Quark matter nucleation with a microscopic hadronic equation of state

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nucleation of quark matter in cold stellar environments using microscopic hadronic models and various quark matter models, analyzing implications for neutron star stability and maximum mass.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach combined with multiple quark models to study quark matter nucleation in neutron stars.

Findings

Hyperonic stars are metastable only for some equations of state.

Most models predict hybrid stars with maximum mass around 1.62 solar masses.

The effect of hyperonic three-body forces on star metastability is significant.

Abstract

The nucleation process of quark matter in cold (T = 0) stellar matter is investigated using the microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach to describe the hadronic phase, and the MIT bag model, the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio, and the Chromo Dielectric models to describe the deconfined phase of quark matter. The consequences of the nucleation process for neutron star physics are outlined. Hyperonic stars are metastable only for some of the quark matter equations of state considered. The effect of an hyperonic three body force on the metastability of compact stars is estimated, and it is shown that, except for the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and the MIT bag model with a large bag pressure, the other models predict the formation of hybrid stars with a maximum mass not larger than \sim 1.62 M\odot .