Symmetry energy of -flavor dense quark matter from perturbative QCD
Phys. Rev. C 113, 045206 – Published 13 April, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/5v39-l9lh
Abstract
The symmetry energy expansion was developed to connect isospin symmetric matter probed in nuclear experiments to asymmetric matter found in neutron stars. Using the isospin asymmetry derived from the Gell-Mann-Nishijima formula, we derive the symmetry energy expansion for quark matter, which has unique properties compared to hadronic matter. To test our methods, we use perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations at next-to-leading order, where realistic quark masses can be included. We find that pQCD at electroweak equilibrium is not isospin symmetric but rather obtains a small skewness term in the symmetry energy expansion. We predict that if equations of state for nuclear matter must match pQCD results, then a nonmonotonic dip in the symmetry energy would appear.
