{
  "abstract": "We investigate the equilibrium structure and stability of selfbound quark stars in the framework of regularized four-dimensional Einstein--Gauss--Bonnet (4DEGB) gravity, employing the perturbative QCD equation of state of Fraga, Kurkela and Vuorinen [1]. The equation of state, parameterised by a single renormalization-scale parameter $X$, contains no effective bag constant and defines the stellar surface entirely through the vanishing of the quark-matter pressure. We solve the modified Tolman-Oppenheimer--Volkoff equations derived from the scalar--tensor formulation of 4DEGB gravity for $X \\in \\{3, 4\\}$ and Gauss--Bonnet coupling $α\\in \\{0, 1, 10\\}\\,\\mathrm{km}^2$. For the soft EOS ($X = 3$), the maximum mass increases from $2.0431\\,M_\\odot$ (GR) to $2.5013\\,M_\\odot$ at $α= 10\\,\\mathrm{km}^2$, with only the latter entering the PSR~J0952$-$0607 mass band. For the stiff EOS($X = 4$), the GR baseline already yields $3.0415\\,M_\\odot$, and all configurations exceed both the GW190814 secondary mass and the PSR~J0952$-$0607 constraint. The compactness $C = M/R$ at maximum mass ranges from $0.2531$ to $0.3123$ across all configurations, remaining well below the Buchdahl bound throughout. Radial profiles of the squared speed of sound confirm that $c_s^2 < 1/3$ holds pointwise throughout the stellar interior for all parameter choices, establishing that the quark matter remains sub-conformal and causal inside the maximum-mass star. These results demonstrate that higher-curvature corrections in 4DEGB gravity systematically enhance the maximum supported mass of perturbative QCD quark stars, with the stiff ($X = 4$) branch already exceeding the most massive compact objects currently observed even at the GR level, while the soft ($X = 3$) branch requires $\\alphaGB \\sim 10\\,\\mathrm{km}^2$ to approach those thresholds.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.13227",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Anirudh Pradhan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Safiqul Islam"
    },
    {
      "name": "Safyan Mukhtar"
    },
    {
      "name": "Santosh Kumar Dixit"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/eka5k2tspvejf.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.13227",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "eka5k2tspvejf",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13227",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "gr-qc"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213297119",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.13227",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/eka5k2tspvejf.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:25Z",
      "native_id": "2609.13227",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13227"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:gr-qc",
      "subfield": "gravitation"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Quark stars in regularized 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity: A perturbative QCD equation of state",
  "title_text": "Quark stars in regularized 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity: A perturbative QCD equation of state",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:25Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/eka5k2tspvejf",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}