  This paper is devoted to the study of stellar evolution of compact objects
whose energy density and pressure of the fluid are interlinked by means of MIT
bag model and a realistic polytropic equation of state in the scenario of
$f(R,T,Q)$ gravity, where $Q=R_{ab}T^{ab}$. We derive the field equations as
well as the hydrostatic equilibrium equation and analyze their solutions
numerically for $R+\delta Q$ functional form with $\delta$ being a coupling
parameter. We discuss the dependence of various physical properties such as
pressure, energy density, total mass and surface redshift on the chosen values
of the model parameter. The physical acceptability of the proposed model is
examined by checking the validity of energy conditions, causality condition,
and adiabatic index. We also study the effects arising due to matter-curvature
coupling on the compact stellar system. It is found that maximum mass point
lies within the observational range which indicates that our model is
appropriate to describe dense stellar objects.
