Baryonic Matter Onset in Two-Color QCD with Heavy Quarks

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phase transition to diquark matter in two-color QCD with heavy quarks using an effective Polyakov loop theory, revealing a continuous transition consistent with diquark condensation.

Contribution

It introduces a three-dimensional effective theory derived from strong-coupling and hopping expansions to study dense two-color QCD at zero temperature.

Findings

Diquark density onset is a continuous transition without binding energy.

Effective theory captures differences between diquark condensation and nuclear matter transition.

Results align with expectations for bosonic baryon behavior in two-color QCD.

Abstract

We study the cold and dense regime in the phase diagram of two-color QCD with heavy quarks within a three-dimensional effective theory for Polyakov loops. This theory is derived from two-color QCD in a combined strong-coupling and hopping expansion. In particular, we study the onset of diquark density as the finite-density transition of the bosonic baryons in the two-color world. In contrast to previous studies of heavy dense QCD, our zero-temperature extrapolations are consistent with a continuous transition without binding energy. They thus provide evidence that the effective theory for heavy quarks is capable of describing the characteristic differences between diquark condensation in two-color QCD and the liquid-gas transition of nuclear matter in QCD.