Related papers: Astrophysics of Strange Matter
Some recent developments concerning the role of strange quark matter for astrophysical systems and the QCD phase transition in the early universe are addressed. Causality constraints of the soft nuclear equation of state as extracted from…
The modern phase diagram of strongly interacting matter reveals a rich structure at high-densities due to phase transitions related to the chiral symmetry of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and the phenomenon of color superconductivity. These…
For large baryochemical potential, strongly interacting matter might undergo a first order phase transition at temperatures T ~ 100-200 MeV. Within standard cosmology, however, the chemical potential is assumed to be very small leading to a…
Explosive astrophysical systems, such as supernovae or compact star binary mergers, provide conditions where strange quark matter can appear. The high degree of isospin asymmetry and temperatures of several MeV in such systems may cause a…
The effect of the QCD phase transition is studied for the mass-radius relation of compact stars and for hot and dense matter at a given proton fraction used as input in core-collapse supernova simulations. The phase transitions to the 2SC…
Strongly interacting matter exhibits new phases under extreme conditions. Matter was exposed to such extremes not only in the Early Universe, but also today in the cores of neutron stars, as well as in laboratory experiments at a much…
The equation of state for compact stars is reviewed with special emphasis on the role of strange hadrons, strange dibaryons and strange quark matter. Implications for the properties of compact stars are presented. The importance of neutron…
The phase diagram of a system constituted of neutrons and $\Lambda$-hyperons in thermal equilibrium is evaluated in the mean-field approximation. It is shown that this simple system exhibits a complex phase diagram with first and second…
In this work, we study the effects that interacting quark matter has on the stellar structure of strange and charm quark stars. Additionally, their stability against radial pulsations is analyzed using a first-order formalism for adiabatic…
We consider the equation of state of QCD at high density and zero temperature in perturbation theory to first order in the coupling constant $\alpha_s$. We compute the thermodynamic potential including the effect of a non-vanishing mass for…
For almost twenty years the effects of a nonzero strange quark mass on the equation of state of cold and dense QCD were considered to be negligible, thereby yielding only minor corrections to the mass-radius diagram of compact stars. By…
We discuss the first-order phase transition of QCD at high temperature in the universe and the possible formation of quark-matter lumps through cooling in regions of increased pressure. We show tha similarity of results using confinement…
The implications of the formation of strange quark matter in neutron stars and in core-collapse supernovae is discussed with special emphasis on the possibility of having a strong first order QCD phase transition at high baryon densities.…
We calculate the size distribution of quark nuggets, which could be formed due to first order QCD phase transition in the early universe. We find that there are a large number of stable Quark Nuggets which could be a viable candidate for…
Witten's conjecture about strange quark matter (`Strange Matter') being the ground state of QCD at finite baryon number is presented and stars made of strange matter (`Strange Stars') are compared to neutron stars. The only observable way…
We describe the effects of the strange quark mass and of the color and electric neutrality on the superconducing phases of QCD.
In these lectures I discuss cosmological phase transitions with the goal of establishing the possibility of observational consequences. I argue that the {\em only} phase transition amenable of experimental study within the foreseeable…
The possible role of a first order QCD phase transition at nonvanishing quark chemical potential and temperature for cold neutron stars and for supernovae is delineated. For cold neutron stars, we use the NJL model with nonvanishing color…
This paper investigates the impact of strangeness chemical potential and finite volume on QCD critical end point by employing a (2+1) flavored Polyakov quark meson model. Within the mean-field approximation, the model has been extended to…
The quark matter may have great implications in astrophysical studies, which could appear in the early Universe, in compact stars, and/or as cosmic rays. After a general review of astrophysical quark matter, the density-dominated quark…