Conditions for the existence of stable strange quark matter

Abstract

We discuss the possible existence of absolutely stable strange quark matter within three different types of chiral models. We will show that confinement plays a crucial role in determining the conditions for the Bodmer-Witten hypothesis to hold true. We discuss also which are the phenomenological signatures, related to measurements of masses and radii of compact stars, which would prove the existence of strange quark stars.

Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, Contribution to the proceedings of XIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, 29 August 2016 - 3 September 2016, Thessaloniki, Greece