Abstract
Gravitational waves, electromagnetic radiation, and the emission of high energy particles probe the phase structure of the equation of state of dense matter produced at the crossroad of the closely related relativistic collisions of heavy ions and of binary neutron stars mergers. 3 + 1 dimensional special- and general relativistic hydrodynamic simulation studies reveal a unique window of opportunity to observe phase transitions in compressed baryon matter by laboratory based experiments and by astrophysical multimessenger observations. The astrophysical consequences of a hadron-quark phase transition in the interior of a compact star will be focused within this article. Especially with a future detection of the post-merger gravitational wave emission emanated from a binary neutron star merger event, it would be possible to explore the phase structure of quantum chromodynamics. The astrophysical observables of a hadron-quark phase transition in a single compact star system and binary hybrid star merger scenario will be summarized within this article. The FAIR facility at GSI Helmholtzzentrum allows one to study the universe in the laboratory, and several astrophysical signatures of the quark-gluon plasma have been found in relativistic collisions of heavy ions and will be explored in future experiments.
Highlights
All four interactions can be described by gauge theories
The theory of neutron stars is in general a complicated interplay between all known forces, but if one restricts oneself to weakly magnetized neutron stars and equilibrated systems, only two forces dominate the system, namely the strongest (QCD) and the weakest force (gravity described with general relativity (GR))
If a strong hadron-to-quark phase transition (HQPT) occurs during the post-merger phase, it will be imprinted in the emitted gravitational wave (GW)-signal and might contribute to the dynamically emitted outflow of mass
Summary
All four interactions can be described by gauge theories. Three of them have been found to be Yang–Mills theories and have been formulated within quantum electrodynamics (QED), weak interaction, and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which describes strong nuclear interactions. As predicted by Csernai and coworkers [11], a strongly rotating quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is formed in non-central ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions and was detected by the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory This finding established the hottest, least viscous, and most vortical fluid ever to have been produced in a laboratory, and a remarkably different rotational behavior was observed, compared to dense and hot hadronic matter [12]. Models of this kind are still rare and the implementation of the predicted temperature-dependent equation of states (EOSs) in hybrid star merger simulations have only been recently performed [22,23]. If a strong HQPT occurs during the post-merger phase, it will be imprinted in the emitted GW-signal and might contribute to the dynamically emitted outflow of mass
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