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In-medium hyperon potentials and the quarkyonic hyperon onset: charged $Σ$'s in $β$-equilibrium and the neutrino connection

Nuclear Theory 2026-07-10 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena High Energy Physics - Experiment High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Quarkyonic matter resolves the neutron-star hyperon puzzle statistically: neutrons fill low-momentum dd-quark phase space, shifting the S=1S=-1 threshold from \muB=MY\muB=M_Y to 2MYMN2M_Y-M_N and suppressing residual softening by 1/\Nc31/\Nc^3 in the Fujimoto--Kojo--McLerran (FKM) mechanism. We dress FKM's IdylliQ model with in-medium potentials, constrained by hypernuclear data and neutrino-induced hyperon FSI, and find: (i) the dressed onset, \muBonset=(2MYMN)+2UY\UN\muB^{\rm onset}=(2M_Y{-}M_N)+2U_Y-\UN, carries UYU_Y at weight 2, with dnonset/dUY0.3\nzdn_{\rm onset}/dU_Y\simeq0.3\,\nz per 10\MeV10\MeV, twice the leverage. (ii) A self-consistent neutron potential enters at weight 2-2, so protection needs \UN(nonset)+96\MeV\UN(n_{\rm onset})\lesssim+96\MeV. (iii) With leptons in β\beta equilibrium, the Σ\Sigma^- (ddsdds) onset becomes \mue258\MeV+\US\UN\mue\ge258\MeV+\US-\UN, never reached inside a 2\Msun2\,\Msun core: Σ\Sigma^- switches from first hyperon to forbidden and the Σ\Sigma ordering inverts. (iv) The \kY\kbu\kY\ge\kbu continuation gives TOV softening below 0.05\Msun0.05\,\Msun in the FKM ansatz family and below 0.025\Msun0.025\,\Msun for the realistic interacting star, 44--88 below hadronic models. In the family this is a ceiling; generally it is a floor, since hyperons above \kbu\kbu are omitted. (v) In an interacting low-density sector calibrated to \Mmax=2.12\Msun\Mmax=2.12\,\Msun, core strangeness is controlled by (\UL(\nz),cΛ)(\UL(\nz),c_\Lambda): at \UL(\nz)=28\MeV\UL(\nz)=-28\MeV, the maximum-mass star is hyperon-free once the supra-saturation YNNYNN turn-over exceeds a few-MeV threshold cΛc^*_\Lambda. Projected SBND+DUNE FSI precision pins \UL(\nz)\UL(\nz) but leaves cΛc_\Lambda -- to which neutrino data are blind -- decisive: with the heavy-ion prior, P(hyperon\mboxfree core)=0.90P({\rm hyperon\mbox{-}free\ core})=0.90, versus 0.890.89 from priors alone, prior-dominated rather than measured. The sharpest observable is differential: d\Mmax/dUYd\Mmax/dU_Y is an order of magnitude smaller than in mean-field models, discriminating the two resolutions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.09280,
  title  = {In-medium hyperon potentials and the quarkyonic hyperon onset: charged $Σ$'s in $β$-equilibrium and the neutrino connection},
  author = {Jaroslaw Nowak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.09280},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

9 pages, 6 figures