Density dependence of nucleon radius and mass in the global color symmetry model of QCD with a sophisticated effective gluon propagator Original Research Article

Making use of the global color symmetry model (GCM) at finite chemical potential and with a sophisticated effective gluon propagator, the density dependence of the bag constant, the total energy and the radius of a nucleon in nuclear matter is investigated. A maximal nuclear matter density for the existence of the bag with three quarks confined within is given as about 8 times the normal nuclear matter density. The calculated results indicate that, before the maximal density is reached, the bag constant and the total energy of a nucleon decrease, and the radius of a nucleon increases, with the increasing of the nuclear matter density. As the maximal nuclear matter density is reached, the mass and the bag constant of the nucleon vanish and the radius becomes infinite suddenly. It manifests that a phase transition from nucleons to quarks takes place. Meanwhile, shortening the interaction range among quarks can induce the phase transition to happen easier.