Quark deconfinement in high-mass neutron stars

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In this paper, we explore whether or not quark deconfinement may occur in high-mass neutron stars such as J1614-2230 (1.97 \pm 0.04 M_Sun) and J0348+0432 (2.01 \pm 0.04 M_Sun).

• Our study is based on a non-local extension of the SU(3) Nambu Jona-Lasinio (n3NJL) model with repulsive vector interactions among the quarks.
• This model goes beyond the frequently used local version of the Nambu Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model by accounting for several key features of QCD which are not part of the local model.
• Confined hadronic matter is treated in the framework of non-linear relativistic mean field theory.