Kilohertz quasi-periodic brightness oscillations (kHz QPOs) observed in
certain X-ray burst sources may represent Keplerian frequencies in the inner
regions of the accretion disk in such systems. If this assumption is strictly
adhered to, we show here that if the central accretor in stellar X-ray burst
sources is a strange star (made up of u, d and s quarks in beta equilibrium,
referred to as strange matter) then the calculated QPO frequencies are
reconcilable with the observed QPO frequencies (corresponding to the highest
frequency of 1.22 kHz, observed so far from the source 4U 1636-53) only for
particular values of the QCD-related parameters which describe the equation of
state of strange matter. We demonstrate that QPO frequencies in the very high
range (1.9-3.1) kHz can be understood in terms of a (non- magnetized) strange
star X-ray binary (SSXB) rather than a neutron star X-ray binary (NSXB). Future
discovery of such high frequency QPOs from X-ray burst sources will constitute
a new astrophysical di- agnostic for identifying solar mass range stable
strange stars in our galaxy.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figs., uses psbox.tex, submitted to A&
