Neutron Stars Contain Super-Dense Deconfined Quark Matter
An international group of physicists has announced that there is a high probability, ranging from 80-90%, of the existence of a super-dense deconfined quark matter in the nuclei of the most massive neutron stars. The researchers utilized the Bayesian inference method called Bayesov withdrawal to analyze observations of neutron stars, which led them to this conclusion.
The quantum theory of the field suggests that under extreme temperatures and pressures, the tightly packed quarks and gluons of hadronic matter become deconfined, unlike the conditions of protons, neutrons, and other adrons. Consequently, they are able to exist independently as an exotic quark-gluon plasma, known as deconfined quark matter.
It is believed that this state of matter dominated the early universe shortly after the Big Bang. It has also been briefly recreated under experimental conditions, such as in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Neutron stars are the remnants of collapsed stars, where an immense mass exceeding that of the sun is compacted into objects with diameters ranging from 10-20 km. Within neutron stars, the density increases towards the core, resulting in the compression of electrons and protons to form predominantly neutron matter.
Additionally, some physicists propose that the temperature and pressure in the nucleus of a neutron star may be sufficient for a phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined quark matter. To search for evidence of such a phase transition, the research team from Wurorin employed the Bayesian inference, which enables the evaluation of probabilities for various model parameters by comparing them directly with observational data.
In their study, the scientists utilized data on the state of 12 neutron stars. While similar studies have been conducted previously, this team of experts was able to consider an unprecedented number of observational results and derive the existence of