A Novel Approach to Model Hybrid Stars

TL;DR

This paper develops an extended hadronic model incorporating quark degrees of freedom to accurately describe the phase diagram of matter relevant to neutron stars and lattice QCD results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel extension of the SU(3) non-linear sigma model with a Polyakov loop potential to unify hadronic and quark matter descriptions.

Findings

Reproduces lattice QCD results at low chemical potential

Aligns with neutron star observations at zero temperature

Constructs a realistic phase diagram of dense matter

Abstract

We extend the hadronic SU(3) non-linear sigma model to include quark degrees of freedom. The choice of potential for the Polyakov loop as a function of temperature and chemical potential allows us to construct a realistic phase diagram from the analysis of the order parameters of the system. These parameters are the chiral condensate, for the chiral symmetry restoration and the Polyakov loop, for the deconfinement to quark matter. Besides reproducing lattice QCD results, for zero and low chemical potential, we are in agreement with neutron star observations for zero temperature.