Phase diagram determination at fivefold nuclear compression

Abstract

In the standard model of particle physics, the strong force is characterized by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). It is commonly understood from QCD properties that hadrons, at sufficiently high temperatures or densities, melt into their constituent quarks, thereby undergoing a deconfinement transition to a new phase of quarks and gluons, often referred to as quark matter or quark-gluon plasma (QGP) [1,2]. Although QGP has been observed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions [3,4], uncertainties remain about when the onset of deconfinement occurs. After comparing simulations from a reliable hadron and quark relativistic transport model with recent data from the STAR experiment, we determined that the onset of the hadron-quark phase transition occurs at about five times nuclear compression, corresponding to temperature T∼ 112 MeV and baryon chemical potential μB∼ 586 MeV, in the nuclear matter phase diagram. This discovery has significant implications for the studies of both the early and present universe [5], including the fraction of dark matter formed in the early universe [6–8] and the structure and dynamics of neutron stars and their mergers [9].