Quark matter in the Hartree-Fock approximation

Abstract

A calculation is made of the critical density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{t}$ at which it is more favorable for matter to be in the quark phase than in the nuclear phase. The equation of state of the quark phase is obtained assuming that the quantumchromodynamic effective Lagrangian satisfactorily describes the interaction at all energies, and by making a relativistic Hartree-Fock approximation. The main result we get is that ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{t}>{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{m}$, the maximum central density of stable neutron stars.