Planets orbiting Quark Nova compact remnants
/ Authors
/ Abstract
We explore planet formation in the Quark Nova scenario. If a millisecond pulsar explodes as a Quark Nova, a pro- toplanetary disk can be formed out of the metal rich fall-back material. The propeller mechanism transfers angular momentum from the born quark star to the disk that will go through viscous evolution with later plausible grain condensation and planet formation. As a result, earth-size planets on circular orbits may form within short radii from the central quark star. The planets in the PSR 1257+12 system can be explained by our model if the Quark Nova compact remnant is born with a period of0: 5m s following the explosion. We suggest that a good portion of the Quark Nova remnants may harbour planetary systems.
Journal: Astronomy and Astrophysics