{
  "abstract": "We study cold, electrically neutral, beta-equilibrated quark matter with u, d, and s quarks described by a symmetry-preserving contact interaction whose parameters are fixed in vacuum. The vector repulsion is varied as a fraction 0 < eta < 3/2 of the scalar coupling, and results are given with and without the flavor dressing of the effective coupling. Pure quark matter is not self-bound in this model, and no value of eta produces a star that reaches two solar masses while satisfying the tidal constraint from GW170817; the heaviest configurations owe their mass to an envelope of constituent quarks. We then construct hybrid stars with a relativistic mean-field hadronic phase fitted to GM1 saturation properties, using both Maxwell and Gibbs constructions and a deconfinement bag shift. Tying deconfinement to chiral restoration and requiring a continuous pressure yields an upper bound on this shift. Within that bound, quark matter appears inside stable stars only for eta < 1/2, never below about 4 n0, and only in stars between 2.2 and 2.35Msun, over a stable mass window of at most 0.02Msun. The vector strength that pure quark stars need to become massive prevents deconfinement in hybrid stars. Radii and tidal deformabilities of intermediate-mass stars are therefore set by the hadronic EoS alone; with the softer SLy4 EoS the transition moves to the maximum-mass configuration itself.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2611.05362",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Aftab Ahmad"
    },
    {
      "name": "Noreen Akhter"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alfredo Raya"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b00kdsjxamxvv.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2611.05362",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "b00kdsjxamxvv",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05362",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "nucl-th"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2611.05362",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-03",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b00kdsjxamxvv.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T15:21:25Z",
      "native_id": "2611.05362",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05362"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ph",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:nucl-th",
      "subfield": "nuclear"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Deconfinement Confined to the Heaviest Neutron Stars: Strange Quark Matter from a Flavor-Dressed Contact Interaction",
  "title_text": "Deconfinement Confined to the Heaviest Neutron Stars: Strange Quark Matter from a Flavor-Dressed Contact Interaction",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-06T18:21:01Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b00kdsjxamxvv",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}