QCD Vacuum Energy and Its Implication for Quark Nugget Stability

Abstract

In this work, we employ both theoretical and data-driven methods to derive the QCD vacuum energy, utilizing the GMOR relation, the low-energy theorem, and the equation of state from Lattice QCD. The QCD vacuum energy is determined to be between around $(163\text{mbox}MeV{)}^4$ and $(190\text{mbox}MeV{)}^4$. With the assumptions of complete deconfinement, vanishing gluon condensate, full chiral-symmetry restoration, and the validity of perturbative QCD at baryon chemical potentials of order of the proton mass, a very specific kind of quark nugget is found to be less stable than ordinary nuclei.

Comments: 21 pages, 6 figures, matches the published version