On phase transitions in cold nuclear matter

Real conditions for the formation of cold subhadronic matter are considered with allowance for nontrivial properties of the QCD vacuum. It is shown that a steady state of this matter is attainable, if at all, only in the case where dynamical (massive) quarks exist as rather stable quasiparticles. This state may consist of both a degenerate nearly perfect gas of these particles and a degenerate gas of current quarks in the interior of some (compact) neutron stars. In the latter case, both phases should coexist, and the first phase should occupy a certain space between the second phase and (normal) hadron matter occurring at the periphery of the star.