QUARK MATTER IN THE CHIRAL COLOR-DIELECTRIC MODEL

We study the equation of state of quark matter at zero temperature, us ing the chiral-invariant color dielectric model to describe confinemen t. An exhaustive analysis of the various versions of the model has bee n performed, and the results are shown to discriminate among them. The deconfinement phase transition turns out to be smooth. Deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration occur at very different densities. Ins tabilities of the quark matter and the gap equation are also discussed .