Tidal heating as a direct probe of strangeness inside neutron stars

It has been discussed whether viscous processes in neutron star matter during a binary inspiral can damp out the tidal energy induced by the companion and heat up the star. Earlier investigations concluded that this tidal heating is negligible for normal neutron star matter. In this work, we suggest a novel effect of tidal heating involving strange matter in the neutron star interior that can significantly heat up the star, and is potentially observable by current and future gravitational wave detectors. We propose that this could serve as a direct probe of strangeness in neutron stars.