SQM studied in the Field Correlator Method

By using the recent nonperturbative equation of state of the quark–gluon plasma derived in the formalism of the Field Correlator Method, we investigate the bulk properties of the strange quark matter in β-equilibrium and with charge neutrality at T=p=0. The results show that the stability of strange quark matter with respect to is strongly dependent on the model parameters, namely, the gluon condensate G2 and the interaction potential V1. A remarkable result is that the width of the stability window decreases as V1 increases, being maximum at V1=0 and nearly zero at V1=0.5 GeV. For V1 in the range 0⩽V1⩽0.5 GeV, all values of G2 are lower than 0.006–0.007 GeV4 obtained from comparison with lattice data at Tc(μ=0)∼170 MeV. Our results do not favor the possibilities for the existence of (either nonnegative or negative) absolutely stable strange quark matter.