Hadron interactions for arbitrary energies and species, with applications to cosmic rays

The Pythia event generator is used in several contexts to study hadron and lepton interactions, notably $$\mathrm{p}\mathrm{p}$$ p p and $$\mathrm{p}{\bar{\mathrm{p}}}$$ p p ¯ collisions. In this article we extend the hadronic modelling to encompass the collision of a wide range of hadrons h with either a proton or a neutron, or with a simplified model of nuclear matter. To this end we model $$h\mathrm{p}$$ h p total and partial cross sections as a function of energy, and introduce new parton distribution functions for a wide range of hadrons, as required for a proper modelling of multiparton interactions. The potential usefulness of the framework is illustrated by a simple study of the evolution of cosmic rays in the atmosphere, and by an even simpler one of shower evolution in a solid detector material. The new code will be made available for future applications.

NICER view on holographic QCD

The holographic models for dense QCD matter work surprisingly well. A general implication seems that the deconfinement phase transition dictates the maximum mass of neutron stars. The nuclear matter phase turns out to be rather stiff which, if continuously merged with nuclear matter models based on effective field theories, leads to the conclusion that neutron stars do not have quark matter cores in the light of all current astrophysical data. We comment that as the perturbative QCD results are in stark contrast with strong coupling results, any future simulations of neutron star mergers incorporating corrections beyond ideal fluid should proceed cautiously. For this purpose, we provide a model which treats nuclear and quark matter phases in a unified framework at strong coupling.

Equation of state for holographic nuclear matter as instanton gas

In a holographic model, which was used to investigate the color superconducting phase of QCD, a dilute gas of instantons is introduced to study the nuclear matter. The free energy of the nuclear matter is computed as a function of the baryon chemical potential in the probe approximation. Then the equation of state is obtained at low temperature. Using the equation of state for the nuclear matter, the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov equations for a cold compact star are solved. We find the mass-radius relation of the star, which is similar to the one for quark star. This similarity implies that the instanton gas given here is a kind of self-bound matter.

Neutron Stars in the Symmetron Model

Screening mechanisms are often deployed by dark energy models to conceal the effects of their new degrees of freedom from the scrutiny of terrestrial and solar system experiments. However, the extreme properties of nuclear matter may lead to a partial failure of screening mechanisms inside the most massive neutron stars observed in nature, opening up the possibility of probing these theories with neutron star observations. In this work, we explore equilibrium and stability properties of neutron stars in two variants of the symmetron model. We show that around sufficiently compact neutron stars, the symmetron is amplified with respect to its background (cosmological) value by several orders of magnitude, and that the properties of such unscreened stars are sensitive to corrections to the leading linear coupling between the symmetron and matter.

The Ξ-nuclear potential constrained by recent Ξ– hypernuclei experiments

The $\Xi$-nuclear potential is investigated in the quark mean-field (QMF) model based on recent results of the $\Xi^-+^{14}\rm{N}$ ($_{\Xi^-}^{15}\rm{C}$) system. The experimental data on the binding energy of $1p$-state $\Xi^-$ hyperon in $_{\Xi^-}^{15}\rm{C}$ hypernuclei in KISO, IBUKI, E07-T011, E176-14-03-35 events are merged as $B_{\Xi^-}(1p)=1.14\pm0.11$ MeV. With this constraint, the coupling strengths between the $\omega$ vector meson and $\Xi$ hyperon are fixed in three QMF parameter sets. At the same time, the $\Xi^-$ binding energy of $1s$ state in $_{\Xi^-}^{15}\rm{C}$ is predicted as $B_{\Xi^-}(1s)=5.66\pm0.38$ MeV with the same interactions, completely consistent with the data from the KINKA and IRRAWADDY events. Finally, the $\Xi$-nuclear potential is calculated in the symmetric nuclear matter in the framework of QMF models. It is $U_{\Xi }=-11.96\pm 0.85$ MeV at nuclear saturation density, which will be essential to determine the onset density of $\Xi$ hyperon in neutron star.