Quark–gluon plasma and nucleons à la Laughlin

Abstract

Inspired by Laughlin’s theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect, we explore the topological nature of the quark–gluon plasma (QGP) and the nucleons in the context of the Clifford algebra. In our model, each quark is transformed into a composite particle via the simultaneous attachment of a spin monopole and an isospin monopole. This is induced by a novel kind of meson endowed with both spin and isospin degrees of freedom. The interactions in the strongly coupled quark–gluon system are governed by the topological winding number of the monopoles, which is an odd integer to ensure that the overall wave function is antisymmetric. The states of the QGP and the nucleons are thus uniquely determined by the combination of the monopole winding number [Formula: see text] and the total quark number [Formula: see text]. The radius squared of the QGP droplet is expected to be proportional to [Formula: see text]. We anticipate the observation of such proportionality in the heavy ion collision experiments.