Dynamical Derivation of the Momentum Space Shell Structure for Quarkyonic Matter

Abstract

The phase space structure of zero temperature Quarkyonic Matter is a Fermi sphere of Quark Matter, surrounded by a shell of Nucleonic Matter. We construct a quasi particle model of Quarkyonic Matter based on the constituent quark model, where the quark and nucleon masses are related by m_Q = m_N/N_c, and N_c is the number of quark colors. The region of occupied states is for quarks k_Q < k_F/N_c, and for nucleons k_F < k_N < k_F + Δ. We first consider the general problem of Quarkyonic Matter with hard core nucleon interactions. We then specialize to a quasi-particle model where the hard core nucleon interactions are accounted for by an excluded volume. In this model, we show that the nucleonic shell forms past some critical density related to the hard core size, and for large densities becomes a thin shell. We explore the basic features of such a model, and argue this model has the semi-quantitative behaviour needed to describe neutron stars.