Abstract
We explore the possibility that QCD may undergo a phase transition as a function of the strange quark mass. This would hint towards models with ”spontaneous color symmetry breaking” in the vacuum. For two light quark flavors we classify possible colored quark-antiquark, diquark and gluon condensates that are compatible with a spectrum of integer charged states and conserved isospin and baryon number. The ”quark mass phase transition” would be linked to an unusual realization of baryon number in QCD2 and could be tested in lattice simulations. We emphasize, however, that at the present stage the Higgs picture of the vacuum cannot predict a quark mass phase transition - a smooth crossover remains as a realistic alternative. Implications of the Higgs picture for the high-density phase transition in QCD2 suggest that this transition is characterized by the spontaneous breaking of isospin for nuclear and quark matter.
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