Implications of the measurement of pulsars with two solar masses for quark matter in compact stars and HIC. A NJL model case study

Understand

The precise measurement of the high masses of the pulsars PSR J1614-2230 (M_{1614}=1.97 +- 0.04 solar masses) and PSR J0348-0432 (M_{0348}=2.01 +- 0.04 solar masses) provides an important constraint for the equation of state of cold, dense matter and is suited to give interesting insights regarding the nature and existence of the possible phase transition to deconfined quark matter in the cores of neutron stars.

• We analyze the stability and composition of compact star sequences for a class of hybrid nuclear - quark-matter equations of state.
• The quark matter phase is described in the framework of a standard color superconducting 3-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and the hadronic phase is given by the Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock equation of state for the Bonn-A potential.
• The phase transition is obtained by a Maxwell construction.