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Fusion of quarks release 8 times more energy than hydrogen fusion, so I was wondering if quark star exists and before quark degeneracy pressure kicks in wouldn't these tightly packed sea of quarks start fusing and eventually becoming a miniature neutron star?

I think in normal scenario due to the short range of strong force and quark/neutron cannot be found alone in nature compare to the condition of quark star where quarks should easily fused with each other and outshines almost everything in the night sky.

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  • $\begingroup$ You got this in reverse. You need to add this much energy to split neutrons into quarks. So the quark star is a hypothetical star that forms in a collapse of a large neutron star. The range of mass for a quark star is rather narrow. Slightly less and it is a neutron star. Slightly more and it collapses to a black hole. Also, the strong force is not short range. You need a force of 50 tons to pull two quarks apart and this force does not decrease with the distance. $\endgroup$
    – safesphere
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 8:20
  • $\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of How big of a neutron star would be needed to form a quark star inside of it? $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 8:42
  • $\begingroup$ The question I've linked may not seem an obvious duplicate, but the answers to it explain how the (hypothetical) quark stars form so they do answer your question as well. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 8:43

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