The effect of pasta phases on the quark-hadron phase transition is investigated for a set of relativistic mean-field equations of state for both hadron and quark matter. The results of the full numerical solution with pasta phases are compared with those of an interpolating construction used in previous works, for which we demonstrate an adequate description of the numerical results. A one-to-one mapping of the free parameter of the construction to the physical surface tension of the quark-hadron interface is obtained for which a fit formula is given. For each pair of quark and hadron matter models the critical value of the surface tension is determined, above which the phase transition becomes close to the Maxwell construction. This result agrees well with earlier theoretical estimates. The study is extended to neutron star matter in beta equilibrium with electrons and muons and is applied to investigate the effect of pasta phases on the structure of hybrid compact stars and the robustness of a possible third family solution.

We investigate the robustness of third family solutions for hybrid compact stars with a quark matter core that correspond to the occurrence of high-mass twin stars against a softening of the phase transition by means of a construction that mimics the effects of pasta structures in the mixed phase. We consider a class of hybrid equations of state that exploits a relativistic mean-field model for the hadronic as well as for the quark matter phase. We present parametrizations that correspond to branches of high-mass twin star pairs with maximum masses between $2.05M_{\odot }$ and $1.48M_{\odot }$ having radius differences between 3.2 and 1.5 km, respectively. When compared to a Maxwell construction with a fixed value of critical pressure $P_c$, the effect of the mixed phase construction consists in the occurrence of a region of pressures around $P_c$ belonging to the coexistence of hadronic and quark matter phases between the onset pressure at $P_H$ and the end of the transition at $P_Q$. The maximum broadening which would still allow mass-twin compact stars is found to be ${(P_Q-P_H)}_{\max }\approx P_c$ for all parametrizations within the present class of models. At least the heavier of the neutron stars of the binary merger GW170817 could have been a member of the third family of hybrid stars. We present the example of another class of hybrid star equations of state for which the appearance of the third family branch is not as robust against mixed phase effects as that of the present work.

We study the meson contribution to the equation of state of the 2-flavor Polyakov-loop Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model, including the full momentum dependence of the meson polarization loops. Within the Beth-Uhlenbeck approach, we demonstrate that the contribution from the quark-antiquark continuum excitations in the spacelike region ${\omega }^2-q^2<0$, i.e., the Landau damping, leads to an increase of the pressure for temperatures $\gtrsim 0.8T_c^{\chi }$ and a significant meson momentum cutoff dependence in the mesonic pressure and the QCD trace anomaly. We investigate the dependence of the results on the choice of the Polyakov-loop potential parameter $T_0$. From the dependence of the mesonic pressure on the current quark mass, by means of the Feynman-Hellmann theorem, we evaluate the contribution of the pion quasiparticle gas and Landau damping to the chiral condensate.

Exploiting a stiff equation of state of the relativistic mean-field model MKVORH $\varphi$ with $\sigma$ -scaled hadron effective masses and couplings, including hyperons, we demonstrate that the existing neutron-star cooling data can be appropriately described within “the nuclear medium cooling scenario” under the assumption that different sources have different masses.

Knowledge of the equation of state of the baryon matter plays a decisive role in the description of neutron stars. With an increase of the baryon density the filling of Fermi seas of hyperons and Δ isobars becomes possible. Their inclusion into standard relativistic mean-field models results in a strong softening of the equation of state and a lowering of the maximum neutron star mass below the measured values. We extend a relativistic mean-field model with scaled hadron masses and coupling constants developed in our previous works and take into account now not only hyperons but also the Δ isobars. We analyze available empirical information to put constraints on coupling constants of Δs to mesonic mean fields. We show that the resulting equation of state satisfies majority of presently known experimental constraints.