Twin Stars within the SU(3) Chiral Quark-Meson Model

Abstract: We present new stable solutions of the Tolman Oppenheimer Volkoff equations for quark stars using a quark matter equation of state based on the SU(3) Quark-Meson model that exhibits the onset of the chiral phase transition. These new solutions appear as two stable branches in the mass-radius relation allowing for so called twin stars, i.e. two stable quark star solutions with the same mass, but distinctly different radii. We find solutions which are compatible with causality, the stability conditions of dense matter, the astrophysical constraints of the rotation of the millisecond pulsar PSR J1748-2446ad and the 2$M_{\odot}$ pulsar mass constraint.