Quark matter nucleation with a microscopic hadronic equation of state

The nucleation process of quark matter in cold (T = 0) stellar matter is investigated using the microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach to describe the hadronic phase and using the MIT bag model, the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio, and the chromodielectric models to describe the deconfined phase of quark matter. The consequences of the nucleation process for neutron star physics are outlined. Hyperonic stars are metastable only for some of the quark matter equations of state considered. The effect of a hyperonic three-body force on the metastability of compact stars is estimated, and it is shown that, except for the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and the MIT bag model with a large bag pressure, the other models predict the formation of hybrid stars with a maximum mass not larger than similar to 1.62 M-circle dot.