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Surface tension of dense matter at the chiral phase transition

Surface tension of dense matter at the chiral phase transition
Surface tension of dense matter at the chiral phase transition

If a first-order phase transition separates nuclear and quark matter at large baryon density, an interface between these two phases has a nonzero surface tension. We calculate this surface tension within a nucleon-meson model for domain walls and bubbles. Various methods and approximations are discussed and compared, including a numerical evaluation of the spatial profile of the interface. We also compute the surface tension at the other first-order phase transitions of the model: the nuclear liquid-gas transition and, in the parameter regime where it exists, the direct transition from the vacuum to the (approximately) chirally symmetric phase. Identifying the chirally symmetric phase with quark matter - our model does not contain explicit quark degrees of freedom - we find maximal surface tensions of the vacuum-quark transition ΣVQ∼15 MeV/fm2, relevant for the surface of quark stars, and of the nuclear-quark transition ΣNQ∼10 MeV/fm2, relevant for hybrid stars and for quark matter nucleation in supernovae and neutron star mergers.

2470-0010
Fraga, Eduardo S.
2b3ee6f7-5482-40d1-af8e-d90dff9a72be
Hippert, Maurício
fce65849-36af-423f-9de9-3bbdc04998d1
Schmitt, Andreas
1765159f-255f-45e7-94ea-58c1c883d65f
Fraga, Eduardo S.
2b3ee6f7-5482-40d1-af8e-d90dff9a72be
Hippert, Maurício
fce65849-36af-423f-9de9-3bbdc04998d1
Schmitt, Andreas
1765159f-255f-45e7-94ea-58c1c883d65f

Fraga, Eduardo S., Hippert, Maurício and Schmitt, Andreas (2019) Surface tension of dense matter at the chiral phase transition. Physical Review D, 99 (1), [014046]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.99.014046).

Record type: Article

Abstract

If a first-order phase transition separates nuclear and quark matter at large baryon density, an interface between these two phases has a nonzero surface tension. We calculate this surface tension within a nucleon-meson model for domain walls and bubbles. Various methods and approximations are discussed and compared, including a numerical evaluation of the spatial profile of the interface. We also compute the surface tension at the other first-order phase transitions of the model: the nuclear liquid-gas transition and, in the parameter regime where it exists, the direct transition from the vacuum to the (approximately) chirally symmetric phase. Identifying the chirally symmetric phase with quark matter - our model does not contain explicit quark degrees of freedom - we find maximal surface tensions of the vacuum-quark transition ΣVQ∼15 MeV/fm2, relevant for the surface of quark stars, and of the nuclear-quark transition ΣNQ∼10 MeV/fm2, relevant for hybrid stars and for quark matter nucleation in supernovae and neutron star mergers.

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PhysRevD.99.014046 - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 10 January 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 January 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 428251
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/428251
ISSN: 2470-0010
PURE UUID: 62b92325-c76f-462d-ada2-66677e1e5429
ORCID for Andreas Schmitt: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2858-4450

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Feb 2019 17:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:33

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Contributors

Author: Eduardo S. Fraga
Author: Maurício Hippert
Author: Andreas Schmitt ORCID iD

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