Aims. We aim to present a first step in developing a benchmark equation-of-state (EoS) model for multi-messenger astronomy that unifies the thermodynamics of quark and hadronic degrees of freedom.
Methods. A Lagrangian approach to the thermodynamic potential of quark-meson-nucleon matter was used. In this approach, dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking is described by the scalar mean-field dynamics coupled to quarks and nucleons and their chiral partners, whereby its restoration occurs in the hadronic phase by parity doubling, as well as in the quark phase. Quark confinement was achieved by an auxiliary scalar field that parametrizes a dynamical infrared cut-off in the quark sector, serving as an ultraviolet cut-off for the nucleonic phase space. The gap equations were solved for the isospin-symmetric case, as well as for neutron star (NS) conditions. We also calculated the mass-radius (MR) relation of NSs and their tidal deformability (TD) parameter.
Results. The obtained EoS is in accordance with nuclear matter properties at saturation density and with the flow constraint from heavy ion collision experiments. For isospin-asymmetric matter, a sequential occurrence of light quark flavors is obtained, allowing for a mixed phase of chirally-symmetric nucleonic matter with deconfined down quarks. The MR relations and TDs for compact stars fulfill the constraints from the latest astrophysical observations for PSR J0740+6620, PSR J0030+0451, and the NS merger GW170817, whereby the tension between the maximum mass and compactness constraints rather uniquely fixes the model parameters. The model predicts the existence of stars with a core of chirally restored but purely hadronic (confined) matter for masses beyond 1.8 M⊙. Stars with pure-quark matter cores are found to be unstable against the gravitational collapse. This instability is shifted to even higher densities if repulsive interactions between quarks are included.
Nucleon matter equation of state, particle number fluctuations, and shear viscosity within UrQMD box calculations