Thermal Fluctuations of Matter Composition and Quark Nucleation in Compact Stars

At the extreme densities reached in the core of neutron stars, it is possible that deconfined quark matter is produced. The formation of this new phase of strongly interacting matter is likely to occur via a first-order phase transition for the typical temperatures reached in astrophysical processes. The first seeds of quark matter would then form through a process of nucleation within the metastable hadronic phase. Here, we address the role of the thermal fluctuations in the hadronic composition on the nucleation of two-flavor quark matter. At finite temperature, the thermodynamic quantities in a system fluctuate around average values. Nucleation being a local process, it is possible that it occurs in a subsystem whose composition makes the nucleation easier. We will consider the total probability of the nucleation as the product between the probability that a subsystem has a certain hadronic composition different from the average in the bulk, and the nucleation probability in that subsystem. We will show how those fluctuations of the hadronic composition can increase the efficiency of nucleation already for temperatures ∼(0.1−1) keV. However, for temperatures ≲(1−10) MeV, the needed overpressure exceeds the maximum pressure reached in compact stars. Finally, for even larger temperatures the process of nucleation can take place, even taking into account finite-size effects.