Reevaluation of the density dependence of nucleon radius and mass in the global color symmetry model of QCD

With the global color symmetry model (GCM) at finite chemical potential, the density dependence of the bag constant, the total energy and the radius of a nucleon in nuclear matter is investigated. A relation between the nuclear matter density and the chemical potential with the action of QCD being taken into account is obtained. A maximal nuclear matter density for the existence of the bag with three quarks confined within is given. 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 slowly, with the increasing of the nuclear matter density. As the maximal nuclear matter density is reached, the mass of the nucleon vanishes and the radius becomes infinite suddenly. It manifests that a phase transition from nucleons to quarks takes place. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.