Anisotropic quark stars in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory

Recent progress in the determination of both masses and radii of neutron stars has put strong constraints on the equation of state (EoS) above the nuclear saturation density. Within a confining quark matter model, we propose an anisotropic star consisting of a homogeneous and unpaired charge-neutral 3-flavor interacting quark matter with O(m(s)(4)) corrections in the context of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity theory. This generalized model depends only on three free parameters: the bag constant B, the interaction parameter a and the Gauss-Bonnet coupling constant alpha. Given the underlying EoS, we show the possibility of obtaining the maximal neutron star mass which satisfies the recent observational data for PSR J0751+1807. The numerical analysis of mass-radius relations supports the existence of other massive pulsars with a maximum mass consistent and common radii in the range of R less than or similar to (11 similar to 14) Km [1]. Furthermore, we discuss the mass vs central mass density (M - rho(c)) relation for stability, compactness and binding energy in this gravity theory. Our results thus provide circumstantial evidence in favor of super-massive pulsars in EGB gravity. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.