A recent solution of the hyperon puzzle by a first order phase transition to color superconducting quark matter is revisited in order to replace the Maxwell construction by an interpolation method which describes a mixed phase. To do this, we apply for the first time the finite-range polynomial interpolation method for constructing a transition between hadronic and quark matter phases to the situation that is characterized in the literature as the reconfinement problem. For the description of the hadronic phase the lowest order constrained variational method is used while for the quark phase the nonlocal Nambu–Jona–Lasinio model with constant and with density-dependent parameters is employed. Applying the replacement interpolation method to both quark matter models results in a hybrid equation of state that allows a coexistence of nuclear matter, hypernuclear matter and quark matter in a mixed phase between the pure hadronic and quark phases which can also be realized in the structure of the corresponding hybrid star sequences. The predicted hybrid stars fulfill the constraints on the mass-radius relation for neutron stars obtained from recent observations.

We reconsider the problem of the hyperon puzzle and its suggested solution by quark deconfinement within the two-phase approach to hybrid compact stars with recently obtained hadronic and quark matter equations of state. For the hadronic phase we employ the hypernuclear equation of state from the lowest order constrained variational method and the quark matter phase is described by a sufficiently stiff equation of state based on a color superconducting nonlocal Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with constant (model A) and with density-dependent (model B) parameters. We study the model dependence of phase transition obtained by a Maxwell construction. Our study confirms that also with the present set of modern equations of state the quark deconfinement presents a viable solution of the hyperon puzzle even for the new constraint on the lower limit of the maximum mass from PSR J0740+6620. In this work we provide with model B for the first time a hybrid star EoS with an intermediate hypernuclear matter phase between the nuclear and color superconducting quark matter phases, for which the maximum mass of the compact star reaches 2.2 M , in accordance with most recent constraints. In model A such a phase cannot be realised because the phase transition onset is at low densities, before the hyperon threshold density is passed. We discuss possible consequences of the hybrid equation of state for the deconfinement phase transition in symmetric matter as it will be probed in future heavy-ion collisions at FAIR, NICA and corresponding energy scan programs at the CERN and RHIC facilities.

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