Competition and coexistence of baryonic condensates in AdS hardwall model

Abstract

Cold dense QCD admits several order parameters for baryon-number breaking, among them diquark and dibaryon condensates. We ask whether they exclude one another or coexist, using a five-dimensional AdS hardwall model with full backreaction in which two charged scalars, dual to operators of charges $q_i$ and dimensions $Δ_i$, couple to a common $U(1)_B$ gauge field. With the diquark-like operator fixed at $q_1=2$, $Δ_1=3$, both operators condense only within a narrow window of $Δ_2$, which widens with $q_2$ and closes when the operators coincide. Outside the window, only a single condensate forms. The structure persists in both confined and deconfined phases. In the $μ_B$-$T$ plane, confined matter with both condensates is preferred at low temperature, below a narrow band of deconfined matter with one condensate.