Insights on the peak in the speed of sound of ultradense matter [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2105.04535


In this work we investigate the minimal physical requirements needed for generating a speed of sound that surpasses its asymptotic conformal limit. It is shown that a peak in the speed of sound of homogeneous matter naturally emerges in the transition from a phase with broken chiral symmetry to one with a gapped Fermi surface. We argue that this could be relevant for understanding the peak in the speed of sound displayed by some of the current models for cold ultradense matter. A minimal model implementation of this mechanism is presented, based on the spontaneous breakdown of an approximate particle-antiparticle symmetry, and its thermodynamic properties are determined.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Hippert, E. Fraga and J. Noronha
Tue, 11 May 21
16/93

Comments: 12 pages, 2 figures