ROTATIONAL PROPERTIES OF STRANGE STARS

In this paper, we present results from an investigation of the rotational properties of strange stars, using models with a canonical value of the bag constant. The changes in structure resulting from uniform rotation have been calculated within the slow rotation regime and the minimum rotation periods consistent with stability to nonaxisymmetric perturbations have also been calculated. The minimum period is found to be set by the onset of instability in either the m = 2 or m = 3 mode. The first of these modes, which is probably inaccessible to standard neutron stars, may be the critical one for old strange stars spun up by accretion and this could be of importance in giving an observational test for distinguishing between strange stars and standard neutron stars.