Constraining the hadron-quark phase transition chemical potential via astronomical observation

Bai, Zhan; Liu, Yuxin

doi:10.1063/1.5117820

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Finally, we note that while the interpolation method described above is genuinely new, a number of related articles have recently appeared in which the NS matter EoS has been constructed starting from the speed of sound [39][40][41][42][43][44] . Although most of these works introduce a non-trivial ansatz function for the quantity, thus being more restrictive than our approach, in ref.…”

Section: Nature Physicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron stars

et al. 2020

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The theory governing the strong nuclear force—quantum chromodynamics—predicts that at sufficiently high energy densities, hadronic nuclear matter undergoes a deconfinement transition to a new phase of quarks and gluons1. Although this has been observed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions2,3, it is currently an open question whether quark matter exists inside neutron stars4. By combining astrophysical observations and theoretical ab initio calculations in a model-independent way, we find that the inferred properties of matter in the cores of neutron stars with mass corresponding to 1.4 solar masses (M⊙) are compatible with nuclear model calculations. However, the matter in the interior of maximally massive stable neutron stars exhibits characteristics of the deconfined phase, which we interpret as evidence for the presence of quark-matter cores. For the heaviest reliably observed neutron stars5,6 with mass M ≈ 2M⊙, the presence of quark matter is found to be linked to the behaviour of the speed of sound cs in strongly interacting matter. If the conformal bound $${c}_{\rm{s}}^{2}\le 1/3$$ c s 2 ≤ 1 / 3 (ref. 7) is not strongly violated, massive neutron stars are predicted to have sizable quark-matter cores. This finding has important implications for the phenomenology of neutron stars and affects the dynamics of neutron star mergers with at least one sufficiently massive participant.

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Section: Nature Physicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron stars

et al. 2020

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Sound velocity in dense stellar matter with strangeness and compact stars *

et al. 2021

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The phase state of dense matter in the intermediate density range ( 1-10 times the nuclear saturation density) is both intriguing and unclear and can have important observable effects in the present gravitational wave era of neutron stars. As matter density increases in compact stars, the sound velocity is expected to approach the conformal limit ( ) at high densities and should also fulfill the causality limit ( ). However, its detailed behavior remains a prominent topic of debate. It was suggested that the sound velocity of dense matter could be an important indicator of a deconfinement phase transition, where a particular shape might be expected for its density dependence. In this work, we explore the general properties of the sound velocity and the adiabatic index of dense matter in hybrid stars as well as in neutron stars and quark stars. Various conditions are employed for the hadron-quark phase transition with varying interface tension. We find that the expected behavior of the sound velocity can also be achieved by the nonperturbative properties of the quark phase, in addition to a deconfinement phase transition. Moreover, it leads to a more compact star with a similar mass. We then propose a new class of quark star equation of states, which can be tested by future high-precision radius measurements of pulsar-like objects.

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