A dual description of quarks and baryons: Quarkyonic matter within a relativistic quark model

TL;DR

This paper develops a relativistic quark model combining quarkyonic matter with the quark-meson coupling approach to study nuclear matter properties and the effects of nuclear interactions on the equation of state at high densities.

Contribution

It introduces the quarkyonic QMC (QQMC) model using relativistic gaussian quark wavefunctions, providing new insights into the high-density behavior of nuclear matter.

Findings

Quark saturation density depends on nucleon size parameter.

Nuclear interactions modify the high-density EoS and sound velocity.

The QQMC model predicts an earlier onset of quark saturation than the noninteracting GQ model.

Abstract

We investigate quarkyonic matter within a relativistic quark model by combining the dual quarkyonic picture with the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model. Using relativistic gaussian quark wavefunctions for the nucleon, we construct the quarkyonic QMC (QQMC) model and study the properties of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter. We find that the quark saturation density depends sensitively on the nucleon size parameter and that nuclear interactions quantitatively modify the high-density behavior of the equation of state (EoS) and the sound velocity. In particular, the QQMC model yields an earlier onset of quark saturation than the noninteracting gaussian quarkyonic (GQ) model, indicating that nuclear interactions enhance the stiffening of the EoS in the quarkyonic regime.