Quark Stars in Ricci-Determinant Gravity with an Interacting Quark Equation of State
In the present study, we explore the fundamental properties of static, spherically symmetric quark stars composed of quark matter with an interacting quark equation of state (EoS) within the framework of Ricci-Determinant gravity. To this end, we adopt the relativistic stellar structure equations for compact objects derived in the literature. Our primary objective is to investigate deviations from General Relativity (GR) in key physical characteristics, particularly the mass--radius relation and stability criteria, arising from the free parameters of this extended gravitational theory. We see that, unlike the hadronic case, the model predicts a reduction in the compactness of quark stars. This parameter is also sensitive to gravitational binding-energy analysis, revealing a breakdown of the assumed universality. Furthermore, the formation of objects with high central densities is restricted by the instability conditions that arise when the contribution of perturbative terms exceeds by approximately half the contribution of ordinary GR, indicating a clear limitation in the theory.