Quarks and baryons in QCD at finite density

Abstract

The mechanism of string creation for light quarks developed earlier is considered for nonzero quark chemical potential. A strong modification of the confining string due to finite quark density (chemical quark potential $\mu$) is observed. As a surprising result in a multiquark system with a common string junction an attractive well appears of radius $\mu /\sigma$ and of an average depth equal to $\mu$, which induces formation of multiquark hadrons. Preliminary estimates predict a new phase transition to multiquark hadron phase at rather high densities (in heavy ion collisions or in neutron stars) when neutron matter is compressed to 3-4 normal nuclear densities.

12 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables; to be published in Phys. Lett. B