Figure 1

The separation of quark physics, the physics of color neutral multiquark clusters, and nucleon/meson physics.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

JLab data for the ratio of per nucleon responses of ${}^{56}\mathrm{Fe}$ to ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ over a range of Bjorken $x_B=x$ that exceeds unity [7], the limit for data on an isolated nucleon. We note there is a data point, $r=2.2$ at $x=2.8$, which is far off the vertical scale. Multiquark clusters support a nuclear response above $x=1$. The horizontal lines show the theoretical predictions (1.17 and 1.39) for regions dominated by 6- and 9-quark clusters, respectively[4].Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

The boundary between hadron matter and quark-gluon matter from our quark percolation model for $50\%$ percolation rate (upper curves) and $22\%$ percolation rate (lower curve) in a temperature $T$ versus baryon chemical potential ${\mu }_b$ phase diagram. The parameters of the three theory curves are specified in the legend. The arrow indicates ${\mu }_b$ for nuclear matter at $T=0$. The freeze-out data are compiled from different experiments [13].Reuse & Permissions

Figure 4

Sketch of the two possible views of the $\Lambda$ attached to the the lowest configuration of two neutrons ($n$) and two protons ($p$). On the left, the $\Lambda$ and the nucleons are structureless baryons with spin projections indicated. On the right, their quark substructure is taken into account with spin and color attributes sketched. In the latter case, the 12-quark cluster configuration that appears with probability $p_{12}=0.007$ in the quark-cluster model, forces the up (u) and down (d) quarks of the $\Lambda$ to be in the next higher, Pauli-allowed, orbit $0p_q$. The $\Lambda$’s strange (s) quark may occupy the lowest $0s_q$ level.Reuse & Permissions