1305.7397 (Pisin Chen et al.)

An electromagnetic signal of the QCD phase transition in neutron star
mergers    [PDF]

Pisin Chen, Lance Labun

Mergers of binary neutron stars create conditions of supranuclear density $n\gtrsim n_{\rm nuc}\simeq 0.17 {\rm fm}^{-3}$ and moderate temperature $20\lesssim T \lesssim 100 {\rm MeV}$. These events thus probe a sensitive region of the density-temperature phase diagram of QCD matter. We study photon production by the QCD conformal anomaly for a signal of a possible transition to quark degrees of freedom during the merger. We discuss energy loss due to photon radiation as a cooling mechanism that is sensitive to the bulk viscosity and thermal conductivity of the quark matter.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.7397