On a first order transition in QCD with up, down and strange quarks

Abstract

AbstractWe consider the quark-mass dependence of the baryon octet and decuplet ground state masses. It is predicted that QCD dynamics implies a first order transition when increasing the strange quark mass from its chiral limit towards its physical value. Our claim relies on a global fit to the available QCD lattice data on such baryon masses. Quantitative results based on an application of the chiral SU(3) Lagrangian at N$$^3$$3LO are discussed. We predict an anomalous sector of QCD where stable baryonic matter would be composed of $$\varLambda $$Λ or $$\bar{\varLambda }$$Λ¯ particles rather than nucleons and anti-nucleons.