Effects of hyperon potentials and symmetry energy in quark deconfinement

Abstract

In this letter we discuss how the results of recent nuclear experiments that correspond to measurements at low densities can affect the equation of state at large densities 4: and temperatures, changing the particle composition and ultimately influencing deconfinement to quark matter. In particular, saturation values of the hyperon potentials affect the hyperon content, while the symmetry energy at saturation directly regulates how the stiffness of the equation of state changes with isospin. We make use of a chiral model that describes nucleons, hyperons, and quarks to show how astrophysical conditions, such as the ones in neutron stars, present the ideal ground to study the effects of these two quantities in dense matter. In this case, for small charge fraction/large isospin asymmetry, the couplings that reproduce different symmetry energy slopes can significantly modify deconfinement, with quantitative changes in the critical chemical potential depending on the deconfining potential. On the other hand, different values of the parameter that controls the hyperon potentials 7: (kept within a range close to experimental data) do not affect deconfinement significantly.

Keywords

• Hyperons
• Phase transition
• Quark matter
• QCD phase diagram
• Deconfinement