Related papers: Six Flavor Quark Matter
Dark Matter (DM) is a known unknown. Apart, current experimental constraints on flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) processes involving up-type quarks also provide scope to explore physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). In this article,…
For a long time, investigation into the weak interactions of quarks has guided us toward understanding the Standard Model we know today. Now in the era of high precision, these studies are still one of the most promising avenues for peering…
This short review was prepared as an introduction to the Royal Society's 'Dark Matter' conference. It addresses the embarrassing fact that 95% of the universe is unaccounted for. Favoured dark matter candidates are axions or…
The Strange Quark matter (SQM) hypothesis states that at extreme pressure and density conditions a new ground state of matter would arise, in which half of the \textit{down} quarks become strange quarks. If true, it would mean that at least…
The present work is connected with the investigation of the origin and properties of compact astrophysical objects endowed with strangeness, with the objective of finding out their relevance in the formation and evolution of the universe.…
It is an intriguing possibility that dark matter (DM) could have flavor quantum numbers like the quarks. We propose and investigate a class of UV-complete models of this kind, in which the dark matter is in a scalar triplet of an SU(3)…
Following the idea that a stable sexaquark state with quark content (uuddss) would have gone unnoticed by experiment so far and that such a particle would be a good dark matter candidate, we investigate the possible role of a stable…
We propose a novel dark matter (DM) scenario based on a first-order phase transition in the early universe. If dark fermions acquire a huge mass gap between true and false vacua, they can barely penetrate into the new phase. Instead, they…
Recent lattice measurements have given accurate estimates of the light and strange quark condensates in the proton. We use these new results to significantly improve the dark matter predictions in a set of benchmark models that represent…
We investigate the impact of a hypothetical bosonic dark matter (DM) candidate, the sexaquark, on the fundamental ($f$-mode) oscillations of neutron stars (NSs). By varying the DM particle mass and considering different core compositions…
Recent observations of neutron stars, combined with causality, thermodynamic stability, and nuclear constraints, indicate a rapid stiffening of QCD matter at densities slightly above nuclear saturation density ($n_0 \simeq 0.16\,{\rm…
The finite temperature QCD transition for physical quark masses is a crossover. For smaller quark masses a first-order phase transition is expected. Using Symanzik improved gauge and stout improved fermion action for 2+1 flavour staggered…
We revisit the problem of boiling and surface evaporation of quark nuggets in the cosmological quark-hadron transition with the explicit consideration of pairing between quarks in a color-flavor locked (CFL) state. Assuming that primordial…
The interiors of neutron stars enjoy ideal conditions for the conversion of hadrons to a strange quark phase, theorized to be the stablest form of matter. Though numerous astrophysical means to prompt such a deconfinement phase transition…
We propose that dark matter consists of collections of atoms encapsulated inside pieces of an alternative vacuum, in which the Higgs field vacuum expectation value is appreciably smaller than in the usual vacuum. The alternative vacuum is…
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…
The properties of cold and dense quark matter have been the subject of extensive investigation, especially in the last decade. Unfortunately, we still lack of a complete understanding of the properties of matter in these conditions. One…
The determination of whether the ground state of baryon matter in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the ordinary nucleus or a quark matter state remains a long-standing question in physics. A critical parameter in this investigation is the…
We propose that the cold dark matter (CDM) is composed entirely of quark matter, arising from a cosmic quark-hadron transition. We show that compact gravitational objects, with masses around 0.5 (M_{\odot}), could have evolved out of the…
We summarize our recent results on the phase diagram of QCD with N_f=2+1 quark flavors, as a function of temperature T and quark chemical potential \mu. Using staggered fermions, lattices with temporal extent N_t=4, and the exact RHMC…