Hadronets

Hadronets is a term used in speculative physics to describe a proposed network-like arrangement of hadrons connected by strong-force interactions, forming extended, quasi-stable configurations within dense hadronic matter.

Conceptually, hadronets envision baryons and mesons linked via color flux tubes or multi-quark clusters, potentially creating lattice-like structures in environments such as the inner regions of neutron stars or during the late stages of heavy-ion collisions when a hadron-dominated phase persists. The idea draws on quantum chromodynamics and confinement, where color field lines form flux tubes. In hadronets, these tubes could extend between several hadrons, yielding a connected network rather than isolated particles.

Various theoretical approaches, including lattice QCD and effective field theories, study inter-hadron potentials and multi-hadron states. Hadronets would occupy a regime between a hadron gas and more exotic phases like quarkyonic matter or color superconductivity.

Current status is speculative; there is no experimental evidence for persistent hadron networks as a distinct phase. Potential signatures would involve unusual hadron correlations, modifications of the equation of state, and altered transport properties in dense hadronic matter.

Related concepts include hadronization, the formation of hadrons from quarks and gluons, and the study of multi-quark states and flux-tube models in QCD.