Isospin QCD as a Laboratory for Dense QCD

QCD with the isospin chemical potential μI is a useful laboratory to delineate the microphysics in dense QCD. To study the quark–hadron continuity, we use a quark–meson model that interpolates hadronic and quark matter physics at microscopic level. The equation of state is dominated by mesons at low density but taken over by quarks at high density. We extend our previous studies with two flavors to the three-flavor case to study the impact of the strangeness, which may be brought by kaons (K+,K0)=(us¯,sd¯) and the UA(1) anomaly. In the normal phase, the excitation energies of kaons are reduced by μI in the same way as hyperons in nuclear matter at the finite baryon chemical potential. Once pions condense, kaon excitation energies increase as μI does. Moreover, strange quarks become more massive through the UA(1) coupling to the condensed pions. Hence, at zero and low temperature, the strange hadrons and quarks are highly suppressed. The previous findings in two-flavor models, sound speed peak, negative trace anomaly, gaps insensitive to μI, persist in our three-flavor model and remain consistent with the lattice results to μI∼ 1 GeV. We discuss the non-perturbative power corrections and quark saturation effects as important ingredients to understand the crossover equations of state measured on the lattice.