Analysis of strange quark stars in massive Brans–Dicke gravity

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the behavior and anisotropic structure of quark stellar models in the framework of massive Brans–Dicke gravity. The system of field equations, representing a static sphere, is formulated by incorporating the MIT bag model. We use the Karmarkar condition for embedding class-one to formulate a relativistic model corresponding to a well-behaved radial metric function. The values of unknown parameters are determined through the matching of internal and external space–times at the hypersurface. The observed masses and radii of the strange star candidates (RXJ 1856-37, Her\xa0X-1 and PSR\xa0J1614-2230) specify the solution. Further, we evaluate the impact of the massive scalar field on state parameters and investigate the viability as well as stability of the self-gravitating objects. It is found that the obtained values of the bag constant (corresponding to each star) lie within the accepted range. Moreover, the anisotropic structure meets the necessary viability and stability criteria.