Quark stars with isotropic matter in Hořava gravity and Einstein–æther theory

Abstract

AbstractWe study non-rotating and isotropic strange quark stars in Lorentz-violating theories of gravity, and in particular in Hořava gravity and Einstein-æther theory. For quark matter we adopt both linear and non-linear equations of state, corresponding to the MIT bag model and color flavor locked state, respectively. The new structure equations describing hydrostatic equilibrium generalize the usual Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) equations of Einstein’s general relativity. A dimensionless parameter $$\nu $$ν measures the deviation from the standard TOV equations, which are recovered in the limit $$\nu \rightarrow 0$$ν→0. We compute the mass, the radius as well as the compactness of the stars, and we show graphically the impact of the parameter $$\nu $$ν on the mass-to-radius profiles for different equations of state describing quark matter. The energy conditions and stability criteria are also considered, and they are all found to be fulfilled.