Mapping Deconfinement with a Compact Star Phase Diagram
Abstract
We have found correlations between properties of the equation of state for stellar matter with a phase transition at supernuclear densities and two characteristic features of a "phase diagram" for rotating compact stars in the angular velocity - baryon number plane: 1) the critical dividing line between mono- and two-phase star configurations and 2) the maximum mass line. The second line corresponds to the minimum mass function for black hole candidates whereas the first one is observable by a population statistics, e.g. for Z-sources in low-mass X-ray binaries. The observation of a population gap in the mass distribution for the latter is suggested as an astrophysical verification of the existence of a first order phase transition in QCD at high densities such as the deconfinement.
Cite
@article{arxiv.nucl-th/0209068,
title = {Mapping Deconfinement with a Compact Star Phase Diagram},
author = {H. Grigorian and D. Blaschke and G. Poghosyan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-th/0209068},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures, Contribution to Proceedings of Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, July 18 - 24, 2002