Equation of state at high densities and modern compact star observations

Abstract

Recently, observations of compact stars have provided new data of high accuracy which put strong constraints on the high-density behaviour of the equation of state of strongly interacting matter otherwise not accessible in terrestrial laboratories. The evidence for neutron stars with high mass (M = 2.1 ± 0.2 M⊙ for PSR J0751 + 1807) and large radii (R > 12 km for RX J1856-3754) rules out soft equations of state and has provoked a debate whether the occurrence of quark matter in compact stars can be excluded as well. In this contribution, it is shown that modern quantum field theoretical approaches to quark matter including colour superconductivity, and a vector meanfield allow a microscopic description of hybrid stars which fulfil the new, strong constraints. The deconfinement transition in the resulting stiff hybrid equation of state is weakly first order so that its signals have to be expected due to specific changes in transport properties governing the rotational and cooling evolution caused by the colour superconductivity of quark matter. A similar conclusion holds for the investigation of quark deconfinement in future generations of nucleus–nucleus collision experiments at low temperatures and high baryon densities such as CBM @ FAIR.