Abstract
If quark matter is energetically favored over nuclear matter at zero temperature and pressure, then it has long been expected to take the form of strange quark matter (SQM), with comparable amounts of , , and quarks. The possibility of quark matter with only and quarks () is usually dismissed because of the observed stability of ordinary nuclei. However, we find that generally has lower bulk energy per baryon than normal nuclei and SQM. This emerges in a phenomenological model that describes the spectra of the lightest pseudoscalar and scalar meson nonets. Taking into account the finite size effects, can be the ground state of baryonic matter only for baryon number with . This ensures the stability of ordinary nuclei and points to a new form of stable matter just beyond the periodic table.
- Received 30 July 2017
- Revised 23 October 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.222001
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society