arXiv subjects

Christoph Gärtlein

Publications and source records attributed to Christoph Gärtlein.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Color-superconducting quarkyonic matter

We explore the role of color superconductivity in quarkyonic matter under the conditions of color and electric neutrality at $β$- and strong equilibrium, as relevant for neutron stars. By explicitly incorporating the color-superconducting pairing gap into the phenomenological model of a smooth transition from hadron to quark matter, we extend the known quarkyonic framework to include this essential aspect relevant at high densities. The momentum dependence of the pairing gap, motivated by the running of the QCD coupling and introduced similarly to chiral quark models with nonlocal interaction, is a novel element of the model that is crucial for enabling the simultaneous onset of all color-flavor quark states in the presence of color superconductivity. While asymptotically conformal behavior of the present model is ensured by construction, we demonstrate that reaching the conformal limit in agreement with the predictions of perturbative QCD is provided by the proper momentum dependence of the thickness of the hadron shell in momentum space. We employ the flexible meta-modeling approach to nuclear matter, analyzing the structure of the hadron shell in momentum space and focusing on the effects of color superconductivity in quarkyonic matter. Similar to the effects induced by the onset of the quarkyonic phase, color superconductivity leads to stiffening of the equation of state of the NS matter. This causes a significant impact on observable properties of neutron stars, which are analyzed and compared to recent astrophysical and theoretical constraints. We argue that the developed model of color-superconducting quarkyonic matter provides a new, consistent tool for studying the scenario of smooth quark-hadron transition in NSs.

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arXiv2025

Rapidly Spinning Massive Pulsars as an Indicator of Quark Deconfinement

We study rotating hybrid stars, with particular emphasis on the effect of spin on the deconfinement phase transition and star properties. Our analysis is based on a hybrid equation of state with a phase transition from hadronic matter containing hyperons to color-superconducting quark matter, where the quark phase is modeled within a relativistic density functional approach. By varying the strength of the vector repulsion and diquark pairing couplings in the microscopic quark Lagrangian, we construct a set of hybrid star sequences with different quark-matter onset densities. This framework ensures consistency with astrophysical and gravitational wave constraints on mass, radius, and tidal deformability.

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arXiv2025

Fastest spinning millisecond pulsars: indicators for quark matter in neutron stars?

We study rotating hybrid stars, with a particular emphasis on the effect of a deconfinement phase transition on their properties at high spin. Our analysis is based on a hybrid equation of state (EoS) with a phase transition from hypernuclear matter to color-superconducting quark matter, where both phases are described within a relativistic density functional approach. By varying the vector meson and diquark couplings in the quark matter phase, we obtain different hybrid star sequences with varying extension of the quark matter core, ensuring consistency with astrophysical constraints from mass, radius and tidal deformability measurements. As a result, we demonstrate the impact of an increasing rotational frequency on the maximum gravitational mass, the central energy density of compact stars, the appearance of the quasi-radial oscillations and non-axisymmetric instabilities. We demonstrate that for the most favorable parameter sets with a strong vector coupling, hybrid star configurations with color superconducting quark matter core can describe the fastest spinning and heaviest galactic neutron star (NS) J0952-0607, while it is out of reach for the purely hadronic hypernuclear star configuration. We also revise the previously proposed empirical relation between the Kepler frequency, gravitational mass, and radius of non-rotating NSs, obtained based on the assumption that all NSs, up to the heaviest, are hadronic. We show how the phase transition to quark matter alters this relation and, consequently, the constraints on the dense matter EoS. Our findings reveal that incorporating the hybrid EoS has significant implications for the constraints on the properties of strongly interacting matter and NSs, placing the upper limit on $R_{1.4} \leq 14.90$ km and $R_{0.7}<11.49$ km (considering 716 Hz frequency limit from J1748+2446ad) and $R_{1.4}\leq$11.90~km (for 1000 Hz).

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arXiv2023

Hybrid star phenomenology from the properties of the special point

We study the properties of hybrid stars containing a color superconducting quark matter phase in their cores, which is described by the chirally symmetric formulation of the confining relativistic density functional approach. It is shown that depending on the dimensionless vector and diquark couplings of quark matter, the characteristics of the deconfinement phase transition are varied, allowing us to study the relation between those characteristics and mass-radius relations of hybrid stars. Moreover, we show that the quark matter equation of state (EoS) can be nicely fitted by the Alford-Braby-Paris-Reddy model that gives a simple functional dependence between the most important parameters of the EoS and microscopic parameters of the initial Lagrangian. Based on it, we analyze the special points of the mass-radius diagram in which several mass-radius curves intersect. Using the found empirical relation between the mass of the special point, the maximum mass of the mass-radius curve, and the onset mass of quark deconfinement, we constrain the range of values of the vector and diquark couplings of the quark matter model. With this constraint, we construct a family of mass-radius curves, which allow us to describe the black widow pulsar PSR J0952-0607 with a mass of $2.35\pm 0.17~\rm M_\odot$ as a hybrid star with a color superconducting quark matter core.

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