Professor Fridolin Weber (SDSU Physics) co-authored a new study published in The European Physical Journal C investigating “strange dwarfs,” hypothetical compact stars containing a core of strange quark matter surrounded by a white-dwarf-like crust.
Using relativistic stellar models, the researchers studied how rotation affects the structure of these objects and compared them with ordinary white dwarfs. The study shows that rapid rotation can make strange dwarfs appear observationally very similar to conventional white dwarfs in mass-radius measurements, potentially hiding the presence of exotic quark matter in their interiors.
The work also identifies possible observational signatures that may help distinguish the two classes of compact stars in future astrophysical surveys and gravitational-wave observations.
The paper, titled “Rotating strange dwarfs and their indistinguishability from white dwarfs,” was authored by Edson Otoniel da Silva, José D. V. Arbañil, Geanderson A. Carvalho, and Fridolin Weber and published in Eur. Phys. J. C 86, 393 (2026). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-15666-4