H-cluster stars

TL;DR

This paper proposes H-cluster matter as a new form of ultra-dense matter in compact stars, suggesting it could be more stable than nuclear matter and exhibit a very stiff equation of state, impacting our understanding of dense astrophysical objects.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of H-cluster matter based on lattice QCD simulations, exploring its stability and equation of state in dense stellar environments.

Findings

H-cluster matter could be more stable than nuclear matter at high densities.

The equation of state for H-cluster matter may be extremely stiff, appearing superluminal.

The real sound speed in H-cluster matter remains uncertain, preventing causality constraints.

Abstract

The study of dense matter at ultra-high density has a very long history, which is meaningful for us to understand not only cosmic events in extreme circumstances but also fundamental laws of physics. It is well known that the state of cold matter at supra-nuclear density depends on the non-perturbative nature of quantum chromo-dynamics (QCD) and is essential for modeling pulsars. A so-called H-cluster matter is proposed in this paper as the nature of dense matter in reality. In compact stars at only a few nuclear densities but low temperature, quarks could be interacting strongly with each other there. That might render quarks grouped in clusters, although the hypothetical quark-clusters in cold dense matter has not been confirmed due to the lack of both theoretical and experimental evidence. Motivated by recent lattice QCD simulations of the H-dibaryons (with structure uuddss), we are therefore considering here a possible kind of quark-clusters, H-clusters, that could emerge inside compact stars during their initial cooling, as the dominant components inside (the degree of freedom could then be H-clusters there).Taking into account the in-medium stiffening effect, we find that at baryon densities of compact stars $H$-cluster matter could be more stable than nuclear matter. We also find that for the H-cluster matter with lattice structure, the equation of state could be so stiff that it would seem to be "superluminal" in most dense region. However, the real sound speed for H-cluster matter is in fact hard to calculate, so at this stage we do not put constraints on our model from the usual requirment of causality.