Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2609.14768

Stability and Structural Properties of Hot Quark Stars within Perturbative QCD

Abstract

The hypothesis of strange quark matter (SQM) and the possible existence of strange stars have been extensively investigated within the thermodynamic bag model, typically employing the free Fermi gas approximation with or without perturbative QCD corrections at zero temperature, where quark confinement is modeled by the bag pressure. In this work, based on the perturbative inclusion of quark mass effects, we develop a thermodynamically consistent equation of state (EOS) for SQM at finite temperature, incorporating perturbative corrections up to $\mathcal{O}(α_s)$ in the strong coupling constant $α_s$ while ensuring full adherence to the Maxwell relations. These corrections are essential for accurately describing hot quark stars potentially formed during core-collapse events. We present results for both fixed and running couplings, using a phenomenological model to include the breakdown of the perturbative running of $α_s$ at low momenta. Our results demonstrate that incorporating finite-temperature perturbative QCD corrections leads to SQM configurations that fall within the absolute stability window, with equilibrium energies per baryon lying below that of iron, the most tightly bound nucleus. Our EOS supports compact stars with masses exceeding $1.4\,M_\odot$ (and above $2\,M_\odot$ for some values of the bag constant), in agreement with current astrophysical constraints from pulsar and gravitational-wave observations.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Tousif Raza, Tyler Gorda. 2026-09-13. Stability and Structural Properties of Hot Quark Stars within Perturbative QCD. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.14768

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Chiral Symmetry and Its Restoration in QCD

Chiral symmetry is an approximate symmetry of QCD in the light-quark sector. Its spontaneous breaking in the QCD vacuum explains why the pion is anomalously light and why it plays a central role in nuclear physics, including the tensor component of the nuclear force and the saturation properties of nuclei. This article introduces chirality through the Dirac equation and shows how a fermion mass mixes left- and right-handed components, in close analogy with the Bogoliubov--Valatin theory of superconductivity. We then explain spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Nambu--Goldstone theorem, and the role of the chiral condensate as an order parameter. The axial $U(1)_A$ anomaly and its consequences, especially for the $η'$ meson, are discussed. Chiral effective models, including Nambu--Jona-Lasinio-type models, linear sigma models with anomaly terms, and parity-doublet models for baryons, are reviewed as tools for describing hadron properties and the equation of state of dense matter. Finally, we discuss how chiral symmetry may be partially restored at finite temperature and/or baryon density, and summarize experimental probes such as deeply bound pionic atoms, dilepton production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, $η'$-mesic nuclei, and baryonic observables.

nucl-th

Time-evolution formalism in the complex scaling method: Application to the two-proton decay of $^{6}$Be

We apply our complex-scaled time-evolution operator to the two-proton decay of $^{6}$Be. The nucleus is described as an $α+p+p$ three-body system with explicit Jacobi-coordinate rearrangement and the realistic Argonne $v8'$ NN interaction for the proton-proton subsystem. Starting from a confined initial wave packet, the decay dynamics are described by expansion over the complex-scaled eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian. The decay width extracted from the late-time survival probability agrees closely with that obtained from the CSM resonance pole. The time-dependent densities in different Jacobi coordinates reveal complementary aspects of the evolving three-body geometry, while the spin-singlet component remains dominant during the decay. In particular, the correlated two-proton configuration persists even in the presence of the strong short-range repulsion of the realistic NN interaction. These results demonstrate the applicability of the complex-scaled time-evolution framework to explicit three-body decay dynamics and provide a consistent description of the decay width, spatial evolution, and spin correlations of $^{6}$Be.

nucl-th

Spin-One Secondary Pairing in Two-Flavor Color Superconductivity: Spinful Relativistic Superfluidity and Anomaly Matching

We study secondary pairing in the two-flavor color-superconducting (2SC) phase, where the residual ungapped quarks form a same-chirality $J^P=1^+$ condensate driven by an attractive instanton-induced interaction. We determine its symmetry realization, quasiparticle structure, anomaly matching, and low-energy effective theory. The pairing gap is necessarily nodal; in particular, the complex axial state has two point nodes and realizes a spinful relativistic superfluid. This state preserves the full chiral symmetry ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm L}\times{\rm SU}(2)_{\rm R}$ while breaking the modified baryon-number symmetry ${\rm U}(1)_{\tilde{\rm B}}$ and spatial rotations, with rotations about the nodal axis locked to the condensate phase. This locking gives rise to a Berry term, the Mermin-Ho relation, and a type-B orientational Nambu-Goldstone mode in addition to the superfluid phonon. We also show how anomaly matching is reorganized by secondary pairing: the perturbative mixed ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm L,R}^2{\rm U}(1)_{\tilde{\rm B}}$ anomaly is realized by a Wess-Zumino coupling of the superfluid phonon, whereas the ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm L}$ and ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm R}$ Witten anomalies are carried by the point-node Bogoliubov-de Gennes flavor doublets. The resulting theory provides a concrete dense-QCD realization of a spinful relativistic superfluid with nodal fermions required by anomaly matching.

nucl-th