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.     

Phase Transitions in Neutron Stars Within Modified Quark-Meson Coupling Model

K^- condensation and quark deconfinement phase transitions in neutron stars are investigated. We use the modified quark-meson coupling model for hadronic phase and the MIT bag model for quark phase. With the equation of state (EOS) solved self-consistently, we discuss the properties of neutron stars. We find that the EOS of pure hadron matter with condensed K^- phase should be ruled out by the redshift for star EXO0748-676, while EOS containing unpaired quark matter phase with B^1/4 being about 180 MeV could be consistent with both this observation and the best measured mass of star PSR 1913+16. But if the recent inferred massive star among Terzan 5 with M>1.68M_๏ is confirmed, all the present EOSes with condensed phase and deconfined phase would be ruled out.     

Nucleon sigma term and quark condensate in nuclear matter

We study the bound-nucleon sigma term and the quark condensate in nuclear matter. In the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model the nuclear correction to the sigma term is small and negative, i.e., it decelerates the decrease of the quark condensate in nuclear matter. However, the quark condensate in nuclear matter is controlled primarily by the scalar-isoscalar σ field. Compared to the leading term, it moderates the decrease more than that of the nuclear sigma term alone at densities around and larger than the normal nuclear-matter density.     

Hadron Mass and the Properties of Nuclear Matter in the Quark Bag Models

The MIT bag model, chiral bag model and cloudy bag model are revisited. A typical work on the hadron mass calculation by chiral bag model and cloudy bag model is shown in more details with the quark-quark-pi vertex correction and quark self-energy being emphasized. More details are given to review the quark-meson coupling model and its application in nuclear matter. We put forth the Lagrangian of the quark-meson coupling model and studied the possibility of using the model to calculate the hadron mass.     

Jet-photon conversion with energy loss in heavy ion collisions

The rate of high energy photons produced from energetic jets during their propagation through the QGP at RHIC and LHC is studied by taking into account the contribution of jet quenching in the medium. It is shown that the jet quenching effect reduces the rate of jet-photon conversion at large transverse momemtum by about 40% at RHIC with √8= 200 AGeV, and by about 80% at LHC with √8 = 5500 AGeV.     

Strong coupling,charm- and bottom-quark masses from electron-positron annihilation

The cross section for electron-positron annihilation into hadrons allows for a precise determination of the strong coupling constant and the charm- and bottom-quark masses. Recent theoretical and experimental results are presented with emphasis on the energy region accessible by B-meson factories and below.     

Quark-Meson Bag Model and Hadron Structure

Based on the assumption that quarks (e.g. up, down quarks) couple with σ, ω and π mesons directly, a quark-meson bag model is-proposed. By adjusting the quark effective mass and quark-meson coupling constants, the nucleon, Δ baryon masses and some observables of proton are calculated.     

密度相关袋常数的夸克介子耦合模型关于核物质和有限核的研究

由满足手征对称的Nambu-Jona-Lasinio(NJL)模型出发, 计算得到袋常数的密度相关性, 并将其与夸克介子耦合(QMC)模型相结合, 研究核物质和有限核的性质. 结果表明, 该模型能够成功地描述核物质的性质, 但得到的有限核结合能过大, 其中重整势起了非常关键的作用.     

The quark-meson coupling model for Λ, Σ and Ξ hypernuclei

The quark-meson coupling (QMC) model, which has been successfully used to describe the properties of both infinite nuclear matter and finite nuclei, is applied to a systematic study of Λ, Σ and Ξ hypernuclei. Assumptions made in the present study are, (i) the (self-consistent) exchanged scalar, and vector, mesons couple only to the u and d quarks, and (ii) an SU(6) valence quark model for the bound nucleons and hyperon. The model automatically leads to a very weak spin-orbit interaction for the Λ in a hypernucleus. Effects of the Pauli blocking at the quark level, particularly in the open, coupled, ΣN-ΛN chanel (strong conversion), is also taken into account in a phenomenological way.     

Quark-clustering in cold quark matter

Quarks are proposed to be grouped together to make quark-clusters due to the strong interaction in cold quark matter at a few nuclear densities,because a weakly coupling treatment of the interaction between quarks there would be inadequate.Cold quark matter is then conjectured to be in solid state （i.e.,forming a crystal structure） if the inter-cluster potential is deep enough to localize clusters in lattice.Such a solid state of cold quark matter would be very necessary for us to understand different manifestations of pulsar-like compact stars,and could not be ruled by first principles.     

Two-Quark Condensate Changes with Quark Current Mass

Using the Schwinger Dyson equation and perturbation theory, we calculate the two-quark condensates for the light quarks u, d, strange quark s and a heavy quark c with their current masses respectively. The results show that the two-quark condensate will decrease when the quark mass increases, which hints the chiral symmetry may be restored for the heavy quarks.     

Meson polarized distribution function and mass dependence of the nucleon parton densities

The polarized distribution functions of mesons, including pion, kaon and eta, using the proton structure function, are calculated. We are looking for a relationship between the polarized distribution of mesons and the polarized structure of nucleons. We show that the meson polarized parton distributions leads to zero total spin for the concerned mesons, considering the orbital angular momentum of quarks and gluons inside the meson. Two separate Monte Carlo algorithms are applied to compute the polarized parton distributions of the kaon. Via the mass dependence of quark distributions, the distribution function of the eta meson is obtained. A new method by which the polarized sea quark distributions of protons are evolved separately which cannot be performed easily using the standard solution of DGLAP equations - is introduced. The mass dependence of these distributions is obtained, using the renormalization group equation which makes their evolutions more precise. Comparison between the evolved distributions and the available experimental data validates the suggested solutions for separated evolutions.     

Probing Quark Loop Effects on Dressed Gluon Propagator

We study the quark loop effects on the dressed gluon propagator and also on the quark propagator itself. We find that the gluon propagators are different in two phases. The quark mass effects on the gluon propagator are small but not negligible. We also study the current quark mass dependence on the bag constant.     

Critical phenomena in a disc-percolation model and their application to relativistic heavy ion collisions

By studying the critical phenomena in continuum-percolation of discs, we find a new approach to locate the critical point, i.e. using the inflection point of P∞ as an evaluation of the percolation threshold. The susceptibility, defined as the derivative of P∞, possesses a finite-size scaling property, where the scaling exponent is the reciprocal of v, the critical exponent of the correlation length. A possible application of this approach to the study of the critical phenomena in relativistic heavy ion collisions is discussed. The critical point for deconfinement can be extracted by the inflection point of PQGP -- the probability for the event with QGP formation. The finite-size scaling of its derivative can give the critical exponent v, which is a rare case that can provide an experimental measure of a critical exponent in heavy ion collisions.     

Microscopic Three-Body Force Effect on Nucleon-Nucleon Cross Sections in Symmetric Nuclear Matter

We provide a microscopic calculation of neutron-proton and proton-proton cross sections in symmetric nuclear matter at various densities, using the Brueckner Hartree-Fock approximation scheme with the Argonne Va4 potential including the contribution of microscopic three-body force. We investigate separately the effects of three-body force on the effective mass and on the scattering amplitude. In the present calculation, the rearrangement contribution of three-body force is considered, which will reduce the neutron and proton effective mass, and depress the amplitude of cross section. The effect of three body force is shown to be repulsive, especially in high densities and large momenta, which will suppress the cross section markedly.     

Strange solitons in a chiral quark-meson model

We consider aSU(3) quark soliton model based on chiral invariant quark-meson coupling. We find soliton solutions with nonzero strangeness andB=1 in the model with nontrivial kaonic fields, for values of the coupling constant greater than the phenomenologically acceptable number. Hence they do not correspond to known strange baryons.     

QQqq Four-Quark Bound States in Chiral SU（3） Quark Model

Abstract The possibility of QQqq heavy-light four-quark bound states has been analyzed by means of the chiral SU（3） quark model, where Q is the heavy quark （c or b） and q is the light quark （u, d, or s）. We obtain a bound state for the bbnn configuration with quantum number JR=1^＋, I = 0 and for the ccnn （JR=1^＋, I=O） configuration, which is not bound but slightly above the D^＊ D^＊ threshold （n is u or d quark）. Meanwhile, we also conclude that a weakly bound state in bbnn system can also be found without considering the ehiral quark interactions between the two light quarks, yet its binding energy is weaker than that with the chiral quark interactions.     

pp̄ Annihilation at rest into mesons in the quark rearrangement model and the quark annihilation modelt

pp? annihilation at rest into mesons is calculated in the quark rearrangement model in which 3 quarks and 3 antiquarks rearrange into 3 mesons and in the quark annihilation model in which one or two quark-antiquark pairs are annihilated and a quark-antiquark pair is created to form two or three mesons. The constants of the quark-meson coupling are adjusted such that the meson-nucleon interactions agree with experiment. The radial dependences of the quark-meson couplings are all assumed to be the same. This is determined by the vector-meson-quark interaction derived from the charge form factor of the proton. In the case of the decay into three mesons both rearrangement and annihilation models explain with similar reliability the branching ratio of the decay products. In the case of the decay into two-meson annihilation gives a better agreement with experiment than rearrangement.     

Study of various charged ρ-meson masses in asymmetric nuclear matter

We study the effective masses of p-mesons for different charged states in asymmetric nuclear matter （ANM） using the Quantum Hadrodynamics II model. The closed form analytical results are presented for the effective masses of p-mesons. We have shown that the different charged p-mesons have mass splitting similar to various charged pions. The effect of the Dirac sea is also examined, and it is found that this effect is very important and leads to a reduction of the different charged p-meson masses in ANM.