Effect of pressure anisotropy on quark star structure in the Starobinsky model

Abstract This paper discusses the structure and stability of quark stars (QSs) made of interacting quark matter. The discussion accounts for color superconductivity and perturbative QCD corrections. By combining this EoS with the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations, we explore the mass-radius ( ) relations of QSs. The analysis is conducted within the framework of gravity, where the model of gravity is described by . Our primary goal is to investigate how variations in the gravity parameter a affect the mass-radius and mass-central density ( ) relationships of QSs. Furthermore, we study the dynamical stability of these stars by analyzing the impact of the anisotropy parameter β and interaction parameter λ derived from the EoS on their stability. Our results demonstrate that the presence of pressure anisotropy is crucial for increasing the maximum mass of QSs. The results hint at the existence of super-massive pulsars. These findings are in agreement with recent astronomical observations, which suggest the possibility of neutron stars with masses exceeding .