Related papers: Evidence for quark-matter cores in massive neutron…
The existence of deconfined quark matter in the superdense interior of neutron stars is a key question that has drawn considerable attention over the past few decades. Quark matter can comprise an arbitrary fraction of the star, from 0 for…
Neutron-star cores contain matter at the highest densities in our Universe. This highly compressed matter may undergo a phase transition where nuclear matter melts into deconfined quark matter, liberating its constituent quarks and gluons.…
Under extreme conditions of temperature and/or density, quarks and gluons are expected to undergo a deconfinement phase transition. While this is an ephemeral phenomenon at the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collider (BNL-RHIC), quark matter…
Using a nonlocal extension of the SU(3) Nambu-Jona Lasinio model, which reproduces several of the key features of Quantum Chromodynamics, we show that mixed phases of deconfined quarks and confined hadrons (quark-hybrid matter) may exist in…
This short review aims at giving a brief overview of the various states of matter that have been suggested to exist in the ultra-dense centers of neutron stars. Particular emphasis is put on the role of quark deconfinement in neutron stars…
In this conference-proceedings contribution, we review recent advances in placing model-independent constraints on the properties of cold and dense QCD matter inside neutron stars. In addition to introducing new bounds for the Equation of…
The recent measurements of the masses of the pulsars PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J0348-0432 provide independent proof for the existence of neutron stars with masses in range of 2 $M_\odot$. This fact has significant implications for the physics…
The holographic models for dense QCD matter work surprisingly well. A general implication seems that the deconfinement phase transition dictates the maximum mass of neutron stars. The nuclear matter phase turns out to be rather stiff which,…
In this paper, we use a three flavor non-local Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model, an~improved effective model of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at low energies, to investigate the existence of deconfined quarks in the cores of neutron stars.…
The interior of neutron stars contains matter at the highest densities realized in our Universe. Interestingly, theoretical studies of dense matter, in combination with the existence of two solar mass neutron stars, indicate that the speed…
Phases of nuclear matter are crucial in the determination of physical properties of neutron stars~(NS). In the core of NS, the density and pressure become so large that the nuclear matter possibly undergoes phase transition into a…
Does deconfined cold quark matter occur in nature? This is currently one of the fundamental open questions in nuclear astrophysics. In these proceedings, I review the current state-of-the-art techniques to address this question in a…
We describe charge-neutral neutron star matter in $\beta-$equilibrium using hybrid equations of state, where a first-order phase transition from hadronic to quark matter is realized. The hadronic matter is described in a model-independent…
For physically reasonable bulk and surface properties, quark matter has recently been found to coexist with nuclear matter inside neutron stars in a uniform background of electrons. The microstructure of this mixed phase starts out with a…
The existence of stars with a large mass of 2 solar masses means that the equation of state is stiff enough to provide high enough pressure at large central densities. Previous work shows that such a stiff equation of state is possible if…
The existence of quark matter inside the heaviest neutron stars has been the topic of numerous recent studies, many of them suggesting that a phase transition to strongly interacting conformal matter inside neutron stars is feasible. Here…
Neutron star interiors provide the opportunity to probe properties of cold dense matter in the QCD phase diagram. Utilizing models of dense matter in accord with nuclear systematics at nuclear densities, we investigate the compatibility of…
(Abridged) A phase of strong interacting matter with deconfined quarks is expected in the core of massive neutron stars. If this deconfinement phase transition is of the first order then it will be triggered by the nucleation of a critical…
Recent observations of neutron star masses close to the maximum predicted by nucleonic equations of state begin to challenge our understanding of dense matter in neutron stars, and constrain the possible presence of quark matter in their…
Gravity compresses the matter in the cores of neutron stars to densities which are significantly higher than the density of ordinary atomic nuclei, thus providing a high-pressure environment in which numerous particle processes - from the…