Phase conversion in a weakly first-order quark-hadron transition
- Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Caixa Postal 66318, 05315-970, Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)
- Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68528, 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)
We investigate the process of phase conversion in a thermally driven weakly first-order quark-hadron transition. This scenario is physically appealing even if the nature of this transition in equilibrium proves to be a smooth crossover for vanishing baryonic chemical potential. We construct an effective potential by combining the equation of state obtained within lattice QCD for the partonic sector with that of a gas of resonances in the hadronic phase, and present numerical results on bubble profiles, nucleation rates, and time evolution, including the effects from reheating on the dynamics for different expansion scenarios. Our findings confirm the standard picture of a cosmological first-order transition, in which the process of phase conversion is entirely dominated by nucleation, also in the case of a weakly first-order transition. On the other hand, we show that, even for expansion rates much lower than those expected in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, nucleation is very unlikely, indicating that the main mechanism of phase conversion is spinodal decomposition. Our results are compared to those obtained for a strongly first-order transition, as the one provided by the MIT bag model.
- OSTI ID:
- 21259898
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 79, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.79.034012; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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