Strange matter in the string-flip model

We employ variational Monte Carlo methods to study the transition to strange matter in a simple one-dimensional string-flip model with two flavors and two colors of quarks. The dynamics of the system are described in terms of a many-body potential that confines quarks within hadrons, yet enables the hadrons to separate without generating unphysical long-range van der Waals forces. The model has ''natural'' low- and high-density limits: it behaves as a system of isolated hadrons at low density and as a Fermi gas of quarks at high density. We show that the system exhibits a transition to strange matter characterized by an increase in the length scale for confinement. Yet the small increase at the transition region--of only 10%--suggests that clustering correlations remain strong well into the strange-matter domain. Our results put into question descriptions of strange matter in terms of noninteracting, or weakly interacting, quarks. (c) 1999 The American Physical Society.