Quark Deconfinement in Rotating Neutron Stars

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. Particular emphasis is put on the possible existence of quark m...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Mellinger, Richard D., Weber, Fridolin, Spinella, William, Contrera, Gustavo Aníbal, Orsaria, Milva Gabriela
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2017
País:Argentina
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositório:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/82203
Acesso em linha:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/82203
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Astronomía
rotation
quarks
deconfinement
neutron star
pulsar
nuclear equation of state
Descrição
Resumo: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. Particular emphasis is put on the possible existence of quark matter in the cores of rotating neutron stars (pulsars). In contrast to non-rotating neutron stars, whose particle compositions do not change with time (are frozen in), the type and structure of thematter in the cores of rotating neutron stars depends on the spin frequencies of these stars, which opens up a possible new window on the nature of matter deep in the cores of neutron stars. Our study shows that, depending on mass and rotational frequency, up to around 8% of the mass of a massive neutron star may be in the mixed quark-hadron phase, if the phase transition is treated as a Gibbs transition. We also find that the gravitational mass at which quark deconfinement occurs in rotating neutron stars varies quadratically with spin frequency, which can be fitted by a simple formula.