A neutron star with a strange quark star-like mass-radius relation

We study the structure of spherically symmetric and static objects in the presence of a nonminimally coupled scalar field having a potential of the form V(phi) = -mu(2)phi(2)/2 + lambda phi(4)/4. We numerically solve equations of the system using two different realistic equations of state for neutron matter and give the mass-radius relations as well as the radial profiles of the scalar field, densities and the mass function for a sample configuration. We show that a specific solution type encountered in such systems causes characteristic neutron star mass-radius relations to turn into the ones belonging to strange quark stars. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.