Thermodynamics, strange quark matter, and strange stars

Upon application of both the general ensemble theory and basic thermodynamical principles, we derive in detail the thermodynamics of strange matter with density-dependent particle masses, which resolves the problem of inconsistencies in the thermodynamical properties of the earlier approaches. We then recalculate the properties of strange quark matter with this new thermodynamical treatment and our recently determined quark mass scaling, and find that the density behavior of the sound velocity is opposite to the previous finding, but consistent with one of our recent publications. The structure equations for strange stars are integrated with the presently obtained equation of state. We find that the mass-radius relation is similar to previous results except the maximum mass is smaller in our case if strange quark matter is absolutely stable.