Liquid-gas phase transition in strange hadronic matter with relativistic models

Abstract

Background: The advent of new dedicated experimental programs on hyperon physics is rapidly boosting the field, and the possibility of synthetizing multiple strange hypernuclei requires the addition of the strangeness degree of freedom to the models dedicated to nuclear structure and nuclear matter studies at low energy. Purpose: We want to settle the influence of strangeness on the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition. Because of the large uncertainties concerning the hyperon sector, we do not aim at a quantitative estimation of the phase diagram but rather at a qualitative description of the phenomenology, as model independent as possible. Method: We analyze the phase diagram of low density matter composed of neutrons, protons and $\Lambda$ hyperons using a Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) model. We largely explore the parameter space to pin down generic features of the phase transition, and compare the results to ab-initio quantum Monte Carlo calculations. Results: We show that the liquid-gas phase transition is only slightly quenched by the addition of hyperons. Strangeness is seen to be an order parameter of the phase transition, meaning that dilute strange matter is expected to be unstable with respect to the formation of hyper-clusters. Conclusions: More quantitative results within the RMF model need improved functionals at low density, possibly fitted to ab-initio calculations of nuclear and $\Lambda$ matter.

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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• $\Delta$-admixed neutron stars: spinodal instabilities and dUrca processes
• A Neutron Star is born
• Formation of hypernuclei in heavy-ion collisions around the threshold energies
• Critical parameters of consistent relativistic mean-field models
• Examination of strangeness instabilities and effects of strange meson couplings in dense strange hadronic matter and compact stars
• Correlations between critical parameters and bulk properties of nuclear matter
• A closer look at the Yukawa's interaction from a symmetry group perspective
• Critical behaviour of an effective relativistic mean field model in the presence of magnetic background and boundaries
• Strangeness thermodynamic instabilities in hot and dense nuclear matter
• Effect of hyperons on phase coexistence in strange matter
• The role of strangeness and isospin in low density expansions of hadronic matter