Probing spherical outbursts of neutron star mergers from an equation of state with composite nucleons

Abstract

We consider a variational 'crystalline' equation of state (EOS) that follows from nucleons that are chiral solitons with deep relativistic quark bound states. In this model conventional quark matter does not occur till a high density threshold at which the quark bound states in the nucleons get compressed and merge with the continuum. Once the barrier at this threshold is overcome, roughly when, $n_B \sim 1/fm^3$, we expect the 'crystalline' nuclear matter to make a sudden transition into quark matter when the EOS becomes soft through a decompression. The sudden increase in density triggers a collapse releasing large amount of gravitational potential energy that can generate a spherical outburst (or kilonova) of ejected matter.