Quark star

A hypothetical compact stellar remnant composed largely of deconfined quark matter. If stable, it would be denser than a neutron star and smaller at a comparable mass.

Quark matter: Matter in which quarks are not confined into individual protons and neutrons. It is the deconfined material thought to make up most of a quark star.
Neutron star: A compact stellar remnant supported against gravity primarily by pressure from dense nuclear matter. It is the standard comparison: quark stars would contain deconfined matter at greater density.
Strangelet: A hypothetical small, finite lump of strange quark matter. Stable strangelets would support the possibility that strange quark matter can form stable stellar matter.
Edward Witten: An American theoretical physicist whose work spans quantum field theory, string theory, and mathematical physics. His 1984 proposal of stable strange quark matter helped motivate strange-star models.
Quantum chromodynamics: The theory describing the strong interaction between quarks and gluons. It governs the interactions that determine whether dense quark matter can exist.
Hybrid star: A hypothetical compact star with a quark-matter core surrounded by hadronic matter. Unlike a quark star, it would retain a substantial outer region of ordinary nuclear matter.
Neutron star–quark star transition: A proposed conversion of a neutron star into a compact star containing deconfined quark matter. The transition's conditions and observable signals remain uncertain.
Bodmer–Witten hypothesis: The conjecture that strange quark matter may be the most stable form of matter at zero pressure. It provides a possible foundation for stars made entirely of self-bound strange matter.
Color superconductivity: A phase of quark matter in which quarks form Cooper pairs and develop collective quantum behavior. Pairing could alter the pressure and stability of quark-star interiors.
Black hole: A region of spacetime from which nothing, including light, can escape beyond its event horizon. At high mass, observations must distinguish a compact material star from a black hole.

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