Speaker
Description
We present an improved ansatz for the self-energy of confined quarks within a density functional formalism in order to investigate the thermodynamics of dense matter, particularly, the speed of sound and baryon fluctuations, including studying their approach toward the conformal limit. The formulation offers insight into how characteristic scales inherent to a theory lead to mimicking confinement, as well as how asymptotic freedom and confinement have different origins. By incorporating asymptotic freedom, our model addresses the long-standing problem of non-conformality of speed of sound observed in many equations of state (EoS) in the COMPOSE database that also either lack confinement or rely on ad hoc modifications to capture it.
Reference - U. Shukla and P. M. Lo. Energy Density Functional of Confined Quarks: an Improved Ansatz. 4 2025
