The influence of medium effects on the gross structure of hybrid stars

Abstract

We investigate the influence of medium effects on the structure of hybrid stars, i.e. neutron stars possessing a quark matter core. We found that medium effects reduce the extent of a pure quark matter phase in the interior of a hybrid star significantly in favor of a mixed phase of quark and hadronic matter. Over a wide range of the strong coupling constant - which parameterizes the influence of medium effects - quark matter is able to exist at least in a mixed phase in the interior of neutron stars.

20 pages, LaTeX, 4 inline eps-figures, 4 gif-figures, extended discussion, to be published in Nucl. Phys. A. Also available at http://theorie.physik.uni-giessen.de/~schertle/HybStar