Statistical Mechanics of Quarkyonic Matter

TL;DR

This paper extends the statistical mechanics framework of Quarkyonic Matter to non-zero temperatures, incorporating quantum constraints and redefining thermodynamic quantities.

Contribution

It develops a consistent grand canonical ensemble description of Quarkyonic Matter, accounting for Pauli constraints and deriving a proper entropy density.

Findings

Reduced baryon state count due to Pauli constraints

Separation of distribution function into Fermi-Dirac and density of states

Proper entropy density satisfying the third law of thermodynamics

Abstract

We extend the theoretical formulation of Quarkyonic Matter within the IdylliQ model framework proposed in [Y. Fujimoto et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 112701 (2024) [1]] for zero temperature to non-zero temperatures. To this end, we develop a consistent statistical mechanics and grand canonical ensemble description of Quarkyonic Matter as a quantum system subject to additional inequality constraints due to the Pauli exclusion principle acting simultaneously on baryons and their constituent quarks. These constraints result in a significant reduction in the number of physically available baryon states compared to an ideal Fermi gas. As a consequence, the one-particle baryon distribution function factorizes into a thermal Fermi-Dirac distribution and a momentum-dependent density of states. This separation allows us to derive a proper definition of the entropy density that satisfies the third law of thermodynamics in the zero-temperature limit. Moreover, we find that inside Quarkyonic Matter the physical temperature and the physical baryon chemical potential differ from the Lagrange multipliers appearing in the Fermi-Dirac distribution which may have important consequences for the thermodynamics of Quarkyonic Matter.