Baryonic matter onset in two-color QCD with heavy quarks

Abstract

We study the cold and dense regime in the phase diagram of two-color QCD with heavy quarks within a three-dimensional effective theory for Polyakov loops. This theory is derived from two-color QCD in a combined strong-coupling and hopping expansion. In particular, we study the onset of diquark density as the finite-density transition of the bosonic baryons in the two-color world. In contrast to previous studies of heavy dense QCD, our zero-temperature extrapolations are consistent with a continuous transition without binding energy. They thus provide evidence that the effective theory for heavy quarks is capable of describing the characteristic differences between diquark condensation in two-color QCD and the liquid-gas transition of nuclear matter in QCD.