The role of quark mass in cold and dense perturbative QCD

Abstract

We consider the equation of state of QCD at high density and zero temperature in perturbation theory to first order in the coupling constant $α_s$. We compute the thermodynamic potential including the effect of a non-vanishing mass for the strange quark and show that corrections are sizable. Renormalization group running of the coupling and the strange quark mass plays a crucial role. The structure of quark stars is dramatically modified.

5 pages REVTEX4, 4 figures; minor changes, matches published version