English

QCD Vacuum Energy and Its Implication for Quark Nugget Stability

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-05-28 v2 High Energy Physics - Lattice Nuclear Theory

Abstract

In this work, we employ both theoretical and data-driven methods to derive the QCD vacuum energy, utilizing the GMOR relation, the low-energy theorem, and the equation of state from Lattice QCD. The QCD vacuum energy is determined to be between around (163\mboxMeV)4(163\,\mbox{MeV})^4 and (190\mboxMeV)4(190\,\mbox{MeV})^4. With the assumptions of complete deconfinement, vanishing gluon condensate, full chiral-symmetry restoration, and the validity of perturbative QCD at baryon chemical potentials of order of the proton mass, a very specific kind of quark nugget is found to be less stable than ordinary nuclei.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.20241,
  title  = {QCD Vacuum Energy and Its Implication for Quark Nugget Stability},
  author = {Yang Bai and Ting-Kuo Chen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.20241},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

21 pages, 6 figures, matches the published version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:00:25.860Z