Bubble dynamics in a strong first-order quark-hadron transition

TL;DR

This paper studies the dynamics of a strong first-order quark-hadron transition using bubble nucleation theory, calculating critical bubble properties and analyzing the transition's thermodynamics at various conditions.

Contribution

It provides detailed calculations of bubble profiles, surface tension, and free energy shifts in a strong first-order transition within the Friedberg-Lee model, addressing the thin-wall approximation's limits.

Findings

Critical bubble profiles and surface tension vary with temperature and chemical potential.

The thin-wall approximation's reliability is quantitatively assessed.

Comparison with weak first-order transition highlights the role of spinodal decomposition.

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of a strong first-order quark-hadron transition driven by cubic interaction via homogeneous bubble nucleation in the Friedberg-Lee model. The one-loop effective thermodynamics potential of the model and the critical bubble profiles have been calculated at different temperatures and chemical potentials. By taking the temperature and the chemical potential as the variables, the evolutions of the surface tension, the typical radius of the critical bubble and the shift in the coarse-grained free energy in the presence of a nucleation bubble are obtained and the limit on the reliability of the thin-wall approximation is also addressed accordingly. Our results are compared to those obtained for a weak first-order quark-hadron phase transition, especially the spinodal decomposition is relevant.