We study the evolution of strange dwarf stars of 0.4, 0.55, and 0.8 ${\mathit{M}}_{\mathrm{\odot }}$ in the range of luminosities attributed to white dwarf stars. It is shown that, if the density at the base of the normal matter envelope is slightly lower than the density at which the onset of neutron drip occurs, these objects will have an evolution observationally indistinguishable from that corresponding to normal white dwarfs. This result is independent of the chemical composition of the high density, normal matter layers. However, strange dwarfs should behave very differently from white dwarfs in mass exchanging close binary systems. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 14 August 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.635