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Description of Deconfinement at Finite Matter Density in a Generalized Nambu--Jona-Lasinio Model

Recent years have seen extensive applications of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model in the study of matter at high density. There is a good deal of interest in the predictions of diquark condensation and color superconductivity, with suggested applications to the study the properties of neutron stars. As the researchers in this field note, the NJL model does not describe confinement, so that one is limited to the study of the deconfined phase, which may set in at several times nuclear matter density. Recently, we have extended the NJL model to include a covariant confinement model. In the present work our goal is to include a phenomenological model of deconfinement at finite matter density, using some analogy to what is known concerning "string breaking" and deconfinement at finite temperature. Various models may be used, but for this work we choose a specific model for the density dependence of the parameters of our confining interaction. We perform relativistic random-phase-approximation (RPA) calculations of the properties of the $π(138), K(495), f_0(980), a_0(980)$ and $K_0^*(1430)$ mesons and their radial excitations. In the model chosen for this work, there are no mesonic states beyond about $2ρ_{NM}$, where $ρ_{NM}$ is the density of nuclear matter. This inability of the model to support hadronic excitations at large values of the density is taken as a signal of deconfinement. In addition to the density dependence of the confining interaction, we use the density-dependent quark mass values obtained in either the SU(2) or SU(3)-flavor versions of the NJL model.