpha$), otherwise the $\gamma$-ray radiation will have little possibility to be observed. Whether the inner annular gap (or cap) is sparking (or free flow) depends on the surface binding energy of the pulsar. In stead of neutron star models, the scenario of the IAG is favorable for bare strange star models, because bare strange stars can easily satisfy the requisite condition to form an IAG for both pulsars ($\vec{\Omega}\cdot \vec{B}<0$) and anti-pulsars ($\vec\Omega \cdot \vec{B}>0$)., Comment: ApJL, accepted

After a brief introduction to the necessary of quark stars in modelling pulsars, I present a qualitative analysis of the solidification of quark matter with low-temperature but high-density. The reason, that a solid neutron star could not be possible, is also given., Comment: 3 pages, no figure. Proceedings of CAS Symposium No.365/The 18th Guo Shoujing Summer School on Astrophysics: "Beyond the Milky Way: Progress in Extragalactic X-Ray Astronomy with Chandra and XMM-Newton" (September 21-24, 2003), Eds: Fuzhen Cheng, Junhan You, and K. Makishima

Both rotation- and accretion-powered low-mass bare strange stars are studied, the astrophysical appearances of which are especially focused. It is suggested that low-mass bare strange stars, with weaker ferromagnetic fields than that of normal pulsars, could result from accretion-induced collapses (AIC) of white dwarfs. According to its peculiar timing behavior, we propose that the radio-quiet object, 1E 1207.4-5209, could be a low-mass bare strange star with polar surface magnetic field ~ 6 x 10^10 G and a few kilometers in radius. The low-mass bare strange star idea is helpful to distinguish neutron and strange stars, and is testable by imaging pulsar-like stars with the future Constellation-X telescope., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; changed significantly, a section "quark matter phenomenology" added; accepted by MNRAS

The reason, we need three terms of `strange', `bare', and `solid' before quark stars, is presented concisely though some fundamental issues are not certain. Observations favoring these stars are introduced., Comment: 4 page and no figure, IAU Symposium No.218, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_C.htm

Within the realms of the possibility of solid quark matter, we fitted the 500ks Chandra LETG/HRC data for RX J1856.5-3754 with a phenomenological spectral model, and found that electric conductivity of quark matter on the stellar surface is about > 1.2 x 10^{18} s^{-1}., Comment: 2 page and no figure, IAU Symposium No.218, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_C.htm

Using the method proposed in a previous paper, we calculate pulsar braking indices in the models with torque contributions from both inner and outer accelerating regions, assuming that the interaction between them is negligible. We suggest that it is likely that the inverse Compton scattering induced polar vacuum gap and the outer gap coexist in the pulsar magnetosphere. We include the new near threshold vacuum gap models with curvature-radiation and inverse Compton scattering induced cascades, respectively; and find that these models can well reproduce the measured values of the braking indices., Comment: A&Ap accepted, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

It is found that 1E 1207.4-5209 could be a low-mass bare strange star if its small radius or low altitude cyclotron formation can be identified. The age problems of five sources could be solved by a fossil-disk-assisted torque. The magnetic dipole radiation dominates the evolution of PSR B1757-24 at present, and the others are in propeller (or tracking) phases., Comment: ApJL accepted, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

The long-term, highly periodic and correlated variations in both the pulse shape and the rate of slow-down of two isolated pulsars (PSRs) PSR B1828-11 and PSR B1642-03 were discovered recently. This phenomenon may provide evidence for "free precession" as suggested in the literature. Some authors presented various kinds of models to explain this phenomenon within the framework of free precession. Here we present an accretion disk model for this precession phenomenon instead. Under reasonable parameters, the observed phenomenon can be explained by an isolated pulsar with a fossil disk. This may link radio pulsars and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and present an indirect evidence for the existence of the fossil disk in nature., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in A&A Letter

Although pulsars can radiate electromagnetic wave from radio to gamma ray bands, we still have no a united model to understand the multi-band emission. In this paper the effort for a joint model is presented. The inverse Compton scattering (ICS) and a second acceleration process near the null charge surface are involved to account for the radio and the gama-ray emission, respectively. Various kind of pulse profiles and other observational properties can be reproduced., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure, IAU Symposium No.214 on "High Energy Processes and Phenomena in Astrophysics", August, 2002, Suzhou, China, in press

The radiation of pulsars have been observed for many years. A few pulsars are discovered to have both radio and gamma-ray emission. Many models on pulsar radiation have been developed, but so far we are still lacking an elaborate model which can explain the emission from radio to gamma-rays in detail. In this paper we present a joint model for radio and gamma-ray emission, in which both the dominate emission mechanisms are inverse Compton scattering. The pulse profiles at radio and gamma-ray bands are reproduced for the Crab-like, Vela-like and Geminga-like pulsars, in good agreement with observations., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, in the meeting on "Radio Pulsars", Crete 2002, in press

It is conjectured that cold quark matter with much high baryon density could be in a solid state, and strange stars with low temperatures should thus be solid stars. The speculation could be close to the truth if no peculiar polarization of thermal X-ray emission (in, e.g., RXJ1856), or no gravitational wave in post-glitch phases, is detected in future advanced facilities, or if spin frequencies beyond the critical ones limited by r-mode instability are discovered. The shear modulus of solid quark matter could be ~ 10^{32} erg/cm^3 if the kHz QPOs observed are relevant to the eigenvalues of the center star oscillations., Comment: Revised significantly, ApJL accepted, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

The conjecture that ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are actually strangelets is discussed. Besides the reason that strangelets can do as cosmic rays beyond the GZK-cutoff, another argument to support the conjecture is addressed in this letter via the study of formation of TeV-scale microscopic black holes when UHECRs bombarding bare strange stars. It is proposed that the exotic quark surface of a bare strange star could be an effective astro-laboratory in the investigations of the extra dimensions and of the detection of ultra-high energy neutrino fluxes. The flux of neutrinos (and other point-like particles) with energy >2.3 x 10^{20} eV could be expected to be smaller than 10^{-26} cm^{-2}$ s^{-1} if there are two extra spatial dimensions., Comment: accepted by Chin. Phys. Lett., or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

Recent achievements of bare strange stars are briefly reviewed. A nascent protostrange star should be bare because of strong mass ejection and high temperature after the supernova detonation flame, and a crust can also hardly form except for a super-Eddington accretion. The magnetosphere of a bare strange star is composed mainly of electron-positron pair plasma, where both inner and outer vacuum gaps work for radio as well as high energy nonthermal emission. A featureless thermal spectrum is expected since no ion is above the quark surface, whilst electron cyclotron lines could appear in some bare strange stars with suitable magnetic fields. Various astrophysical implications of bare strange stars are discussed., Comment: 9 page and no figure, The 6th pacific rim conference on steller astrophysics -- a tribute to Helmut A. Abt, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_C.htm

A pedagogical overview of strange quark matter and strange stars is presented. After a historical notation of the research and an introduction to quark matter, a major part is devoted to the physics and astrophysics of strange stars, with attention being paid to the possible ways by which neutron stars and strange stars can be distinguished in astrophysics. Recent possible evidence for bare strange stars is also discussed., Comment: 8 page and no figure, IAU Symposium No.214, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

The mass-radius relations for bare and crusted strange stars are calculated with the bag model. Comparing these relations with the observed one derived from redshift, we address that the conclusion, that EXO 0748-676 can not be a strange star, is incorrect. Various strange star models can show that EXO 0748-676 could have a mass of (1.3 ~ 1.7) M_sun and a radius of (8.4 ~ 11.4) km. It is proposed that some nascent strange stars could be bare and have mass \~ 0.1 M_sun, whereas their masses increase during a long accretion history., Comment: 6 page and 1 figure, typo and others corrected, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

In a paper by Sanwal et al. (2002), it is supposed to be very difficult to interpret the absorption features in term of cyclotron lines. However, we would like to address here that the possibility of the absorption being cyclotron resonance can not be ruled out.We propose that the isolate neutron star, 1E 1207.4-5209 in the center of supernova remnant PKS 1209-51/52, has a debris disk and is in a propeller phase, with an accretion rate 6x10^{-11} M_solar/year., Comment: 4 page and 1 figure, revised substantially, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

According to two estimated relations between the initial period and the dynamo-generated magnetic dipole field of pulsars, we calculate the statistical distributions of pulsar initial periods. It is found that proto-pulsars are very likely to have rotation periods between 20 and 30 ms, and that most of the pulsars rotate initially at a period < 60 ms., Comment: submitted, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

The fastest millisecond pulsar PSR B1937+21 presents an interpulse separated from the main pulse by nealy 180^o at radio frequencies. Recently, the ASCA observations (Takahashi et al. 2001) detected pulsed X-ray emission from this pulsar. Only a single narrow X-ray pulse is observed, which is coincident with the radio interpulse in phase. We investigate the possible origin of the pulsed X-rays from the polar cap (PC) accelerators or the outer gap (OG) accelerators in the frame of PC model and OG model, respectively, by assuming a dipolar magnetic field structure and the same radio emission pattern from its poles for the pulsar. The OG model can naturally explain the main observational facts. For the PC model, the coincidence between the X-ray pulse and the radio interpulse can not be reproduced in the assumed case. However when considering possible deviation from our assumption, PC model may still be valid for this pulsar in some cases., Comment: 7 pages, to appear in Astrophysical Journal, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/P/wxq02.ps.gz

Motivated by trying to understand the absence of spectral lines in the thermal components of the X-ray compact sources observed recently by Chandra or XMM, we propose that these sources could be simply bare strange stars. The formation, cooling, and thermal photon radiation of bare strange stars have been investigated. It is suggested that thermal featureless spectrum could be a new probe for identifying strange stars., Comment: 4 pages, revised version to be published in ApJL, or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

The surface electric characteristics of bare strange stars are investigated with the inclusion of boundary effects. The thickness of the electron layer where pairs can be spontaneously created is calculated as a function of the bag parameters. We find that previous estimates are representative for bag parameters within a rather wide range, and therefore our results favor the thermal radiation mechanism of bare strange stars advanced by V. V. Usov., Comment: 5 pages, revised version for A&A (accepted), or at http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/publications/index_P.htm

Pulsar braking torques due to magnetodipole radiation and to unipolar generator are considered, which results in braking index being less than 3 and could be employed to test the emission models. Improved equations to obtain pulsar braking index and magnetic field are presented if we deem that the rotation energy loss rate equals to the sum of the dipole radiation energy loss rate and that of relativistic particles powered by unipolar generator. The magnetic field calculated by conventional way could be good enough but only modified by a factor of ~0.6 at most. Both inner and outer gaps may coexist in the magnetosphere of the Vela pulsar., Comment: A version with abbreviation, accepted by Astrophysical Journal Letters, http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu/

Extremely relativistic particles play an important role in various radiative mechanisms of pulsar radio as well as high-energy emission. It is thus very essential to estimate the Lorentz factor of these particles in the radiation regions both observationally and theoretically. In this paper, according to the frequency dependence of component separation and considering some radiation processes, we obtain the Lorentz factor and its variation in the radiation region observationally for seven multi-frequency observed pulsars. It is found that the Lorentz factor decays substantially in the emission region, and the decay can not be well understood by all known energy loss processes. This result hints that there are some unknown processes which are responsible to loosing energy effectively., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics

According to the observational limits on the radius and mass, the fastest rotating pulsar (PSR 1937+21) is probably a strange star, or at least some neutron star equations of state should be ruled out, if we suggest that a dipole magnetic field is relevant to its radio emission. We presume that the millisecond pulsar is a strange star with {\em much} low mass, small radius, and weak magnetic moment., Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, to be published in Chinese Physics Letters (2001), http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu

It is shown that protostrange stars (PSSs) can be convective and that there are two possible scenarios describing their turbulence. Besides the local turbulence on the scale which is less than the mean free path of neutrinos, large-scale (~1 km) convection also may occur with properties that are similar to those of convection in protoneutron stars (PNSs). We thus suggest that strange stars can also create dynamo-originated magnetic fields during the deleptonization episode soon after a supernova explosion. Further detailed investigations are needed to see whether or not strange stars and neutron stars can be distinguished according to the differences in dynamo actions in strange quark matter and in neutron matter. The magnetic fields of strange stars and neutron stars may also behave very differently during the accretion-phase when the fields decay., Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, to be published in A&A (2001), http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu

It is of great important to study pulsar beam shapes if we are concerned with emission theories and pulsar birth rate. Both observations and/or the inverse Compton scattering model show that different emission components are emitted from different heights. The relative longitude phase shifts due to different heights of emission components and to the toroidal velocity of electron are considered in this paper. Several possible observational features arising from the phase shift effects are presented. The emission beams may not have circular cross sections although the emission regions may be symmetric with respect to the magnetic axes., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX, to be published in Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2001), http://vega.bac.pku.edu.cn/~rxxu

During supernova explosions, strange stars with almost bare quark surfaces may be formed. Under certain conditions, these stars could be rapidly spun down by the torque exerted by the fossil disks formed from the fall-back materials. They may also receive large kicks and hence, have large proper motion velocities. When these strange stars pass through the spherical ``Oort'' comet cloud formed during the pre-supernova era, they will capture some small-scale comet clouds and collide with some comet-like objects occasionally. These impacts can account for the repeating bursts as observed from the soft gamma repeaters (SGRs). According to this picture, it is expected that SGR 1900+14 will become active again during 2004-2005., Comment: emulateapj, 5 pages, accepted by ApJ Letters

The Orthogonal Polarization Modes (OPM) have been reported observationally and accepted widely by pulsar researchers. However, no acceptable theory can show the origin of the OPM, which becomes a mystery in pulsar research field. Here a possible way to solve this mystery is presented. We ask a question: Does there exist any real so-called OPM in pulsar radiation? It is proposed in this paper that the `observed OPM' in individual pulses could be the results of depolarization of pulsar radiation and the observational uncertainties originated from polarimeter in observation. A possible way to check this idea is suggested. If the idea is verified, the pulsar research would be influenced significantly in theory and in observation., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures