Thermal Featureless Spectrum: an Evidence for Bare Strange Stars?

Motivated by trying to understand the absence of spectral lines in the thermal components of the X-ray compact sources observed recently by Chandra or XMM, we propose that these sources could be simply bare strange stars. The formation, cooling, and thermal photon radiation of bare strange stars have been investigated. It is suggested that thermal featureless spectrum could be a new method to identify strange stars. Subject headings: elementary particles — pulsars: general — stars: neutron — dense matter