Bridging the gap by squeezing superfluid matter

Cooper pairing between fermions in dense matter leads to the formation of a gap in the fermionic excitation spectrum and typically exponentially suppresses transport properties. However, we show here that reactions involving conversion between different fermion species, such as Urca reactions in nuclear matter, become strongly enhanced and approach their ungapped level when the matter undergoes density oscillations of sufficiently large amplitude. We study both the neutrino emissivity and the bulk viscosity due to direct Urca processes in hadronic, hyperonic, and quark matter and discuss different superfluid and superconducting pairing patterns.     

Properties of hadron and quark matter studied with molecular dynamics

We study the hadron-quark phase transition in a molecular dynamics (MD) of quark degrees of freedom. The hadron state at low density and temperature, and the deconfined quark state at high density and temperature are observed in our model. We investigate the equations of state and draw the phase diagram at wide baryon density and temperature range. We also discuss the transport property, e.g. viscosity, of $q\bar q$ matter. It is found that the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density is less than one for quark matter.     

Hadron-quark phase coexistence in a hybrid MIT-Bag model

The phase transition of hadronic to quark matter and the boundaries of the hadron-quark coexistence phase are studied within the two Equation of State (EoS) models. The relativistic effective mean-field approach with constant and density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings is used to describe hadronic matter, and the MIT-Bag model is adopted to describe quark matter. The boundaries of the mixed phase for different Bag constants are obtained solving the Gibbs equations. We notice that the dependence on the Bag parameter of the critical temperatures (at zero chemical potential) can be well reproduced by a fermion ultrarelativistic quark gas model, without contribution from the hadron part. At variance, the critical chemical potentials (at zero temperature) are very sensitive to the EoS of the hadron sector. Hence, the contribution of the hadronic interaction is much more relevant for the determination of the transition to the quark-gluon plasma at finite baryon density and low T . Moreover, in the low-temperature and finite chemical potential region no solutions of the Gibbs conditions are existing for small Bag-constant values, B < (135 MeV)⁴ . Isospin effects in asymmetric matter appear important in the high chemical-potential regions at lower temperatures, of interest for the inner-core properties of neutron stars and for heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies.     

A simple semiempirical equation of state for cold nuclear matter

On the basis of gross properties of nuclei, a simple semiempirical equation of state is developed for cold hadronic matter composed of light quarks of two flavors. The source of binding energy in the model is the decreasing asymmetry between the number of up and down quarks in extended regions of overlapping nucleons. The resulting incompressibility of symmetric nuclear matter at equilibrium density is K=324 MeV. The incompressibility decreases rapidly with decreasing density but increases only slowly with increasing density until homogenous quark matter is reached at a density just above three times ordinary nuclear matter density.     

Do ordinary nuclei contain exotic states of matter?

The strongly repulsive core of the short-range nucleon-nucleon interaction leads to the existence of high-momentum nucleons in nuclei. Inclusive electron scattering can be used to probe these high-momentum nucleons and study the nature of the corresponding short-range correlations in nuclei. With recent data from Jefferson Lab we have begun to map out the strength of two-nucleon correlations in nuclei, while upcoming experiments should allow us to isolate the presence of multi-nucleon correlations. In addition to their importance in describing nuclear structure, these configurations of correlated nucleons represent high-density ‘droplets’ of hadronic matter. As the density of hadronic matter increases there should be a weakening of quark confinement, similar to the onset of deconfinement expected at extremely high temperatures. While there have been hints of non-hadronic structure in nuclei, future measurements will allow us to directly probe the quark distributions of high-density configurations in nuclei. A modified quark structure in these closely packed nucleons would provide a clear signature of exotic components to the structure of nuclei.     

Nonextensive statistical effects in the quark-gluon plasma formation at relativistic heavy-ion collisions energies

We investigate the relativistic equation of state of hadronic matter and quark-gluon plasma at finite temperature and baryon density in the framework of the non-extensive statistical mechanics, characterized by power-law quantum distributions. We impose the Gibbs conditions on the global conservation of baryon number, electric charge and strangeness number. For the hadronic phase, we study an extended relativistic mean-field theoretical model with the inclusion of strange particles (hyperons and mesons). For the quark sector, we employ an extended MIT-Bag model. In this context we focus on the relevance of non-extensive effects in the presence of strange matter.     

Neutron star in the presence of strong magnetic field

Compact stars such as neutron stars (NS) can have either hadronic or exotic states like strange quark or colour superconducting matter. Stars can also have a quark core surrounded by hadronic matter, known as hybrid stars (HS). The HS is likely to have a mixed phase in between the hadron and the quark phases. Observational results suggest huge surface magnetic field in certain NS. Therefore, we study here the effect of strong magnetic field on the respective equation of states (EOS) of matter under extreme conditions. We further study the hadron–quark phase transition in the interiors of NS giving rise to HS in the presence of strong magnetic field. The hadronic matter EOS is described based on RMF theory and we include the effects of strong magnetic fields leading to Landau quantization of the charged particles. For quark phase, we use the simple Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) bag model, assuming density-dependent bag pressure and magnetic field. The magnetic field strength increases from the surface to the centre of the star. We construct the intermediate mixed phase using Glendenning conjecture. The magnetic field softens the EOS of both the matter phases. We finally study, the mass–radius relationship for such types of mixed HS, calculating their maximum mass, and compare them with the recent observations of pulsar PSR J1614-2230, which is about 2 solarmass.     

Influence of hadronic hard core radius on detonations and deflagrations in quark matter

The parameters for deflagration and detonations transitions between baryon-rich quark matter and hadronic matter are calculated at high densities and low temperatures. The equation of state of hadronic matter takes into account the hard core repulsion character of nuclear forces and the bag pressure is included in the quark phase. The transition is considered first directly from the quark phase to the hadronic phase. It is found that the velocity of the front separating the quark and nuclear phases as well as the energy flux are substantially larger than in the case where no hard core repulsion is taken into account. Most of the calculated quantities are only weakly dependent on the temperature in the region considered. The transitions from the quark phase to the mixed phase and from the mixed phase to the hadronic phase are also considered. No realistic solutions are found for the case where the temperature remains zero throughout the transition. At small temperatures and high densities solutions are obtained where the transition involves only minimal superheating. The energy flux for such a transition is small.     

超子耦合常数对混合星性质的影响

用相对论平均场理论描述强子物质, 用NJL模型描述夸克物质研究了超子耦合常数对混合星性质的影响. 结果表明, 随着超子耦合常数的增大, 强子-夸克相变密度变小, 混合相区域的状态方程变硬, 中子星的最大质量及对应的半径变大. 超子耦合常数由0.73增到1.0时, 混合星最大质量由1.68M_⊙增至1.84M_⊙, 相应的半径由11.4km变到12.5km. 该夸克模型下不同强子参数组对应的混合星性质也有较明显的差异. 可知, 其适合于描述大质量而小夸克核心的混合星.     

36Cl and41Ca depth profiles in a Hiroshima granite stone and the Dosimetry System 1986

Hybrid stars composed of a strange matter core surrounded by neutron matter are investigated. We apply star models based on phenomenological equations of state (EOS) from nuclear reactions including a phase transition between the hadronic phase and the quark gluon plasma. For specific equations of state hybrid stars might exist. While the nuclear part of the EOS has only a minor influence on the properties of hybrid stars, the EOS for the quark gluon phase has a crucial impact on the existence of such objects.     

Deconfinement transition: a three dimensional model

We present a three–dimensional model for quark matter with a density dependent quark–quark (confining) potential, which allows to describe a sort of deconfinement transition as the system evolves from a low density assembly of bound structures to a high density free Fermi gas of quarks. We consider different confining potentials, some of which successfully utilized in hadron spectroscopy. We find that a proper treatment of the many–body correlations induced by the medium is essential to disentangle the different nature of the two (hadronic and deconfined) phases of the system. For this purpose the ground state energy per particle and the pair correlation function are investigated. Received: 10 June 1998 / Revised version: 24 September 1998     

Deconfinement Phase Transition Including Perturbative QCD Corrections in （Proto）neutron Star Matter

Deconlinement phase transition and neutrino trapping in （proto）neutron star matter are investigated in a chiral hadronic model （also referred to as the FST model） for the hadronic phase （HP） and in the color-flavor-locked （CFL） quark model for the deconlined quark phase. We include a perturbative QCD correction parameter αs in the CFL quark matter equation of states. It is shown that the CFL quark core with K^0 condensation forms in neutron star matter with the large value of αs. If the small value of αs is taken, hyperons suppress the CFL quark phase and the liP is dominant in the high-density region of （proto）neutron star matter. Neutrino trapping makes the fraction of the CFL quark matter decrease compared with those without neutrino trapping. Moreover, increasing the QCD correction parameter as or decreasing the bag constant B and the strange quark mass ms can make the fraction of the CFL quark matter increase, simultaneously, the fraction of neutrino in protoneutron star matter increases, too. The maximum masses and the corresponding radii of （proto）neutron stars are not sensitive to the QCD correction parameter αs.     

Quark deconfinement in neutron star cores

Whether or not the deconfined quark phase exists in neutron star cores is an open question. We use two realistic effective quark models, the three-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and the modified quark-meson coupling model, to describe the neutron star matter. We show that the modified quark-meson coupling model, which is fixed by reproducing the saturation properties of nuclear matter, can be consistent with the experimental constraints from nuclear collisions. After constructing possible hybrid equations of state (EOSes) with an unpaired or color superconducting quark phase with the assumption of the sharp hadron-quark phase transition, we discuss the observational constraints from neutron stars on the EOSes. It is found that the neutron star with pure quark matter core is unstable and the hadronic phase with hyperons is denied, while hybrid EOSes with a two-flavor color superconducting phase or unpaired quark matter phase are both allowed by the tight and most reliable constraints from two stars Ter 5 I and EXO 0748-676. And the hybrid EOS with an unpaired quark matter phase is allowed even compared with the tightest constraint from the most massive pulsar star PSR J0751+1807.     

The influence of medium effects on the gross structure of hybrid stars

We investigate the influence of medium effects on the structure of hybrid stars, i.e. neutron stars possessing a quark matter core. We found that medium effects in quark matter reduce the extent of a pure quark matter phase in the interior of a hybrid star significantly in favor of a mixed phase of quark and hadronic matter. Over a wide range of the strong coupling constant — which parameterizes the influence of medium effects — quark matter is able to exist at least in a mixed phase in the interior of neutron stars.     

Color-electric conductivity in a viscous quark-gluon plasma

Several different transport processes, such as heat, momentum, and charge transports, may occur simultaneously in a thermal plasma system. The corresponding transport coefficients are heat conductivity, shear viscosity, and electric conductivity. In the present study, we investigate the color-electric conductivity of the quark-gluon plasma(QGP) in the presence of shear viscosity, focusing on the connection between the charge transport and momentum transport. To achieve this goal, we solve the viscous chromohydrodynamic equations obtained from the QGP kinetic theory associated with the distribution function modified by shear viscosity. According to the solved color fluctuations of hydrodynamic quantities, we obtain the induced color current through which the color-electric conductivity is derived. Numerical analysis shows that the conductivity properties of the QGP are mainly demonstrated by the longitudinal part of the color-electric conductivity. Shear viscosity has an appreciable impact on real and imaginary parts of the color-electric conductivity in some frequency regions.     

Quark condensation, induced symmetry breaking and color superconductivity at high density

The phase structure of hadronic matter at high density relevant to the physics of compact stars and relativistic heavy-ion collisions is studied in a low-energy effective quark theory. The relevant phases that figure are (1) chiral condensation, (2) diquark color condensation (color superconductivity) and (3) induced Lorentz-symmetry breaking (“ISB”). For a reasonable strength for the effective four-Fermi current–current interaction implied by the low-energy effective quark theory for systems with a Fermi surface we find that the “ISB” phase sets in together with chiral symmetry restoration (with the vanishing quark condensate) at a moderate density while color superconductivity associated with scalar diquark condensation is pushed up to an asymptotic density. Consequently, color superconductivity seems rather unlikely in heavy-ion collisions although it may play a role in compact stars. Lack of confinement in the model makes the result of this analysis only qualitative but the hierarchy of the transitions we find seems to be quite robust.     

Influence of shear viscosity of quark-gluon plasma on elliptic flow in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the influence of a temperature-dependent shear viscosity over entropy density ratio η/s on the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow of hadrons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find that the elliptic flow in √S(NN)=200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC is dominated by the viscosity in the hadronic phase and in the phase transition region, but largely insensitive to the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). At the highest LHC energy, the elliptic flow becomes sensitive to the QGP viscosity and insensitive to the hadronic viscosity.     

高温近似下奇异夸克物质的体粘滞系数

在准粒子描述下,采用自洽的热力学方法,考虑奇异夸克物质(SQM?)的介质效应,计算了高温近似下奇异夸克物质的体粘滞系数.发现介质效应对奇异夸克物质的体粘滞系数有很大影响,这使得观测数据不再排除两味色超导相奇异星的存在.     

核物质和夸克物质的对称能（英文）

对称能表征了同位旋非对称强相互作用物质状态方程的同位旋相关部分,它对于理解核物理和天体物理中的许多问题有重要意义。简要总结了关于核物质和夸克物质对称能研究的最新进展。对于核物质对称能,通过对核结构,核反应以及中子星的研究,目前对其亚饱和密度的行为已有比较清楚的认识,同时,对饱和密度附近对称能的约束也取得了很好的研究进展。但如何确定核物质对称能的高密行为仍然是一个挑战。另一方面,在极端高重子数密度条件下,强相互作用物质将以退禁闭的夸克物质状态存在。同位旋非对称夸克物质可能存在于致密星内部,也可能产生于极端相对论重离子碰撞中。对最近关于夸克物质对称能对夸克星性质的影响以及重夸克星的存在对夸克物质对称能的约束的研究工作进行了介绍,结果表明同位旋非对称夸克物质中上夸克和下夸克可能感受到很不一样的相互作用,这对于研究极端相对论重离子碰撞中部分子动力学的同位旋效应有重要启发。The symmetry energy characterizes the isospin dependent part of the equation of state of isospin asymmetric strong interaction matter and it plays a critical role in many issues of nuclear physics and astrophysics. In this talk, we briefly review the current status on the determination of the symmetry energy in nucleon (nuclear) and quark matter. For nuclear matter, while the subsaturation density behaviors of the symmetry energy are relatively well-determined and significant progress has been made on the symmetry energy around saturation density, the determination of the suprasaturation density behaviors of the symmetry energy remains a big challenge. For quark matter, which is expected to appear in dense matter at high baryon densities, we briefly review the recent work about the effects of quark matter symmetry energy on the properties of quark stars and the constraint of possible existence of heavy quark stars on quark matter symmetry energy. The results indicate that the u and d quarks could feel very different interactions in isospin asymmetric quark matter, which may have important implications on the isospin effects of partonic dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.     

Effects of Density-Dependent Quark Mass on Phase Diagram of Color-Flavor-Locked Quark Matter

Considering the density dependence of quark mass, we investigate the phase transition between the (unpaired) strange quark matter and the color-flavor-locked matter, which are supposed to be two candidates for the ground state of strongly interacting matter. We find that if the current mass of strange quark ms is small, the strange quark matter remains stable unless the baryon density is very high. If ms is large, the phase transition from the strange quark matter to the color-flavor-locked matter in particular to its gapless phase is found to be different from the results predicted by previous works. A complicated phase diagram of three-flavor quark matter is presented, in which the color-flavor-locked phase region is suppressed for moderate densities.