Skyrmion approach to finite density and temperature

TL;DR

This paper reviews a Skyrme model-based approach to modeling hadronic matter at finite density and temperature, emphasizing topological solitons and phase transitions related to confinement.

Contribution

It introduces a crystal structure framework of skyrmions incorporating chiral and scale symmetries to describe phase transitions in hadronic matter.

Findings

Skyrmion crystal structures model dense hadronic matter.

Chiral and scale symmetries influence phase behavior.

Connections to confinement/deconfinement transitions.

Abstract

We review an approach, developed over the past few years, to describe hadronic matter at finite density and temperature, whose underlying theoretical framework is the Skyrme model, an effective low energy theory rooted in large $N_c$ QCD. In this approach matter is described by various crystal structures of skyrmions, classical topological solitons carrying baryon number, from which conventional baryons appear by quantization. Chiral and scale symmetries play a crucial role in the dynamics as described by pion, dilaton and vector meson degrees of freedom. When compressed or heated skyrmion matter describes a rich phase diagram which has strong connections with the confinement/deconfinement phase transition.