Nucleation of quark matter in protoneutron star matter

Journal Article · Tue Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.123012· OSTI ID:21408032

Mintz, B W; Fraga, E S ^[1]; Pagliara, G; Schaffner-Bielich, J ^[2]

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1. Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68528, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21945-970 (Brazil)
2. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet, Philosophenweg 16, D-69120, Heidelberg (Germany)

The phase transition from hadronic to quark matter may take place already during the early post-bounce stage of core collapse supernovae when matter is still hot and lepton rich. If the phase transition is of first order and exhibits a barrier, the formation of the new phase occurs via the nucleation of droplets. We investigate the thermal nucleation of a quark phase in supernova matter and calculate its rate for a wide range of physical parameters. We show that the formation of the first droplet of a quark phase might be very fast and therefore the phase transition to quark matter could play an important role in the mechanism and dynamics of supernova explosions.

• OSTI ID: 21408032
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 81; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BINARY STARS
DROPLETS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
EXPLOSIONS
FERMIONS
GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE
HADRONS
LEPTONS
MATTER
NUCLEATION
PARTICLES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUARK MATTER
QUARKS
STARS
SUPERNOVAE
VARIABLE STARS