Cool quark matter with perturbative quark masses

Abstract

In perturbative thermal calculations, introducing nonzero quark masses causes considerable complications. In this article we describe an approximation scheme valid for sufficiently light masses which significantly simplifies the relevant calculations with only a small loss in accuracy. We apply the scheme to Quantum Chromodynamics, with two massless and one massive flavor, obtaining analytic results which are in excellent agreement with numerical non-approximated results. Our results are accurate to $O(g^5)$ in the strong coupling parameter $g$, as long as either the chemical potential $\mu$ of the quark species with nonzero mass $m$ satisfies $m=O(g\mu )$ or if the temperature $T$ satisfies $m=O(gT)$. We find that these conditions are always satisfied for the three lightest quarks for the values of $\mu$, $T$ where Quantum Chromodynamics is perturbatively convergent.

arXiv comment9 pages, 5 figures. Changes from v1: further clarifying text added; figures updated for clarity. Version published in PRD

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• Average speed of sound in neutron stars
• Color superconductivity under neutron-star conditions at next-to-leading order
• Approaching the conformal limit of quark matter with different chemical potentials
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