Small, dense quark stars from perturbative QCD

As a model for nonideal behavior in the equation of state of QCD at high density, we consider cold quark matter in perturbation theory. To second order in the strong coupling constant ${\alpha }_s,$ the results depend sensitively on the choice of the renormalization mass scale. Certain choices of this scale correspond to a strongly first order chiral transition, and generate quark stars with maximum masses and radii approximately half that of ordinary neutron stars. At the center of these stars, quarks are essentially massless.