skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Dense matter in effective meson theories

Miscellaneous ·
OSTI ID:5135310

In the limit of a large number of colors, quantum chromodynamics is thought to reduce to a theory in which mesons are the relevant degrees of freedom. Baryons emerge as topological solitons in such theories. Nucleon properties are well reproduced within these models-the agreement with experiment improving with the complexity of the theory. In this thesis, properties of dense matter are studied within such meson theories. Techniques are presented which reduce the calculation to finding the effective hamiltonian describing the motion of a single soliton in the cell formed by its neighbors. Thermodynamic quantities for systems which model low temperature liquid and solid phases of dense matter are calculated. The implications of the equation of state of dense neutron matter for neutron star structure are calculated. The transition to a new phase marked by chiral symmetry restoration is studied. Evidence is given which indicates that this corresponds to the expected transition to deconfined quark matter at high baryon density. Comparison to more conventional treatment of dense matter is made throughout.

Research Organization:
Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL (United States)
OSTI ID:
5135310
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English