Signal of Quark Deconfinement in Millisecond Pulsars and Reconfinement in Accreting X-ray Neutron Stars

Abstract

Theoretically, the phase transition between the confined and deconfined phases of quarks can have a remarkable effect on the spin properties of millisecond pulsars and on the spin distribution of the population of x-ray neutron stars in low-mass binaries. In the latter class of stars, the effect has already been observed---a strong clustering in the population in a narrow band of spins. The observed clustering cannot presently be uniquely assigned to the phase transition as cause. However, there is another possible signal---not so far observed---in millisecond pulsars that we also discuss. It would have the same origin, and its discovery would tend to confirm the interpretation in terms of a phase transition in the stellar core and that the high density phase exists in the higer mass canonical neutron stars.