https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00073-4
Regular Article –Theoretical Physics
On the deconfinement phase transition in neutron-star mergers
1
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Goethe Universität, Max-von-Laue-Straße 1, 60438, Frankfurt, Germany
2
Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10010, USA
3
Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44243, USA
4
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Ruth-Moufang-Straße 1, 60438, Frankfurt, Germany
5
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
6
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
* e-mail: most@fias.uni-frankfurt.de
Received:
6
November
2019
Accepted:
13
January
2020
Published online:
19
February
2020
We study in detail the nuclear aspects of a neutron-star merger in which deconfinement to quark matter takes place. For this purpose, we make use of the Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model, an effective relativistic model that includes self-consistent chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement to quark matter and, for this reason, predicts the existence of different degrees of freedom depending on the local density/chemical potential and temperature. We then use the out-of-chemical-equilibrium finite-temperature CMF equation of state in full general-relativistic simulations to analyze which regions of different QCD phase diagrams are probed and which conditions, such as strangeness and entropy, are generated when a strong first-order phase transition appears. We also investigate the amount of electrons present in different stages of the merger and discuss how far from chemical equilibrium they can be and, finally, draw some comparisons with matter created in supernova explosions and heavy-ion collisions.
© The Author(s), 2020
