Chiral model approach to quark matter nucleation in neutron stars

The nucleation process of quark matter in both cold and hot dense hadronic matter is investigated using a chiral approach to describe the quark phase. We use the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio and the chromo dielectric models to describe the deconfined phase and the nonlinear Walecka model for the hadronic one. The effect of hyperons on the transition phase between hadronic and quark matter is studied. The consequences of the nucleation process for neutron star physics are outlined.